14/10/2026
Whenever I return to the homeland, I stay in my old bedroom. I was born in that very room, during the summer of ‘74.
It’s the room where I’d get ready for nights of underage drinking in the town centre, dancing with my friends to MC Hammer, Snap and Adamski. Where I’d hang out of the window, secretly smoking, convinced my parents knew nothing about it. My boyfriend would sometimes climb over the garage roof and knock on the bedroom window to see me. My dad once caught us and furiously threw him out the front door! 😬😂
Then, when I returned home from uni for the holidays I’d spend hours in there, watching back-to-back Friends and Frasier on a Friday night. It’s also where I was woken, some years later, in the early hours, with a phone call from the hospital telling me my amazing dad was dying.
This room remains the same, it’s frozen in time. But it contains many snapshots of different stages of my life. Graduation photos, photos of my beloved old cat, even recent photos of my kids.
And this drawing. Created in 1981, goodness knows where, or by whom. A 7-year-old me, with a lifetime of possibilities ahead.
It goes in the blink of an eye doesn’t it? All we can do, is try to do no harm and to enjoy our one, chaotic, magical, ridiculous life. 💕
