Last weekend I spent a much needed couple of days back home in Bristol. Getting to indulge in the sort of creature comforts I don't have at University (double bed, a deep bath, a clean kitchen) is one of my favourite parts of returning home as well as having a catch up with my parents. It's a funny stage to be at now that I've left home and I'm doing my own thing. When you move away your relationship with your parents changes but in quite a nice way. As I get older I realise that there isn't really an 'okay, I'm an adult now' moment. I'm 20 this year and I'm learning that I don't think people ever feel properly grown up. I'm still waiting to wake up one morning Big style and realise it's happened. But moving away sortof initiates a change in relations with the parents in that you start to interact with them as a fellow 'adult'. I remember my Mum saying that one of the saddest things about her Dad dying when she was 23 was that she felt she was only just starting to get to know him as a fellow adult and that the new stage in their standing as Father and Daughter felt really special because she wasn't just 'his child' any more, she was an adult in her own right and this added new dimensions to the way in which they interacted.
It's odd not automatically knowing the details of my Parents lives and having to ask questions like 'how's work?' when before I would know from the conversations over the table at dinnertime but I think we're all enjoying the new benefits (my Mum and Stepdad seem to be able to afford weekend breaks in Berlin and all kinds of treats now that my laptop charger isn't sucking costly electricity bills from the sockets and I'm no longer around to empty the fridge) and it makes going home to visit extra special.
As usual a large stack of mail was waiting for me, this time with a big parcel containing these workwear boots I'd ordered from eBay a couple of months ago. They're a perfect replacement for the pair that fell apart when I was traveling America and had to guiltily leave in Brooklyn. Getting to look through the shell of your wardrobe is also a novelty as you can remind yourself of the garments you'd forgotten about. I found this old Clinique lippie in 'Just Raisin' hanging out with the dusty tumbleweeds on my desk, which along with the boots I've been wearing lots this week. I was sent off at the end of the weekend with a quarter loaf of bread from our local bakery all tightly wrapped in foil and various jams to add to my store cupboard here and though I was sort of sad to leave, there was something bizarrely homely about returning to Manchester, towering stacks of dirty crockery and all.
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