office moves and editing

Tags

editing, excitement, moving, office move, packing, work, working

This morning there is the sense of holidays floating around the desks in the office. Everywhere there are stacks of grey and pink crates filled with the content of drawers and office supplies. The company I am currently contracted to work for is on the move!

Come Monday morning their somewhat rundown North Side home will be abandoned and replaced with a shiny new South Side premises. Moving an entire office seems to hold many challenges, but now that all the sorting, throwing out and packing has been done, the packers will do all the hard lifting tomorrow. So when everyone arrives (if they can find it that is) at the new office on Monday morning it will be a little like Christmas – crates unpacked and desks reorganised.

I won’t be moving until Wednesday (I am only in the office during the later part of the week) and I still don’t know where I’ll be going – let alone where I’ll be sitting. But I am sure, come Wednesday morning, I’ll find my way and someone will give me a chair and desk. And since I only have two small folders and a couple of pens and post-its loitering on my desk, my friendly desk neighbour is giving my few bits and bobs crate-asylum until I find a home in the new office.

Somehow this state of ‘in-betweeness’ has created an unusual atmosphere, excitement paired with busyness, inactivity and uncertainty mixed with hyper action and clear instructions buzzes around me – making it hard to concentrate on my task at hand – read and edit a technical manual.

So while I try to block out the chatter with my green headphones and read the words in front of me I can’t help but be infected with the flutter of newness that is all around me.

Editing while on the move, maybe not the ideal working combination but exciting none the less.

 

 

moving friends

Tags

flea-market, friends, home, moving, new home, photography, photos

Last weekend I spent my days helping my talented friend D. move into a studio flat where she will live and create her art for the next few years. And luckily for me it is just up the road, a 10 minute walk or a short cycle and I can’t wait to drop in for a neighbourly chat.

But before that can happen she needed a few essentials, so, like an old married couple, we wandered around Ikea discussing light-fixtures and soft furnishing, picking cutlery, plates and most importantly wine glasses. And we even spent some time at a flea-market trying to find a few more individual items.

On Sunday night we occupied ourselves with the constructing of a shelf and a assembly of a coffee table, pulling the new carpet this way and that to make sure it was in the perfect position. Slowly the room began to transform, shape itself around my friends taste.

Today the movers are coming and all of her clothes and nick-knacks and other personal belongings will find a place in her new home. And while I love where I live, and don’t want to move,  I can’t help but feel a little bit envious of her new beginning, a fresh start with a blank canvass of surroundings to fill with new memories and old memorabilia – and I can’t wait to become a small part of them.

coordinated shoes with new carpet

flea-market find

pieces of me

Tags

bits and bobs, cream jug, Dublin, family, home, Ireland, memories, miscellaneous, moving, old photograph, random, South Africa, sugar pot, thoughts, travel

I have moved quite a bit in my life.  After three countries, nine homes and lots of boxes I have been living in a tiny little cottage in Dublin for the past two year, and I love it here so hopefully I will stay for a while.

Like most things in life, there are upsides and downsides to moving, packing is a definite downside, it takes quite long and somehow you break things, lose things and wonder about the person who owns certain things, even if it’s you. Meeting new people is an upside, but missing ones you left behind is a definite downside. Getting to reinvent you home is a plus but having to decide what to keep is a negative. However the one thing that always stays the same is you, after all you take yourself with you where ever you go.

As I was thinking about this yesterday my gaze fell on the little pottery sugar-pot that sits on my table. This little pot has been in my life as long as I can remember, it even features in an old photograph of my father from before I was born. It sat on my parents table in South Africa like it dose on mine here in Ireland, always filled with sugar and always with a silver spoon sticking out of it. It isn’t worth anything but to me it is priceless.

This little blue pot holds more than just sugar, it holds memories of family meals and cups of tea shared with friends. It reminds me of a time when I was small and liked sugar in my tea, of my first love who took tea with his sugar and it always has that little bit of extra sweetness when I run out while baking.

I have a lot of bits and bobs and knicks and knacks cluttering or adorning (depending on your pint of view) up my home, but only a few of them are really special and things that I keep no matter where I go. They are more than just decorative or practical items they are what makes a house my home and they store pieces of me that I am reminded of when I see them.

So while I like the challenge of moving, the new adventures it holds, for now I will stay put and be happy in a home filled with bits of the past looking forward to the future and what pieces it has in store for me. I don’t need a new sugar pot but maybe someone will come along with a cream jug that fits perfectly.