Taking down the memories...

The first room in the house got de-personalised yesterday and it was rather sad. 

It was our downstairs loo - for those of you who have been to our house, you would be familiar with the walls plastered with posters, articles, pictures, tickets - the memorabilia of our lives.

The very first thing to go on the wall was an invitation to a wedding back in 2007 (J and C Woods, who now have a pair of beautiful twin girls). The last thing was an image from the Times' coverage1 of Chinese New Year 2012 (a fire breather in Manila) juxtaposed with a tag line from FBB's new pull-up bar ("Greatness is within"). 

Here is a selection of my personal favourites before FBB took them down2.

Clockwise from bottom left: Goodbye card from my last workplace, cover from Sonisphere 2010 guide, thank you card from newlyweds, brochure from Littleport's Adults-only Campsite, a police search warrant, thank you card, Andy Goldsworthy's installation in a public park.

The cat used to sit on top of the noticeboard outside the corner shop. It belonged to the former owner's now ex-wife. It didn't even twitch a whisker when I took this pic. Next to it is a burlesque performer whose name escapes me, and next to her is the Butterfly Nebula captured by the Hubble telescope.

I love beautifully designed maps - Alton Towers 2008. 

The puppies were from an article in the local paper. The ticket was for Henry Rollins' spoken word performance at the Junction, where I met him and he signed a book for me! He was tiny! Bottom row from L-R: Doro Pesch, *that* wedding invite and Richard Attenborough with the world's smallest chameleon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

President-Elect Barack Obama greets his supporters. 

 

The surreal image is by a Japanese photographer; the Chinese ladies are from a postcard from Singapore; the thing in the little baggie is FBB's tooth; the image next to the boat is from the Canadian riot in 2011 and the people ice-skating is publicity for Cambridge-on-Ice but they caught FBB's head in the background! We thought it was funny.

I just had to include this one. Really love the Storm Troopers shopping in John Lewis. The pic entitled Wowzer! was taken by me and won a prize at the village craft show

After all the stuff came down, the loo looked really empty. And I'd completely forgotten about the graffiti which I had done a few weeks after we moved in.

No prizes for knowing where this quote comes from. The arm that you can see is a life-size outline of FBB as drawn by a guest at our house-warming party in 2001.

I have a puerile sense of humour. 

And I shall miss our walls - they reminded us of some of the best times we had had over the last 10 years - FBB flying a plane, seeing Star Trek at the IMAX (and meeting Jean-Luc Picard's doppelganger), our fruitful Singapore holiday3 - along with some momentous world events - Hilary Clinton running for President, Barack Obama becoming President, the 20 year anniversary of Tian An Men - and all the strange, beautiful, interesting things we encountered, like the knitted brain, the fish with the transparent head and Mariella Frostrup's thought-provoking feature about ageism in the media.

The way is now clear for a new coat of paint, then it will really no longer be ours.

Browsing online tonight, I saw some truly ugly houses out there. Viewers to our very personal space will probably think we are completely taste-free, and possibly bonkers (they wouldn't be far wrong). But we love it. I guess I should say "loved it", since it's really not ours anymore. 

Tomorrow, I shall be "documenting" each room as it is now before Project De-Clutter truly gets underway.

1 Don't worry - we didn't buy it. It was abandoned in Cafe Nerro. FBB just snicked the picture out with his Swiss Army knife.

2 And lovingly stored them away into a box. Bless.

3 The fruit was our little Plate. We had tried for 2 years, then given up for another 2, and really did not think we were going to have a baby. It was some holiday! Miraculous even!