a million times a trillion more (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dolorosa_12) wrote2024-02-22 06:51 pm
dolorosa_12) wrote2024-02-22 06:51 pm
Far from my home is the country I have reached; always coming home
I am practically vibrating with anxiety, these days, and it seems to be a permanent state of affairs, unfortunately. Let's try to distract me from this with a meme (via a friend on Facebook):
How many times have you moved house, and what was the reason for moving each time?
I was brought home from the hospital in which I was born to a flat in Manhattan in New York. After that, I moved house:
1. To Washington DC, because my dad got a job there.
2. To an old single-storey terrace house in Sydney, because my mum didn't want to raise a child who would speak with an American accent and call her 'Mom.'
3. To a wonderful, 1920s house in Canberra with no central heating and a massive, tree-filled garden, because my dad got a job as the political correspondent for the Australian state broadcaster.
4. To another wonderful house in Canberra with a massive garden filled with vegetables, fruit trees and huge expanses of grass, because my parents wanted to buy a house (previous place was rented).
5. To a new house in Canberra (with a swimming pool!) because my parents separated and sold the old place and moved into separate homes.
6. To the floor of the spare room of the unit one of my aunts was subletting, because my mum wanted to move back to Sydney, and although I was 18 and could have stayed in Canberra, I didn't want to live with my dad, in uni accommodation, or in a privately rented share house, so I decided to go to university in Sydney in order to continue living with my mum and sister.
7. To an idiosyncratically designed and decorated, high-ceilinged flat elsewhere in Sydney, because my mum had found it suitable for a six-month lease while we looked for somewhere to buy.
8. To the flat where my mum (and sister, after some interludes living in Canberra and Melbourne for work) still lives, elsewhere in Sydney, because all three of us knew immediately when we looked at it that this was the one to buy. It still remains my ideal living space.
9. To my dad's house in Canberra, because I panicked after undergrad and made (in hindsight) a very bad decision to work as a subeditor at the local paper there.
10. To![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
angel_cc's sharehouse in Canberra, where we were later joined by catpuccino as a third housemate, because my dad was in the process of following my stepmother to Melbourne, after the Australian federal election (and his coverage thereof) was over.
11. To my mum's flat in Sydney, because I got accepted for the MPhil at Cambridge and needed to save money over the nine months prior to moving to the UK.
12. To the university accommodation in Cambridge — an old Victorian house which had been converted into a fifteen-room student share house — because I had moved there to do the MPhil.
13. To my former Cambridge housemate's room, because the two of us were too cheap to pay for two rooms over the summer between finishing our MPhils and starting our PhDs, she was travelling around Europe, and we figured we could split the rent for one room and I could stay there. (We got in a lot of trouble for that when our college realised what we were doing...)
14. Back to my original university accommodation for the first year of my PhD, because it seemed easiest to stay put.
15. To the privately rented share house that a bunch of people in the department where I did my MPhil and PhD rented (with an ever-changing cast of characters), because it was a) cheaper than university accommodation and b) much more fun to live with my friends. Matthias was one of the housemates in that house, but at the time I moved in, we were just friends (and indeed I was in a relationship with someone else). By the end of the first six months in that house, my other relationship had ended and Matthias and I were a couple.
16. To a shared student accommodation flat in Heidelberg, because I went on exchange there for a year.
17. To Matthias's room in the share house listed above at 15, because I moved back to Cambridge after my year on exchange in Heidelberg was up — but only for a week or so.
18. To a privately rented house, because Matthias and I wanted to live on our own.
19. To the house in Ely where I live now, because Matthias and I bought our own place (and could never have afforded to buy a house in Cambridge).
How many times have you moved house, and what was the reason for moving each time?
I was brought home from the hospital in which I was born to a flat in Manhattan in New York. After that, I moved house:
1. To Washington DC, because my dad got a job there.
2. To an old single-storey terrace house in Sydney, because my mum didn't want to raise a child who would speak with an American accent and call her 'Mom.'
3. To a wonderful, 1920s house in Canberra with no central heating and a massive, tree-filled garden, because my dad got a job as the political correspondent for the Australian state broadcaster.
4. To another wonderful house in Canberra with a massive garden filled with vegetables, fruit trees and huge expanses of grass, because my parents wanted to buy a house (previous place was rented).
5. To a new house in Canberra (with a swimming pool!) because my parents separated and sold the old place and moved into separate homes.
6. To the floor of the spare room of the unit one of my aunts was subletting, because my mum wanted to move back to Sydney, and although I was 18 and could have stayed in Canberra, I didn't want to live with my dad, in uni accommodation, or in a privately rented share house, so I decided to go to university in Sydney in order to continue living with my mum and sister.
7. To an idiosyncratically designed and decorated, high-ceilinged flat elsewhere in Sydney, because my mum had found it suitable for a six-month lease while we looked for somewhere to buy.
8. To the flat where my mum (and sister, after some interludes living in Canberra and Melbourne for work) still lives, elsewhere in Sydney, because all three of us knew immediately when we looked at it that this was the one to buy. It still remains my ideal living space.
9. To my dad's house in Canberra, because I panicked after undergrad and made (in hindsight) a very bad decision to work as a subeditor at the local paper there.
10. To
angel_cc's sharehouse in Canberra, where we were later joined by catpuccino as a third housemate, because my dad was in the process of following my stepmother to Melbourne, after the Australian federal election (and his coverage thereof) was over. 11. To my mum's flat in Sydney, because I got accepted for the MPhil at Cambridge and needed to save money over the nine months prior to moving to the UK.
12. To the university accommodation in Cambridge — an old Victorian house which had been converted into a fifteen-room student share house — because I had moved there to do the MPhil.
13. To my former Cambridge housemate's room, because the two of us were too cheap to pay for two rooms over the summer between finishing our MPhils and starting our PhDs, she was travelling around Europe, and we figured we could split the rent for one room and I could stay there. (We got in a lot of trouble for that when our college realised what we were doing...)
14. Back to my original university accommodation for the first year of my PhD, because it seemed easiest to stay put.
15. To the privately rented share house that a bunch of people in the department where I did my MPhil and PhD rented (with an ever-changing cast of characters), because it was a) cheaper than university accommodation and b) much more fun to live with my friends. Matthias was one of the housemates in that house, but at the time I moved in, we were just friends (and indeed I was in a relationship with someone else). By the end of the first six months in that house, my other relationship had ended and Matthias and I were a couple.
16. To a shared student accommodation flat in Heidelberg, because I went on exchange there for a year.
17. To Matthias's room in the share house listed above at 15, because I moved back to Cambridge after my year on exchange in Heidelberg was up — but only for a week or so.
18. To a privately rented house, because Matthias and I wanted to live on our own.
19. To the house in Ely where I live now, because Matthias and I bought our own place (and could never have afforded to buy a house in Cambridge).