When I was in Ireland, I kept talking about all the things I was focussing on to get ready for my move and how bummed it was making me. Our friend Lindsay made an excellent point, ‘Stop thinking about the next eleven weeks as the end of your adventure. You still have 2 & 1/2 months of holiday left – treat it like that!’ And she was right.
I had been thinking that when I got back I’d start sorting items to pack, and make more trips to the charity shop, or the dump. But really, when you think about it, how long truly will it take me to pack? It’s not like I’m packing up the house. All my furniture is staying here, in this house. I don’t really have to clean out the cupboards or sell any of my stuff. Apart from a half dozen or so emails, taxi bookings, rabies certificates, etc, all I have to do is pack five suitcases. That shouldn’t take more than a day or two at most. So I started re-evaluating how to spend October & November.
I had the cruise booked for early October, and the only other thing I had booked was a weekend away in mid-November. The reason for that weekend was that my cousin needs me to get out of the house. Okay, that sounds wrong. I had originally told my cousin I was moving back to Canada in October, so she made plans to host her book club’s annual adventure here in Braidwood for the third weekend in November (last year was Paris – I do hope she’s managed their expectations for this year). I forgot to let her know that I had moved my departure to the end of November, so I felt kinda bad when she had to tell me that she had seven women coming to stay for four days and I had to vacate. I therefore decided to use this opportunity for what I thought would be one last trip before leaving Europe.
Lindsay’s words keep ringing in my ears. So, since getting back from Ireland, I have made a point of going into either Glasgow or Edinburgh once every week, I did a road trip up to Skye, I’ve gone farther afield when walking the dog, and on Thursday I leave for a 4-day weekend in Stockholm.
Thanks, Lindsay!