Moving On - From North to South
A slightly more personal edge to this month’s mail out than usual as at the end of July, Sarah and I (and the kids) moved from Manchester back down to Winchester, where both of us grew up. The transition has been a long process and isn’t quite done yet as we stay with family before we move into our new place at the end of the year. I arrived in Manchester 16 years ago as a fresh faced music student embracing a new season of life. It took me a long time to feel settled and I never quite felt suited to academic life, avoiding spending too much time at uni by touring and recording with bands, making podcasts for record labels and spending time at home with dad whilst he was unwell. In the subsequent years I worked in music management, played drums with some of my best friends to huge audiences, managed a coffee house and explored my new passion of photography, which slowly overtook my aspirations to work in music and became both my job and main creative outlet. Taking pictures (on my old Ericsson camera phone to begin with), was my main means of assimilating with the city, mapping out its routes and side streets by walking everywhere and capturing my new surroundings. My work has evolved considerably since then, but I’ll always be grateful for the reason to explore somewhere new and take photographs, (something which I’ve done again recently when visiting Athens).
In coming south, we’re moving away from some great friends, some of who we met in the first few days up north 16 years ago. I’ve never taken for granted how valuable my good friends are and knowing that I won’t see people day-to-day has certainly been one of the hardest aspects of moving, but I’ve already got quite a few trips back up north planned to complete some ongoing projects, so we’re not going to be strangers!
For the rest of the month I’ll be doing my best to catch up with myself a bit. In the most part, I’ve been very glad at how well I’ve handled the transition. We’ve tried our best to spread out the moving and remove time pressures from the various elements of house selling/buying and starting school and jobs (although this isn’t completely avoidable), as I know that doing it all at once would have been overwhelming. During previous house moves, the anxiety has got the better of me, and I knew at the start of the year that I’d need to pace myself at certain times throughout this process. I’ve certainly not felt at full capacity at times, and I had a bit of a crash last week when it all caught up with me a bit and my body decided to shut down for a day or so. I’ve found that the psychological impact of something significant will manifest itself physically (our brains and bodies are far more connected than we think!), signifiers that I need to take things slow and lean on those around me a bit more, which isn’t always easy given how much they already do, but important for my wellbeing.
Even though the practicalities of moving are nearly complete, I will gladly allow the period of transition to our new surroundings be a slow one. Even though I’m as familiar with Winchester as anywhere I’ve ever known, it will take time to establish a new rhythm of life as the kids start school, Sarah a new job and we slowly find our way of calling Winchester home again. I’ve never been very good at taking it slow and need to satiate the urge to be busy, but a move like this is a chance to break from the previous structure of life and embrace new opportunities. Over the past few months I’ve been writing a list of ideas to try out, some of which I’ve wanted to do for a long time but never quite got to, others which feel more approachable in our new surroundings.
I’m glad that I’ll be able to continue my project work, for which I’m currently developing a couple of book edits, but it’s also a chance to re-approach my commercial work as I build relationships with new potential clients. I have a much firmer idea of the type of projects that I can apply myself to than ever before and I’m excited to embrace new challenges in a more rural environment as well as connecting with people in London and across the south.
For the next few weeks, I’ll give myself some space before I start trying to arrange meeting new people and taking on work by enjoying seeing old friends who I’ve not seen anywhere near enough of in recent times. September will see Tilly starting school and a chance to try out some of those ideas I’ve been scribbling down!
This piece is taken from my August mailout, which also features Salvi Danes, Amar Kanwar and Erland Cooper.
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