Full circle

When I came up here a year ago for an interview, the snow drops were out in the woods. Now they are out again, it reminds me that it is precisely (give or take a few days) a year since I first came to the island.
I didn't have any expectations at that point of how it would turn out, and I couldn't have guessed. I'm glad I came up here, it's been... an experience ( I must be feeling quite mellow today, I usually use a stronger word than that!)
There will be things I'll miss, but I'm looking forwards to moving back to Wales. I'll bring my grandkids back here maybe!!

Pack up your troubles...

Oh how I love* moving house!

*this may not be true, as anyone who has been within a 10 mile radius of me doing this before will know

With the double complication of trying to work out the logistics of going to Oz for a month in the meantime, I've been working on the actual 'How to get off the Island' plans.
This is not being helped by having (by some mysterious process like cell division) managed to double the quantity of possessions I have to move.

Looking round my house, I have gained:

A 6 foot willow sculpture
A tambourine
A sheeps skull, complete with jaw and horns
A tea pot and a coffee pot
A second guitar (but how lovely!?)
A large glass mosaic
A large pile of bedding etc.

(I'm going to stop looking now because I'm scaring myself)

In short - my car was crammed to the gills when I drove up here, I cannot be leaving these things behind, and I doubt they will magically fit into my car on the way back down.

Same story, different address.

So, the process of packing your life into boxes and trusting the Royal Mail to get it down to Wales for me, begins. I'm quite looking forwards to getting to the stage of only having 2 changes of clothes here, and a plastic plate and one set of cutlery, as it's not like I can't live in a 'minimal' state, hell, I could get the train down!

Pole dancing in Portnahaven

It's not often that you get a phone call asking you to pop into the Co-op, find a man with a grey jacket and stick-y out ears buying juice, ans him if his name is Findley and if it is, to give him a dress and a wig. Only here. I don't believe these thing happen in the 'real' world. Although maybe they should, it makes life a little more interesting.
Anyhow, the purpose of this was because of a fancy dress (belated Christmas) party being held by the swimming club. My friends (who were visiting) and I went as the highly unpolitically correct 'Three Blind Mice' from Dr No. The evening culminated in the above shennanigans, and no, your eyes do not fail you, that's a pole in Jack's sitting room, it's there all the time, for dancing. (This makes Jack sound like some kind of Hugh Hefner, which I can assure you he's not, it's probably holding the ceiling up) The strangest thing is that Jack's house is not the only house here I've seen with a pole in the living room...