I’ve been away for a while. About a month, to be precise. The most tumultuous month of my past 25 years.
When you run a personal business, sometimes the “personal” overtakes the business. And sometimes the “personal” overwhelms you so much you focus on basic survival.
The love of my life passed away in June, a few days before her 84th birthday. And I came home to say goodbye and to support my family. My mother was my inspiration and my cheerleader. A graceful, gentle, generous woman. I will miss her forever.
And then we moved house. From a 250 m² home in the suburbs to a 120 m² apartment in town. Norwegian removal companies are expensive. On the day that we moved a group of Turks arrived. They filled their van fast. Unfortunately, they left a lot of stuff behind.
I don’t know if you remember the Stuttafords Van Lines advert from many years ago? Showing a truck going up a hill and the piano sliding out the back? It was that kind of experience.
And so I hired a truck to take the rest of the stuff to the recycling station. (In South Africa we call them rubbish dumps.) About 15 trips. After the second trip whoops of joy and high-fiving greeted my arrival at the station. And a stream of people happy to help me carry my stuff to the appropriate container.
This was the response to me blocking access to the public for four hours during my first two visits. They’re very picky about what goes where. I threw glass into the wrong container a few times. Somebody in authority suggested they gather around the foreigner to help.
And then, in Norway, the house must be clean before you hand it over. Not “clean” in the South African sense. Cleaning in the “professional” hospital-operating-theatre sense. This costs about 25,000 Rand, and it took our chosen team of Poles and Czechs a week to do it.
After which we did much of it again.
So, back to a new normal next week.
I’ve written this weekly email, more or less weekly, since 2000. It’s been a fun discipline to follow. And it’s been a weekly creative exercise that’s helped me more than you can imagine. Thank you for reading it.