I'll Be There For You

A brief sum of the whole moving-to-Oxford news;
1) We still do not know if we are to be flatting or cottaging (don't...)
2) The buyers have at last felt moved to pay their Solicitors (yaaaay!)
3) The Diocese have granted Paul permission to study and he has applied to college (woop!)

I only learnt of news point (2) yesterday, therefore I am in a very good mood.

My mind has stuck a foot into the 'well, I might actually be moving quite soon' zone, and while my immediate reaction to this is excitement I know there's a lot I'm going to miss about Devon.

My job I probably won't miss. I like it well enough, my colleagues are nice and laugh at my jokes, and the last year in disabled children's services has taught me a hell of a lot about the realities of life for some people, but my heart isn't in project/data management especially in a setting which is so detached from the service users.

I'll miss Stoke Canon for sure. Although owning our own home hasn't always been a pleasant experience - we seem to have had more than our fair share of things going wrong with it - there is something very grounding about owning the bricks and mortar that surround you. It's a proper grown-up house in a proper grown-up neighbourhood. Our neighbours are friendly, but don't intrude. This will not be the case when we're in a parish.

But, of course, it's friends I'll miss the most and I feel a bit of a hypocrite saying it, because I'm not the most conscientious of friends. I miss birthdays and don't ring as much as I should which makes me feel bad, especially when it comes to my old Uni housemates who have been such brilliant friends to me over the years.

Lizzie and Sazzle, Tristan and Andrew, Amy, Emma and Emily, Quizteamaguiliera, my friends at Pink Biscuit Poetry, and so many more. These are all people I'll be seeing this month. But after that, when? Yes, I'm not the most conscientious of friends, but their proximity is always a comfort.

I think Ellie's the only friend I'll actually be nearer to in Oxford than in Exeter. And Jen's about equidistant between the two, so it's not all bad.

People have said that when I go to college I'll make "friends for life" but in a way I feel like I've got enough friends. All the seats in my hypothetical bus of friends are full, and I don't want to shift even one of them to make room for a new friend. Am I getting soppy now? Ok, I'll stop. You know you've got to stop when you talk about hypothetical buses of friends.

So I'm off to write something for poetry on Monday. "Vocations and Callings" is the theme (in my honour). Maybe I'll post it on here if it's any good.