The Migrant Journey - We are officially NFA!

“We are now officially NFA” said dear husband as we were taking the last exit out of Chesterfield.  “What’s NFA?” asked me never having heard that abbreviation before. 

Apparently he was echoing my exact thoughts albeit in abbreviated form! As we left our last home behind I was mulling over the fact that we actually had ‘no fixed abode’ for the foreseeable future. Though we can’t claim the romantic notion of being ‘penniless and fancy free’ we were at long last free – free of a home, free of belonging, free of bills and so on and so forth. Guess this sense of being free of all such things is a quirky notion in itself as most people are in search of these very things!

Anyway it so came to pass that this was our destiny. As with all things inevitable it pays to take life by the horns and live it to the full. First stop Doncaster the very big ‘town’ in Yorkshire that still hasn’t been accorded city status. As opposed to many places in the world, in the UK, city status has to be conferred upon a place rather than be earned by virtue of population or size or facilities.  Note another of the quirks of Her Majesty’s land!

The little big village of Cottingham in the East Riding of Yorkshire is a place that I hold dear in my heart. It was my desire that we revisit her before we leave the shores of this nation. So our second NFA stop was Hull and the East Riding. In Hull we were treated by friends to a very South Indian meal at ‘Swadh’ in Trinity Hotel. ‘Swadh’ being the name of the restaurant.

Following lunch we visited Castle Hill hospital and the village of Cottingham. Hardly anything in the village appeared to have changed, whereas the Hospital has grown by leaps and bounds to being a well accomplished Lady in her own right; a far cry from playing the younger sister to Hull Royal Infirmary at one time.
As does all revisiting—it brought back memories from years gone by—the fun times we had with our lovely bunch of neighbours - the barbeques, the fireworks, the doorpost chats; memories of mum playing badminton with the neighbours kids (most painful as she is now a shadow of her former self since afflicted by Alzheimer’s), the birth of my son, the friendships formed and retained—and so on and so forth.

The drive out of Cottingham was as usual plagued with traffic queuing up so it gave us time to say a long goodbye for we fully know that we may never return.

So from Cottingham our chariot ride took us back to Doncaster in the evening. The next day was a planned night drive to Rotherham which is very much a close neighbour of Donny. Took about half an hour to get there. The chill of the October night was unforgiving within the walls of the church we went to. But nevertheless the presence and love of God that I experienced whilst there kind of made up for it.

Back to Donny from Rotherham after midnight, more work for the website I’m creating in the morning, followed by a long drive down to London in the afternoon. Life sure is eventful for an NFA!