I hate moving because it's just a hassle. But it is a neccessary one, most of the time. For me, excluding the moves when I was too young to recall, I have moved three times. Firstly between houses in Auckland, NZ. It was a move between suburbs which meant that I had to depart from many of my friends when I started high school the following year, which was a very awkward time of my life. I was very introverted and found it difficult making friends, but luckily after about a month of being a complete loner, I was 'adopted' by a group of pals when the school camp arrived in March and from that point on we all got along really easily. Beyond that, though, there was little I had to do, being so young.

The second move was my own decision and it was out of my family home (Dad's side) to flat with Mum in Scotland. I lived with her for a year or two as if we were flatmates (ie, split all costs down the middle, pay for what you use, etc) before she returned to NZ and at that point I took on the full rent of the flat. Danielle moved in eventually.

A year later came the third move. Th landlord told me that they were going to sell the flat so I naturally had to move out so they could do it up. It was rather impacting on my life (in a "oh God, my home is being taken away from me, bawwwwwwww" kind of way) at the time as I'd never had to go looking for a new place to live. I decided to buy a flat but they needed too large a deposit, so I found a scheme called HomeStake where you pay for something like 70% of the flat (using a 90+% mortgage) and then the rest is paid for you. You get the full ownership until the time of next sale, at which point you give the same percentage of the sale price back to the investor who paid for the remaining 30% or so when you took on the flat. If that makes sense! Either way, it was the first flat I technically owned on any level, so it's definitely "mine" in that way.

I really, really do look forward to moving again because I want a bigger place. Something with a kitchen big enough for a dishwasher and all the crap we have that doesn't fit in our cupboards, not to mention more space for Danielle's clothes and potentially a small gym. A place I can really feel is a home, you know? Although perhaps that won't happen until I move back to New Zealand. Every home over here is home, but not the home I want. It's not got my heart in it, it's too cramped for a heart this big. ;D