I'm only happy when it rains

Posted by Ellie Omahoney at 21:39 on 7 Feb 2010

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An ex-boyfriend of mine once told me I'd never be happy. He was that kind of boyfriend. But, grudgingly, I concede that he had a point.

My move down to Cornwall last year to write the book turned me into a moaner. In this blog I have complained about: the perils of living away from my beau; the embarrassment of moving back in with my parents at 30; and, finally, my inability to find anything resembling a normal (ie not including Tesco trips) social life down the Westcountry way.

The truth is, I chose to focus on the down-sides of six months of country life and forgot to celebrate the fab bits: spending more time with my parents than I have in a decade (and appreciating how lucky I am that I have parents who make that a pleasure rather than a pain); taking so many lie-ins that 10am began to feel like an early start; enjoying the head-space needed to finally put pen to paper and get my novel to take shape; and revelling in the ability to go to the beach every day if I wanted.

Well, as with everything, I wish I'd known what I had while I had it. That is I wish I'd waited until I really needed to moan to start moaning. Yup, till I was back in London town. I haven't been in Cornwall since the beginning of January and I'm missing it.

I'm missing the absence of the little piles of vomit that appear, predictable as Christmas, all over the streets of Brixton on a Friday night and stay there all week, drying into an orange, pavement-dwelling firework. I'm missing being recognized on the street by friendly Cornish policemen/priests/newsagents and instead resenting the fact that I have to dodge the ‘locals' of Brixton Town as I exit the tube station, lest they take me for a customer of ‘the skunk and weed' that they advertise, very vocally, to all who pass. I'm missing my parents, too, and wonder what family gossip I've been missing out on in the last month.

With work keeping me up here for a while, I may well have to get used to being away from the seaside for a while. I just wish I'd swum in the sea more while I could.

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