Pearl

Slippers

Nothing lasts forever. Everything changes. But one thing that has never changed for me is that I have always loved wearing slippers. In the past. In the present. I imagine well into the future. I’ve got them on now. I sometimes take them to other people’s houses. I take them abroad. I love my slippers. I have a vivid memory of being pretty young and hoping that one day I would live somewhere I could call my own and wear slippers.

Broad St, Leek; Charles St, Bingley;

Bromley Rd, Shipley....

I have lived in Wakefield, Manchester, Sheffield, Stratford-upon-Avon, London, Helsinki and a few temporary places but the three addresses in the sub-heading are my previous “grown-up” homes. As I’ve said in an earlier blog “home is where the heart is” so I do have a sense that “home” is all over the world but my slippers currently reside in Victoria Park, Saltaire.

Victoria Hall, Saltaire

Pearl

And there, in Saltaire’s Victoria Hall, later today, I’ll be celebrating 30 years of being married to Sally. A Pearl Anniversary, apparently. Anniversaries are random markers, making very little sense in absolute terms, but they are always good times to reflect on who you are and where you’ve come from and maybe where you’re going next. I started this blog in August 2014. I was wearing slippers. I’m wearing slippers now. Some things never change.

Except they do.

I’m older than I used to be. Retired from 33 years of teaching English and Drama.... A parent of two extraordinary daughters.... Wiser, maybe? (Not so sure....) Most remarkably, on this day in July 2016, I'm two stone lighter, statistically, thanks to Slimming World’s hearty eating formula. I will blog about the anniversary party in the future, an occasion when I expect to gain some of my lost poundage, but for now, my feet are firmly planted in my slippers.