Gotta Love some Otis Redding

I don't know about you, but I don't feel sad listening to some Otis. He seems to sing a lot about longing and yearning...but I associate his music with the best times in my life. I'm listening to Otis right now.

I took the bus then the train to Liverpool yesterday, Liverpool means "Pool of Life". I love taking the train and I love Liverpool. There is something so familiar and warm about the city to me. I feel at home there. It would stand to reason that the opposite should be true as the vast majority of my trips to Liverpool have been trips to do with visa applications or application for permission to marry and so on...

{fyi: my gorgeous little Poppy hedgehog is curled up in my cardigan, i might burst from the cuteness}

But yesterday was my last trip to Liverpool for official purposes until August 2011. I have my Spouse Visa biometric work permit sitting here on my desk. A lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into the journey to this point. This card is very precious.

Mr Woo and I have gone to dinner to celebrate the approval of the visa. Mr Woo's brother Larry gave me a train ticket to Manchester to go out and celebrate my visa. Yesterday I was on my own. I sat in a restaurant going through the large stack of personal papers that had been returned to me. Included were the cards Mr Woo and I had exchanged on our wedding day, the engagement congratulations, wedding photos and other letters. I felt like ME. I haven't felt like me in a very long time. I felt a glimmer of me sitting there in a large city drinking lemonade.

I sort of forgot what it feels like to be me, but I felt a surge of whatever it is that has been smooshed down for so long. Maybe it was a glimpse of the elusive FREEDOM. Financial freedom. Freedom of movement. Freedom of choice. I have missed being free. I've been caged by circumstances for several years now. I know I am about to enter a chapter of tremendous freedom. How very exciting!