Empty Nest

So Sunday was a long, long day. You would be amazed how much stuff an 18 year old can accumulate in a couple of years.

Here we are all ready for the off. Tish came supposedly to keep me company, but more because she fell in love with Midge, Lewis' Boss Monitor Lizard, and wanted another cuddle. We had a really nice journey up, mainly with Jacob giving us the benefit of his vociferous opinions on how badly written Harry Potter is (we were listening to the end of 'Chamber of Secrets') and stopping off for Burger King.
We seemed to come back with nearly as much stuff as we took. I acquired a replacement mattress (Lewis had **three** spare mattresses in his spare room) for the bunks so that I can give them away on Freecycle, then popped to Ikea and bought Tish a new chest of drawers (not that I have any illusions about her bedroom being magically tidy once she can put her clothes away.) We also re-acquired the green beanbag sofa which I gave to Lewis several years ago but he now has no room for. It may reside in M's luxuriously spacious new bedroom or it may end up at the dump. (I am kind of attached to it as it was the first piece of furniture I bought after the divorce; had no money, it was cheap and we could, at a pinch, all sit on it together.)

Then yesterday evening I spent a couple of hours filling bags and putting Jake's bottle collection in the recycle. Although it seems so much bigger empty you can see what a tiny little space he has been living in; it is half a room that he has shared with M, divided by a large black unit that they shared for storage. The walls are pretty musty but I think it is going to be lovely when it is all rearranged. All that remains now is a huge Pokemon card collection that I hope to find a home for and his Beanie Baby collection. We went through a stage then they were about 8 or so when everyone was mad on them (I think Tish has more than 50?). Unfortunately we always cut the labels off so they are not collectors items.