The tough side of reinvention

Hi everyone,

Looking back on February 2006 I remember the tension caused by the old and the new colliding. This is the tough side of reinventing a life. Fortunately for me, I had some healthy habits that helped re-establish equillibrium - as you will see from the note which follows.

Diary 8, February 2006

I am sitting up in the loft or mezzanine of 8 Castlepark and it is twilight (5:16pm). The sun is going down behind the bridge to my right sending zig zags of brilliant white yellow across the pale blue waters, broken by small ripples in the Bandon river. The water in the bay to my left is gently lapping the shore, although just before it crests into mini waves it appears still and shiney as glass. The wind has died and it is still except for the occasional voice carrying from either the beach or the car park next to it. It is a perfect time for dogs and children to be finishing their play times before they come in for supper.

This is my life and I am beginning to feel at home here.

This week found me starting new habits, putting the daily routine of life together and that helps the sensation of being at home.

On Monday nights I go to Weight Watchers at 7 pm at the Trident hotel. This is a 20 minute walk on nights when I have the energy, smartly setting out in my designer (tongue in cheek) reflective vest. I am the latest fashion in my lime green overvest with silver criss cross stripes, but this vest and a torch (flashlight) in my hand and I will be safe.

On “the Tuesday” I went to the chiropractor, working long hours up to 9pm + helping those of us whose lives put our backs a little out of kilter.

On the Thursday I will start going to Yoga, that way Margie can go with me to the beginners session and we will continue on to the main session at 7pm. I met Coleen, the instructor going into the temperance hall on Tuesday – when she asked how I knew she was the yoga teacher I responded that the mat in a carry bag from India was a sure give away. She is influenced by Angela Farmer, a teacher whose work I am unfamiliar with so I will appreciate a new influence.

It was Yoga that got me back to myself while going through the feeling of powerlessness and frustration brought on by the woman Orlaith who felt at the beginning of the week as the impenetrable wall between us and our stuff every making it through customs. Thank heavens for the serendipitous occurrence of having BKS Iyengar’s book on Yoga on my IPod and the “coincidence” of listening to it while I painted a wall. While I am sure that in other circumstances Orlaith must be a very nice person – to me she was snide. In Irish terms she treated me like an “eegit.” At the end of the day, we fired their firm. It will cost us more, but the lack of aggravation will make up for it.

I quickly settled the problems with customs, having conveniently been given the name and number of their director as I shuffled through their system trying to find the right office. A charming man, Brendan pointed out that he couldn’t read the packing slip – I acknowledged that the writing was hard and asked if he would take a version I had made up myself as I packed. He took it and subsequently quickly OK’d it – although the dreaded Orlaith had assured me for a week that this was not possible. Nor did he question any of the other two or three points which she was conveying. The frustrations may not have been entirely her fault as she was working with a customs middle man who was working with another customs official. Needless to say that by the time my messages to help them interpret US paperwork came through to the other end it was like the child’s game of telephone – everything was garbled. We were headed towards a difficulty experienced by a woman from Philadelphia who our new removal (moving) man told me about. Her container was taken to the dump (in case her items were explosive) and everything had to be unloaded, expected and then reloaded in her container. If our extra charges are 1500 Euro, I can only imagine what hers must be.

Alls well that ends well and I am grateful that we are privileged enough financially speaking to be able to afford to make this work at the end. Even with the extra charges by hiring a new removal company, we are coming out ahead of our second bid. I am beginning to get excited about making this house our home, removing the furniture to the apartment that is multi-use and casual, suitable for a weekly beach house situation, and putting in our small touches. I look forward to a turf fire in our fireplace, to setting up our office and to being able to have craft parties, although realistically that is still a few months from being finally done.

The apartment will shape up quickly – Ted will start putting in a new floor next week and the new kitchen will be installed on the 24^th – then two weeks later the granite counter top comes. Margie is a cleaning fool there a couple of days a week now and will soon take up the paint brush and roller. In the off times we are writing a textbook – aiming for our first three chapters into the publisher by the end of the month. Still unless people think we are working hard, the reader must put this in the context that we go to be at ten, get up at 7 and don’t start work until 10am or so, then lunch takes an hour and we have stopped working by six – with at least one walk to the hill or swim in the bay somewhere in the middle – the typical Irish schedule suits us well.

Alana