It’s done.

I’m now an official denizen of Manchester. The move went (aside from a certain amount of emotional anguish) fairly smoothly. George was really good, and really helpful – I was exhausted and in bits, and George was there being level-headed and helping me out at moments when I needed it. We may not have been able to make our marriage work, but she’s still someone who I want in my life, and I’m glad I was able to say farewell (not goodbye- I will be seeing her at the end of October, and I’m not slamming the door on the past) without collapsing into a thousand pieces. Plus, I was so busy for most of the morning that I didn’t have many points to actually think about things, which was probably a good thing.

The journey up was remarkably free of traffic, even if the weather gradually shifted from glorious sunshine to driving rain, and I had to stop myself from spotting how many placenames I could see that were listed on the track “It’s Grim Up North” by the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. We arrived at 6.45pm, just after Anna was back from work. Much shifting of boxes later, and I was ensconced in Anna’s house – saying goodbye to George’s dad was difficult, simply because he’s an absolutely fantastic bloke and it was one of those ‘point of no return’ moments that tells you life is moving on. Then, he was off, and the next phase of my life was beginning.

I’m still in unpacking mode- there are some things I need to sort out, and I’m also trying to be gentle with myself. I was bordering on exhaustion yesterday, and it’s okay for me to give myself a couple of days where I don’t do much. The practicalities of internet access may be an issue for a little while – thanks to my non-wireless enabled Mac Mini, and my EeePC’s unwillingness to connect to a wireless router that’s password protected. Some software updates may be necessary, plus I’ve got addresses to update, and things to do, and a book to proofread fairly soon… but not yet. Today, I’m going to potter around, do a few things, and then maybe head into the city centre and have a little explore.

I’m in a new world. And I think I’m going to be okay.