Since I first put my toe down in this little corner of South East London back in 2000, I have known it was for me. Not that I stayed…
Like the best on-again off-again romances, I have left Greenwich, thrown big goodbye parties and uttered grand statements about how it will always be in my memories, only to discover myself back here, ready for another phase some time afterwards.
But I think now Greenwich and I are ready to settle down together. I am done with my roving eye, and am ready to settle into a peaceful existence in the one place I have always wanted to be.
When I came here first from Dublin, on a 6 month work placement, I couldn’t believe the sheer coolness of the place. Oh, I know, I was very innocent. 25 years in Dublin, broken only by a college year in France, didn’t give me the broadest perspective on life…
But as I trotted around the market, ogling pendants made from Murano glass and admiring the beautiful people, I felt very sophisticated and “London”. Even more so when I discovered the noodle houses, and the beautiful park, and the pubs.
Naturally, I went on to spend considerably more time discovering the pubs. I also bought quite a lot of pendants, and ate many, many bowls of noodles…. The 25 year old me had a whale of a time.
My 6 months came to an end, and I left for India and a new placement (15 months and some stories for another time). I didn’t know whether I would be back but that feeling of awe and, ultimately, belonging, I had when living here never left me. So, happily, in 2002 I reappeared, with a permanent job, a boyfriend and an awful lot more shoes.
My boyfriend, a little skeptical about this great love of mine, said we would stay 18 months. I agreed.
He fell for Greenwich nearly as much as me, and it took us until 2008, having bought a house, got married and had a beautiful baby girl, to execute our grand plan of returning to Ireland, for ever after. The goodbyes were hard, (I cried all the way to the ferry at Holyhead), but we felt this was the right thing.
Ultimately though, the lure of London, and of Greenwich, has been too much for us…
This Autumn, after a few years in Ireland and another year in the USA, we have found ourselves, our two children and, remarkably, a lot less shoes (motherhood and moving – both great for culling shoes), back here. Our daughter has begun school, our son is fixated with the 188 bus, and I am still gazing at pendants in the market – we love it. And, I have begun writing this blog…
It won’t always be about Greenwich, but I bet lots of it will, and it won’t always be about being a mother in Greenwich, but there is no escaping that I am. It’s great to be back.
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