For the past forty plus years I have been doing what pretty much every other child of the seventies does when it starts to grow up - I started filling up my house with "stuff". Friends would come over and comment on how much "stuff" we had. Our house was filled with it, and then I started to move things into the loft so that the house would be less cluttered..... and then the loft was filled with it. And then the house became filled with more stuff and of course I had no more room in the loft to hide it so it started to clutter up the place until finally we reached a point of no return.
What does one do when one finds oneself in danger of being smothered to death by all the "stuff" one has accumulated over the seven or so years spent living in one space? Well, there are two main options that one has - either move to a bigger joint and start filling that place up, or start to throw "stuff" away, and move to a smaller, neater, tidier place.
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| Our New Space |
We went for the second option.
That place is now Cassio Place in Watford, what I affectionately term a young persons home. Honestly, I feel a little old in this community - all these yummy mummies (and their rather yummy husbands) running around looking gorgeous with their kids in tow. It's a totally different space. There is no litter (okay, there is litter but you really have to look for it to find it) lining the streets and the little square of green in the centre is frequented by laughing happy children and owners walking their very happy dogs. It makes a change from West Watford where the local greeting involves grunting and complaining about something... anything.... everything! Funnily enough, we've moved about 15 minutes away from our former home, but the difference between the two areas is most unnatural (see photo above).
So the real reason for the move? It's probably the pool that accompanies this estate. There is also a gym and a dance studio, but we'll require a few more months of pool activity before we feel confident enough to start using these other recreational spaces. Being able to slip into the pool 10 minutes after you leave your pad (and slip out and be home in 10 minutes) is a most wonderful thing indeed - I'm not sure I can find a comparison apart from if you live next to a lake or a river. I suffer from back pain and I know that I must keep up the exercise or face being crippled by the time I reach 50 so it's kind of imperative that I have such facilities close by. Having said that, I still like I'm one of the most privileged individuals by living in this "hotel" like atmosphere.
Yes we share the pool with countless individuals and their sweat and saliva and yes, whenever I see a child in it I imagine that they are pissing in it at some point during their stay (well, i seem to recall doing this myself when i was a child so why would it be any different today?). But that's why they invented chlorine... or at least why they use it in public swimming areas anyway and this is far less frequented than any of the public pools I have ever used in my life so.... I can live with it.
And the light? The light is just unbelievably beautiful as it streams through our window in the mornings. We sit in the sunshine on a Sunday morning and sip our coffees as we overlook the children and dogs play on the communal lawn prior to heading off for a quick swim before breakfast.
And we always try to remind ourselves how lucky we are.
