I got up this morning and got ready for work in much the same fashion as always - a little too slowly and begrudgingly - and had a quick peek out the window to check the weather. Vicky had text me on her way to work and mentioned that it was unpleasant, but for some reason I felt the need to check before selecting an appropriate outer garment. So I put on my big waterproof coat, pick up the rubbish - recyclables separated of course - and stepped out.
The big communal bins are out the back of the block and as I walk the path around the side of the building, past the herbs that one of my neighbours has been tending, and down the steps at the back, I see the view into Bournemouth gardens for the first time on a grey and wet Autumn morning.
Its dreary really, but seeing the colours of the leaves glistening on the branches and lining the road properly for the first time this morning was really kind of nice and I felt I needed to take this picture. It was a short lived enjoyment and I was immediately brought back from my daydream by the constant drizzle on my head and down the back of my neck.
Thereafter a thoroughly depressing drive to work wasn't improved by the worse-than-normal traffic or the stifling stuffiness of having to have the heating on to clear the windshield while having my big waterproof coat on and done up. Shockingly, even having one of my recent Spotify playlists entitled "Summer Ends 2015" on the car sound system only served to hammer home that Autumn was here and didn't seem to alleviate the sombre tone of my journey at all.
Arriving at work wasn't much cheerier and my day consisted of achieving very little of what I wanted or needed to get to done and a fair amount of chasing people, emergency ordering of parts, attempting to decipher terrible drawings and arguing with individuals who are utterly incapable of identifying the issue I might have with committing an act of criminal negligence. Sufficed to say, that particular individual is now aware that I have no wish to be tried, convicted and incarcerated, as a favour to them.
This constitutes a fairly average day at the office for me and I consider it to be little worse than a tad mundane. It has been a grey day though and that has carried an undertone of curmudgeonliness throughout the day. As I was leaving it started spitting and turned to drizzle as I got in the car, before full on bucketing down as I drive through the worse-than-normal traffic on my way home.
Strangely my mood seems to improve as I get further from work and the rain gets steadily worse, although these things do not in any way correlate. The reason I am brightening up is that I am returning home to Vicky and my comfortable homely flat.
For the first time in my 30 years of life, I'm finally independent and running my own household. Consequently, I am paying all the bills (which I feel are quite considerable!), doing almost all the cooking and cleaning and generally looking after myself. I am aware that my noting this as extraordinary might be viewed as more than a little pathetic by some, but it is an important step for me and certainly thousands of other people around Britain. It is harder and harder to gain financial independence from parents, with high rent prices and increasing cost of living expenses along with the general expectation that we should all be able to go out and enjoy ourselves to excess whenever the urge arises.
As a result I feel quite proud of myself and on the whole am rather enjoying the experience of having my own space that I can design and decorate as I see fit. What's more I have created a space that I can share with Vicky and my family and friends and that feels really good.
So as I am driving home I realise that there are upsides, like getting to cuddle up on the sofa under a blanket with Vicky, being able to choose what to watch on TV and whether to watch TV at all, or deciding what I want to eat and having my own kitchen to cook it in.
These are some of the things that I love to do and having to get up on wet and windy Autumn mornings is the price I have to pay for them. It's probably not what I want to have to do forever, but for the time being it is a price I have come to terms with and overall am willing to pay!
Strangely my mood seems to improve as I get further from work and the rain gets steadily worse, although these things do not in any way correlate. The reason I am brightening up is that I am returning home to Vicky and my comfortable homely flat.
For the first time in my 30 years of life, I'm finally independent and running my own household. Consequently, I am paying all the bills (which I feel are quite considerable!), doing almost all the cooking and cleaning and generally looking after myself. I am aware that my noting this as extraordinary might be viewed as more than a little pathetic by some, but it is an important step for me and certainly thousands of other people around Britain. It is harder and harder to gain financial independence from parents, with high rent prices and increasing cost of living expenses along with the general expectation that we should all be able to go out and enjoy ourselves to excess whenever the urge arises.
As a result I feel quite proud of myself and on the whole am rather enjoying the experience of having my own space that I can design and decorate as I see fit. What's more I have created a space that I can share with Vicky and my family and friends and that feels really good.
So as I am driving home I realise that there are upsides, like getting to cuddle up on the sofa under a blanket with Vicky, being able to choose what to watch on TV and whether to watch TV at all, or deciding what I want to eat and having my own kitchen to cook it in.
These are some of the things that I love to do and having to get up on wet and windy Autumn mornings is the price I have to pay for them. It's probably not what I want to have to do forever, but for the time being it is a price I have come to terms with and overall am willing to pay!
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