change

Last week I bumped into a neighbour of mine from a few doors down. She inadvertently inspired me to get stuck into some spring cleaning when she asked about a guy who lives in my block of flats. "Hey", she said, "Is that guy a hoarder? I hear he's got newspapers piled up all over the place". She could've been talking about me and for a moment I wondered if she was. Now, the guy she was referring to is a lot messier than me, but yes, I am a hoarder and I do seem to accumulate newspapers without much effort...

Anyway, when I got home I started sorting through my stuff and have since made great progress. One of the things I came across during this decluttering was a diary I last wrote in just a few months before I left Sydney in 2007. I've been keeping journals on a regular basis for years n years, but this was a diary I'd been given as a gift and for one reason or another hadn't used it very much. I was interested to read this entry dated Thursday, 5 April. I'd just returned from a trip to Melbourne and I wrote:

It's quarter to 9 and I've woken up feeling less anxious than usual. Things will improve - I've reached a point where I realise this - though I still have no idea what's going to happen. Spending two weeks in Melbourne was great for me. Quite often I wonder why I ever left.

One thing led to another and in July of 2007 I made the move back to Melbourne, back to my home - quite literally as I ended up at my parents' house. They were going off on a trip and I house-sat for them for a few months. Things started falling into place and I've now been happily back here for over five and a half years, though I miss my friends in Sydney and try to get back there each year. The strange thing is, when I left my parents' house after the house-sitting stint I moved into a house (with a friend of a friend) on Chapel Street, which is the same street I lived on the very first time I moved out of home. It was like bookends.

A lot has happened since I've been back in Melbourne, but as you can see, not much blogging. So today I just felt like posting and seeing what happens. I'm not making any promises about returning to the blogosphere on a regular basis, but I do want to fill in some gaps or at least give an update...

After living in the share house on Chapel Street for around two and a half years I moved into a place of my own and I love it. I'm working four days a week and pursuing other interests and activities the rest of the time. I've made new friends and I still catch up with old friends all the time. I'm single and celibate, but interested in someone. I'm healthier and happier than I have been for a while. Scotty turned up unannounced late last year and he's still drinking, but I dealt with him like a grown up and he went back to Sydney (that's a whole other blog post!). I still write to Gypsy in Texas. I saw Dolly Parton in concert twice (I was in the second row for one of the shows) and I still don't have a bloody mobile phone. Some things never change.