All Systems Go, Now Feeling Homeless

Somerset TA4, UK

Finally a day of relative relaxation. Not helped by being woken overnight by the sound of heavy rain hitting the roof of the van, but you get used to being slightly closer to nature. We had a well deserved slow start before starting on the chores for the day. Mel had a meeting on the Quantocks regarding future exhibitions, and I set about bringing order to the chaos that was the interior of the van, finding homes for the things hastily dumped into it over the last couple of days.

The anticipated phone call came through from the letting agent at around 11am to inform us that the tenants were signed, sealed and delivered. Whilst we still own a home of bricks and mortar, we are now officially no longer able to visit it as our home. It is now a business that we run.

I then had a trip to the tip to get rid of the last of the detritus from the house, and had an odd sinking feeling as I turned at a completely familiar junction, but in the opposite direction from the house. It was then that it became more apparent that this is not like a holiday, where you have the safety net of ‘going home’ when you don’t like it. Of course we knew this was the case, but it doesn’t stop you from getting that first real taste of what it’s like to be denied something you’ve taken for granted for so long.

The visit to the tip did make me feel much better though. I relished the ability to discard those last few possessions that had lingered too long, throwing them with gusto into the skips in the hope they’d end their lives with a satisfying smash and dismemberment, but alas, they just bounced around amongst the other discarded items, pretending that they might still have a life in them yet.

The rest of the afternoon was leisurely, pottering around, drinking tea and starting to setup the tech to allow me to do some work over the coming week. Tomorrow should see the computer back in action, and then I must get on with the Festival guide. I even managed to cook again this evening, something that’s fallen to Mel far too often in recent months. We have far too many tins and packets of food in the van at the moment, so some creative cooking will be necessary to ensure that we whittle it down to a much more van friendly pantry.