Control-Shift-Escape encapsulates what I have been doing for last 2-3 weeks. I had to leave my old place as my contract was getting over and I had no intentions of extending it. This was my 5th shifting in last 12 months (no.. I was never thrown out.. I always moved out because of boredom with one place) and based on my experiences, I knew what to do before moving out. You see, shifting to me is routine now. And that’s the reason I don’t have to tell my brain to get ready for it. My brain, automatically, gets into the shifting mode!!
First things first, I stopped buying extra groceries and food items 10 days in advance. When I live for long at once place, I tend to buy some items which I buy based on my temporary moods. Those moods sometimes never return and, as a result, those items lie in my kitchen shelf untouched and neglected for weeks. For example, I bought some biscuits which looked good from packing but after eating one, I never had the wish to eat its remaining companions. There was some wine which I was saving for special times. Unfortunately, special times visited me less often than I expected and wine was left to become older and tastier 🙂 I finished all my wine and stopped buying another drinks. Similarly, there were other things that I bought in recent weeks but never cared to use. I was going to throw them and just to feel less like a wastage-causing-fella I thought not to accumulate the stuff that was, in the end, going to land in a waste bin. That was CONTROL part of my recent life.
As I wrote in the beginning, I was moving to a new place. That means my present stuff had to be shifted from present place to new place. But, since neither I have a car and nor I intended to buy or rent one[even if intended, I didn’t have a driving license], I had to ask for somebody’s help. I turned to a nice colleague who gladly accepted to bail me out of this difficult situation(i like going to new places… but I hate shifting ). In the beginning I told him there would be only 2-3 bags. He ended up carrying 3 bags, 1 box, one laptop bag and 2-3 small bags 🙂 Life gives you more than you expect… sometimes that becomes too much to carry around!!! Should I tell you that was the SHIFT part I was talking about in the title? 🙂
The ESCAPE part is a little subtle. I was not living in a jungle or a bad place. It was awesome place. I had my own facilities, my own space and my close friends. The problem was that my friends were going to leave the place. One had, in fact, already left and another is going to leave next week. Without them it would have been so difficult to live in same place. So, I too decided to leave. That was my way of escaping the loneliness!!
Wu Li 