From now on, we have resolved to ‘live the life’, however much we’re still trapped in what feels never-ending trips back and forth to London. We have had a relaxed weekend and I worked at home yesterday so stress levels were minimised, despite working like a dog all day. It’s funny how the stress is lessened so much by being able to work in the peace and quiet rather than the hurly-burly of the office. I don’t think I’d really fully appreciated just how much difference it makes until recently. I reckon I got so much work done that it was broadly in-line with two days work if I’d been at my desk.

Our company doesn’t have much of a culture of home-working here in the UK although in the USA many of our senior team work from their own homes. It’s been a bit of an uphill struggle to gain acceptance that I’m not just sitting around drawing a fat salary and watching daytime TV. Weirdly, I feel guilty for going upstairs to spend a penny when I’m working at home though in the office it wouldn’t even occur to me to worry about doing something so normal and that we all have to do.

Anyway, I digress, this is about the whole moving away from the South East thing. We’ve done it and we’re already in a different space. This morning, we were shocked at the amount of traffic we saw on the way to the station (about 20, maybe 30 cars) and, although I’m sad to be away from home now, I’m calm and unstressed relative to the last few months and I’m pushing away stress and anger.

We’re finally sorting our way through the muddle that has beset us since we were bullied into leaving our home with a mere ten days notice – we won’t allow that to happen again in a hurry. I still can’t believe I let it. I’m normally so strong and such a good negotiator that I rarely find myself being pushed around by someone else. The misery that being forced out so quickly caused us is still very fresh in my mind. I lost all of my houseplants, including the precious bird of paradise plant that I’d nurtured for ten years and it had just started to flower this year. I lost Humphrey the begonia – a rare specimen that had been in my family for more than thirty years and – well, everything. This was because our stuff had to go into storage so they couldn’t be moved by our removals company and we couldn’t transport them along with all of the other essential stuff we couldn’t be without for weeks.

Still I’m not angry.

I also lost a couple of hundred pounds of dog medicines that were in my medicine cabinet, bought from our vet only a week earlier and all of my herbs and spices because of the sheer panic of moving so quickly so not checking the cupboards thoroughly enough.

Still I’m not angry.

My precious kitchen aprons too – a Spurs one, a Snoopy one and a Simon Drew – all gifts and all cherished. They were on the back of the kitchen door and again while completely panicked I missed them.

Weirdly, the new occupants of the house posted David’s guitar manual back to him and I suppose I’m deeply pissed off about that – I doubt he’d have even noticed it was missing yet my things of such deep sentimental value are gone forever.

Ah well, we’re in a new life now and I’m not angry, I’ve pushed that all away, from now on it’s only positive things that can come into my personal space. After all, it’s only stuff…..

Last year I was still fighting my cold and two years ago, we were doing what we love to do best - walking the coast-path