Time

It's only when an experience becomes finite in time, that you finally appreciate it. Why is that? Why is the mind not conditioned to truly enjoy these moments until they are gone. Maybe that's what memories are for.

I have now set a date.

I feel like every moment I spend with the people I care for is too short. It's like drinking the last few drops of an empty water bottle in an african desert with no oasis in sight. I savour them. Happy times that I will remember forever.

We have finally settled into the new apartment. It's a smaller flat, but we now live in a buzzing area of North London where literally everything is on our doorstep, be it bars, restaurants, fruit, veg, kebabs, cinemas, tube, bus...it's all here!. We have made the most of our little balcony, enjoying diners al fresco (weather permiting - which has not been that often), sharing stories around the shisha surrounded by the stars above and the rattling noise of trolleys being pushed and pulled in and out of the Sainsbury depot.

Pure London bliss.

London to me is now random nights out having diner with colleagues, enjoying the succulent and great value Thai food of Busba Ethai, tennis in Regent's Park and the never ending preparation for the move.

A very good friend of mine predicted late last year that 2007 would be a year of change, how right she was. I remember reading the "self help" book, "who ate my cheese". At the time I thought it was slightly ridiculous - the idea that people are not flexible, find it hard to re-assess and change, it all felt distant. Now, a few years later, I am slowly understanding the anxiety that can be induced by change.

Lessons to be remembered:

• Having cheese makes you happy.



• The more important the cheese is to you, the more you want to hold on to it.



• If you do not change, you can become extinct.



• What would you do if you weren’t afraid?



• Smell the cheese often so you know when it is getting old.



• Movement in a new direction helps you find new cheese.



• When you move beyond your fear, you feel free.



• Imagining yourself enjoying new cheese even before you find it, leads you to it.



• The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese.



• It is safer to search in the maze than remain in a cheeseless situation.



• Old beliefs do not lead you to new cheese.



• When you see that you can find and enjoy new cheese, you change course.



• Noticing small changes early helps you adapt to bigger changes that are to come.

I am ready.