Yeah, I became one of the ‘boomerang kids’ this month. I shoved everything I own into double-walled cardboard boxes and did the boomerang shuffle. The bright lights and £7.50 cocktails of London faded away in the side mirrors on the removal van. I have gone back… back to the Midlands.
Living in my old bedroom is odd. I’m surrounded by my replacements: small antique chairs covered in cushions. Continuing to work in London isn’t helping, because I’m still more or less living out of a suitcase.
Unpacking was fun – I had five boxes that were just clothes and shoes. It shouldn’t have been physically possible to carry that much stuff out of a studio flat. As women have lamented for generations, I just don’t know where it all came from.
There are upsides to being a boomerang kid, or I wouldn’t have done it. I’m saving a considerable amount of money. You can’t really go outside in London without spending something. Here, if I want to buy anything it’s at least a ten-minute walk. Turns out there are very few things I will walk half a mile for. By the time I get there, I’ve changed my mind.
The other great thing is that I’m eating more. Not necessarily *better*, but more. I had a fried sandwich last week. Home cooking is always filled with love and calories. Compared to the fridge in my old flat, which usually contained some milk and three sachets of stir fry sauce, the parents’ fridge runneth over.
And on the subject of that old flat, my former bedroom here – dare I say it – feels bigger. I’ve been paying through the nose for two years to live in a glorified cupboard, just because ‘London’. It’s a little sickening to write that out.
So what’s all of this in aid of? Well, there’s a plan A and a plan B, but I’m not quite ready to tell the world just yet. Eggs and baskets and all that – especially as you’ll have to wait until Easter to find out what I’m up to.
