Thursday 13 June 2013

Journeys End, Journeys Begin #2

This time last week I was at my last ever Cuddesdon Bright Hour, somewhat intoxicated on the house white, having been at the very reflective Leavers' retreat all day. Kate and I did a sketch about surviving college with a baby and good fun was had by all.

Tonight I am sitting in a large and eerily quiet house (no TV aerial!) in the centre of Bridgwater, having just eaten my own bodyweight of beef with green pepper and egg fried rice from the local Chinese (which I must say, was excellent).

What's happened in the last week?

Well, Friday was the Leavers' service. I donned my brand new cassock, my brand new stole (with sheep and hills and a river on it!) was blessed, and all of a sudden, through the West Door of All Saints, as so many have before, I left college! Hugs and handshakes and "good lucks" were had by all. We pottered home.

Having set aside Saturday to do 'practical things' we discovered there was nothing still to do, so generally faffed about. Sunday was good. We went to a barbecue with my lovely cell group, the Prayer Bears (yep, I know...) and in the evening Kate and I polished off a bottle of bubbly.

On Monday, at 9.30am, as they had promised, a MASSIVE lorry backed up to Runcie. Seriously, you have never seen a lorry so big. Within 3-and-a-half hours our flat was empty and the lorry was 1/4 full (honestly... the lorry was far too big!) Craig and Steve from Pickfords had picked and packed and carried everything we own down 4 flights of stairs, and off they went. We took a turn around the empty flat with Arthur waving "bye bye kitchen", "bye bye bedroom" etc. etc., dropped the keys back and headed that old familiar route down the M4 and M5 for the last time in a while. We picked up the keys to our Curate's House from a secret location where they had been left by Rev Will. 8 years after leaving, we were residents of the TA postcode again!

We stayed overnight at Mum and Dad's, and on Tuesday Craig and Steve rocked up at the Curate's House. It took them an impressive hour to move everything in, and they even offered to unpack for us (I declined... they'd already seen my underwear once!)

Tuesday was mainly spent wandering around in a daze. The Curate's House really is huge. Everything about it feels big. When people build houses nowadays, they usually build them quite economically, but not the Victorians! The ceilings are around 10ft high! I'm exhausted just climbing the stairs! It took all the brain power I had to contemplate how to unpack the contents of the 1 kitchen drawer we had in our Runcie kitchen into the 16 drawers of our new kitchen, and our two small two-seater sofas look pretty sad in the living room.

Wednesday was a far more productive day. Mum and Dad came over to help. Mum entertained Arthur so we could get the boxes unpacked quicker, and Dad strimmed the jungle of a garden, revealing a rather neat lawn beneath!

Today, we've mainly been hanging curtains, and now that they're up we're intending to spend our first night sleeping here tonight.

Bridgwater's a pretty nice place. I've no idea where it gets its sometimes dubious reputation - everyone we've met has been so friendly, especially our new neighbours who have all popped past to say welcome. I think we're going to get on very well.

I'll miss Cuddesdon a lot. But having got here I'm sure this is where I need to be. The right time and the right place.

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