Saturday 3 December 2022
If all goes to plan, within twenty-four hours we should be in Scotland after five days back in London. I have enjoyed London and being back in a city and I am looking forward to Scotland and an abundance of space and clean air. I sit, typing this, wearing a short-sleeved top. No heating is on and the flat is a comfortable temperature. I know with certainty none of that will apply in Scotland. The house will be a whole new level of cold, there having been no semblance of heating on for the past five days. Chris’s knees are in a bad way at the moment so I know that it will be me who empties and cleans the fireplace and lights another fire, this time ensuring it’s furnace-like in an attempt to make the house less cold. “Warm” as a goal is unrealistic, I suspect.
I suppose it’s far too early to know but I have genuinely enjoyed feeling at home in both places and I don’t have a preference, though the warmth and the ease of having a hot bath in London is an enormous bonus.
I have met up with my mum and four friends, had breakfast out, had an Indian takeaway, had an early morning visit to New Covent Garden Flower Market and, other than going to my mum’s, had no need to use a car. I’ve shopped in supermarkets, including a local Sri Lankan store, TK Maxx and DIY shops. I am mildly embarrassed to say that I was so excited about finding Swarfega in a local DIY shop that my enthusiasm spread to the man who served me, who disappeared to look for Swarfega, returning triumphant with an orange and green tub of what I hope will make the coal-hands issue a thing of week one only. £7.19 though, I thought it’d be nearer £3. Still, I think that will be 719 pennies extremely well spent.
Next week in Scotland is a week of deliveries, which will hopefully include my desk. I have work I need to do and not having a desk has unsettled me far more than I’d have expected. There will be more unpacking, in part because the car will be laden. Chris is trying to prioritise four rubble sacks of books, I am pushing for kitchen stuff and the bread maker. Early to bed, unlikely to sleep well, envisage being tired tomorrow and I imagine the roads will be fairly busy. But it’s great to be heading for home this time, rather than to the empty house we had just got the keys for as was the case 15 days ago.