Wow - 2 weeks away and back home today - and it is such a good feeling! Well aware that I am back home in a Chris free house - but a year IS a long time - though in so many ways no time - but this time last year I was coming home from the COE conference - welcomed by Chris with comfort food and all that went along with with a Chris welcome home - this time Jim and I arrived at Manchester - went to the Spar and bought some milk for a cup of tea and came home to an empty house - BUT this shows how far we have come - it was OK - going with Rob to pick the dog up and Tescos - Gilly coming round - talking on the phone to my parents and a couple of friends. It was really OK - it just feels great to be home - to my newly painted kitchen and all the other things of my new post Chris life. So that's good.
I am so pleased Jim came with me - for both myself and for Jim. I was always going to find my first COE conference hard - meeting people I hadn't met for a year - lovely people that I know well and who know me and care for me - so that was going to be hard. I thought Jim would get a lot from this trip and I really think that he has. On so many levels - the Jim who came back with me today was a different young man from the one I left with a couple of weeks ago. I think the 'deep end' is probably a good description to where he has been but I think it was what was needed - he was well out of his comfort zone and he was brilliant. Jim doesn't find meeting people easy - he does not have a lot of confidence in himself but the last couple of weeks he has met so many people, had to have so many conversations, seen so many new things and had to think about himself - his Mum and the wider world and he has grown as a consequence.
I don't really need to say how lucky am I - but I don't think I can finish a blog without saying it - how lucky am I - going away and seeing my life from the other side of the world just makes me think how lucky I am - this is is so visible to me tonight as I relish being home - even if I can hear the dog howling in the kitchen - don't think Kip had a good couple of weeks in the kennels - he is also looking very skinny - sorry Kip - you and me and both so happy to be home!
