Moving on

I was reading this morning about how people can expect to be in debt for up to thirty years if they only pay minimum payments on their credit cards; also about how many people are locked out of the housing market. Real worries indeed.

I've been suffering from headaches for the past couple of days and this has made me feel queasy all morning. I think it's mainly to do with the forthcoming house move.

We've been in our existing house for nearly fourteen years and I'd forgotten how stressful the thought, if not the execution, of moving house can be. We're moving to Burwell which is a village nearer to Cambridge and will be much more suitable for the children in terms of school and college.

I instinctively know that we're doing the right thing but there is so much emotion stored up in The Gardener's Cottage - so many memories. But, as I've often said to Michelle in the last few weeks, the reasons for our moving there are not now the same reasons for our staying there.

How hard it can be to move on, even when the road ahead is clear? Sometimes a rear view mirror can be a bad thing because events will never catch up with us again. Not only that but even the emtiest road has roundabouts and junctions ahead. We need to read the signposts that lead to comparisons with other people and their situations in order to realise just how fortunate we really are. An unblinkered view is not a true reflection of life.

Dark glasses

I've worn glasses since I was about seven years old. I can't remember a time when I didn't have to wear them. I do remember though the exact moment when my parents knew that my eyesight needed checking. We were on holiday near Potter Heigham on the Norfolk Broads. My father asked me to read a riverboat sign which I strained to do. The Torre Canyon went aground off Land's End soon afterwards and I often asked my parents if it would have happened had the captain been wearing glasses.

Forty years later I've just got some new glasses with 'transitional lenses' (like the old reactolites!). Because they adjust to brightness it means I get less glare from sunlight and also the PC screen I spend so much of my time facing up to.

They're a bit uncomfortable at the moment - as new glasses always are - and giving me headaches but I'm sure they'll adjust quickly in that way too.