A Foreign Country


 I'm pretty sure that it's the rather wonderful book “The Go-Between" by LP Hartley that begins with the wonderful line 

“The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there"

 It's been on my mind as Richard and I just spent 4 days in Yorkshire clearing out my mom's house. And by clearing out, I really do mean clearing out. End of season sale. Everything must go! We found a home for several pieces of large 1920s furniture which were collected on Thursday morning and left the house after the removal of a couple of banisters, but the huge amount of ephemera of my mother's life that still remained in the house had to be gone through, checked, and then either left for the house clearance people, or put into a box for us to bring to London. I have to say that I was up for throwing out more than I thought I would be and there were several items of my own personal history that Richard insisted I boxed up and brought to London. Selecting things that  mum had had in the house proved rather easier.

As a result I'm pretty busy on eBay at the moment. No time for a career. Just monitoring various items I'm trying to sell and setting up auctions for others.

It's strange to think that as from now when I go back to the place where I was brought up in where I spent my childhood, the only place I'll have to  stay is a hotel. My mum is safe, content and happy in her new home, and the house is now on the market. It's a house that has served her well for 28 years since we bought it out on the death of my father and after selling the family shop. It needs work. It'll be a bargain for whoever buys it at around £65,000 and has the time and a little bit of money to do it up, but quite frankly I can't wait for the moment when it's gone from our lives. Since all this most recent chapter began in February with my Mum leaving home and staying at Rotherwood,  it's really been the only thing I have If been able to concentrate on fully. Good for me then that my career seems to have been on hold. Other than my week's recent sojourn  in Leeds, work is rather sparse at the moment and this month, April, doesn't have a single day of work for me. The recession at last has taken hold.

It's given me the time I needed however to focus on making a major change in my life and getting Mum sorted. At the end of this process, it will all be for the better. So  eBay sales-bring them on. Estate agents e-mails with unfeasibly low offers, let them come, and Trip Advisor reviews of hotels in the Rotherham area commence.

Just won't need my passport for the foreign country marked "Past" quite so often

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