o what care I for a goose-feather bed?

[devi]

I am closer than I've ever been to the room I have in my head. I got the first lot of my stuff back last night, from secretrebel's attic, and spent several glorious hours book-geeking – sorting them into categories and shelving them. Then I lit the lanterns I posted back from China and lay on the bed staring at the swirly patterns they make on the walls and thinking OMG my room is TEH COOLEST.

But today I woke up already feeling gloomy even before I was properly conscious. Yet another dark cloudy day, maybe. Or maybe it's the Red Wall oppressing me in some unconscious hardwired way. (Though I doubt it. I love the red wall.) I'm flat and uninspired and dwelling on things I shouldn't be. Even the books look weird to me. So many of them! So many words all over the walls! I'm not used to having so much stuff any more. I thought opening the boxes would be like coming home, but there was a funny undercurrent of unfamiliarity too. Like I'd broken the bond with the stuff by leaving it in an attic for seven months. Why do I have all this? I wondered.

I think I joined Oxford Freecycle at exactly the right time.

There was a girl at the bus stop the other night with her hand full of 2p pieces. She begged me to swap them for a 50p. I looked at her suspiciously even as I put my hand in my pocket, waiting for the catch. "I'm not a gyppo or nothing," she said. That word pisses me off (ever since the doctor who first shot me up with Depo-Provera said smirkingly, "We call it contraception for gyppos, you know") and I wanted to put the wind up her, so I said "What if I told you I was one?" I think she believed me. She said "Awww, bless!"

Then again, maybe being Irish and having had no fixed abode for half of last year would qualify me as one in her eyes. Who knows?

But it's great, even through the gloom I know it's great, to have a place to live again. And I know the books will come round. They're like wary pets who aren't quite sure what to make of you when you've been away a long time, but soon they'll remember me and love me again.

Comments

[iresprite.livejournal.com]

Huh. Gyppo. That's not a term I've heard before- but I guess gypsies are far more common over there than they are here. Even so: huh!

Though I loved your response. And then her response to you. I'd put it in a movie if I could.

There are just some scenes that, to me, ring true. That's one of 'em.

Bless. ;)

[mr-wombat.livejournal.com]

Theres a few terms for them - gyppo, knacker, tinker, member of the travelling community. Thieving bastard is probably more common than any of them however.

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Somehow it bothers me much less when Irish people do it. Wonder why.

Maybe because, over here, sometimes you get a creeping feeling that when some people say it they mean 'anyone who sounds Irish and looks a bit scruffy'. Or perhaps I'm paranoid.