Lilac Limbo

So here I am where I started! Where? My wee room, at home ,in Glasgow. Its lilac, as it always has been, there is a fairy on the duvet cover, as has always been, there is a buzz and a busyness about the house, as there always will be, but there is an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, as there never has been to this degree. It’s nothing bad it’s just that feeling you get when you’re neither here nor there. Limbo. I’ve left St Andrews and I’m yet to arrive in Leiden and while I’m home, real home, I know I can’t really get too comfy before I’m off again so hey presto - lilac limbo!

The big move has been executed, with precision, in stages each with its own Filofax ‘to do list’ sheet , neatly listing who, what , where and when with a hope that upon reading the list the ‘why’ would become clear to anyone who happened upon it.

Stage one was packing the contents of my office and bedroom in St Andrews to be shipped to Amsterdam, and while the boxes are still in ‘transit’ which is a little disconcerting, stage one was completed with the trusted help of Mum and Dad – like the fairy on my duvet cover – they’re always there and always sprinkle a little fairy dust to make things easier! So 19 boxes – 14 filled with handbags, glad rags, shoes and other little curiosities, 5 bursting with books and 1 for my temporarily dismembered bike – left for Amsterdam and we went for dinner and a well-earned glass of wine!

Stage two was not goodbye but a heartfelt ‘see you later’, a few too many glasses of various things and a few more tears. My St Andrian family will not always be there physically (we’re all moving, just a different times) but I left rest assured that you never actually really leave the place, you take a little bit with you and leave a little bit behind. So with this in mind I was ready to leave and will, of course will be back; later.

Stage three was a little less arduous but a stage in the whole process nonetheless. St Andrews to Glasgow. Mum and Dad, again, arrived and helped with the small but still very present bundle of stuff. After saying my goodbyes and shedding a few little tears it was time to bid farewell to the bubble, hand over various sets of keys, make lots of promises to ‘stay in touch’, get in the car and head back the way I came 4 years previously.

So for now, I’m in my little lilac limbo in my little lilac room. I’m trying to imagine what I’ll be doing this time next week. According to the list – Stage four – I’ll be landing, one of my trusted Accomplices will pick me up at the airport and I MOVE INTO MY NEW APARTMENT….and the list ends there; for now!