To stay or not to stay - that is the question

Three months to think about it. Three months to find a new home. Three months to organise the sale of our house. Six months of downsizing. Throwing out files. Clearing the cellar. Non stop journeys with copious bin bags to the charity shops, Ditto to the dump. Throwing away old correspondence. Old love letters - who was he?! Lamentations and protests from nearest and dearest and similar from friends. "How can you think of leaving?"

And then, twenty four hours of discussion and deliberations and we have decided to stay. Can't quite believe it ourselves but it feels good. A hundred percent the right decision.  Why the change of heart? Blame George Osborne. Stamp duty was rising and our purchasers baulked at the huge extra amount they were going to have to pay for our house.

The sale was clearly going to take even longer before exchange of contracts and maybe it would not happen at all. And we want to get on with our lives. So, do we really want to continue with this frustrating process, we asked ourselves. We love this house and are happy living in it. After all, we have only been in it for fifty years. So we called it all off.

Blow the steps. Blow the stairs. Maybe they will never become a problem. Blow the wasted space. Blow the unused rooms. Let's keep our lovely neighbours. Let's continue to enjoy our lovely home. Let's  rejoice at the number of people whose reaction to our change of plan, has been delight, happiness and approbation. You are so right!

Here's to the next fifty years - and can anyone suggest a good destination for a lazy sun soaked holiday, to get away from it all?