Saga of the lightbulb.

Hello strangers. I'm not dead. If fact, I can say with absolute certainty that I'm definitely not dead. The number of times I've had my pulse taken and my blood pressure checked the past couple of days...........sigh!  I am, however, in my seventh week of university! Hurrah! Earlier this year I thought that I would never in million years be able to say that!  (You can tell that I'm still pretty excited due to the profusion of exclamation marks contained within this post.)  Despite my extreme glee at being away from home, at university, independent living is not without it's challenges let me talk to you about the saga of the light bulb. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

After hours of packing and sorting my room I arrive at university and realise I'd left my bedside lamp at home.

This was a problem. The main light in my uni room is really bright, not very relaxing if one wants to read in bed. Not to mention the fact that when the time comes for sleep I had to drag my backside out of bed and across the room to the light switch. Something had to be done.

I went into Cambridge city centre at the first opportunity I had. After a pleasant amble around some shops found a wonderful bedside lamp for £6. Bargain. I took it home feeling very proud of myself. I had overcome the first hurdle of living away from my fantastic, doting parents.

You can but imagine my horror upon my return home when I realised my quarry was lacking. There was no light-bulb provided. by the time I discovered this it was too late for anything to be done. I had to spend yet another night without any relaxing lighting to read by. Fortunately I was going to town again on the Sunday and was passing a large Tesco (other supermarkets are available.) Morning came and I carefully checked the label on the lamp as I had  vague suspicion that there are more than one type of lightbulb. The picture looked like a screw in one so I set off with high hopes to the shops. 

Now, I don't know about you but I'd never bought a lightbulb at this point in my life. As far as I was concerned lightbulbs came from the little set of draws above the washing machine in the utility room. As I stood in Tesco it dawned on me that I hadn't the foggiest idea where I should even begin to look for one amongst the wasteland of commodities. I aimlessly wandered thought the isles for a quite a while before I eventually gave up and asked a very nice man where to find them. I think I will forever be emotionally scared by the pitying look he gave me as I explained the situation to him. He took me to the isle and left me in-front of a bewildering array of lightbulbs. I chose one that looked like it fitted my description and headed to the till feeling very proud of myself. 

Alas, upon my return home I tried to fit my new purchase into my lamp, only to discover that it didn't fit! I can't begin to describe my disappointment. I felt so stupid and upset. My future loomed ahead of me, dark and cold. I couldn't even complete the simplest task, I didn't think I'd survive till Christmas! 

 Maybe independent living wasn't going to be as easy as I first thought. I took a deep breath, pulled myself together and returned to the supermarket.  Now I knew where the light bulbs were I want straight thereI and found the small (key detail there!) screw in ones. I returned home and I had done it! It fitted! I was ecstatic. I had finally succeeded in my task!

Now, you may be wondering what this long meandering and seeming pointless story is all about. My point is that moving home has been a series of little obstacles. I didn't realise how much stuff was done for me until there was no-one there to do it. I didn't know how to cook potatoes to put in curry and I had no real concept of how much food cost. I'm getting the hang of it now but the first few months were an  adventure of discovery. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that you should be grateful of all the little things that you don't normally have to do. 

Sorry this has been such a long one, I'm procrastinating (again!) 

All my love and kisses guys. I've missed you.