True to Terry’s word, the loading of the vans was finished by 4pm and the men left. They would drive to Hove and stay overnight somewhere and would meet her at the house once the keys had been collected. Jilly made sure she gave Terry a very generous tip to share with the men.

 She got to work cleaning the barn and the annex. Charlotte had suggested that she hired a company to do this for her, but Jilly didn’t trust a cleaning company to clean to her high standards.

  She felt exhausted 2 ½ hours later when she locked the doors and as agreed posted the spare keys through the letterbox. She was very used to the drive to Brighton and Hove by now and by leaving at 6.30 she hoped to avoid the rush hour. She did feel a wave of nostalgia envelop her as she drove out of the village. This place had not served her well, but she had lived there over 16 years and felt that over time she would be able to trawl up a few good memories. She drove past Celeste’s house. Celeste had emigrated to New Zealand but still owned a little cottage in the village. She had spent some wild nights with her charismatic friend who was much younger than her. Celeste had kept her sane at times, however she had been surprised by Jilly’s plan to move to Brighton and Hove.

‘How will you cope with the chaos of city life Jilly? We all know that you have a touch of OCD and like everything to be symmetrical. You cannot cope with mess.’

 Jilly had been aware that her ‘neat freak’ tendencies as Alan called them, had contributed to the breakdown of their marriage. Jilly brushed these thoughts away as she drove out and away from the village and on to her new life. She did know that her decision to move to Hove had been influenced by how dirty she found Brighton. Hove had some particularly beautiful symmetrical Regency squares. It is a shame that her budget did not stretch to purchase the property she really wanted to live in. Her little white Victorian house in Poets’ Corner would be fine once she had renovated it to her exacting standards.

  As usual with Jilly, things rarely went to plan. Phone coverage in her village was terrible, so she had missed the calls from the removal company who were warning her that the vans had encountered heavy tailbacks on the A12 due to a lorry falling off a bridge. She was now stuck in the tailback. Jilly wondered yet again if her bad fairy was meddling. However, she was safe and would just have to wait in the traffic queue. The police closed the road and diverted the traffic through some very narrow lanes. When she arrived in Brighton the journey that she usually managed to cover in 2 ½ hours had stretched to 5. She parked her car in the safe underground car park in Regency Square and booked into her hotel. She was told by the hotel receptionist who had an excess of piercings, blue dreadlocks, and multiple tattoos that unfortunately the restaurant had closed. She was informed that if she turned right outside the hotel and kept walking she would get to Preston Street where an abundance of restaurants were to be found. The receptionist who despite her strange appearance which Jilly was not used to encountering in Norfolk, seemed totally delightful and friendly and recommended a Japanese Tapas bar. Jilly liked Japanese food, she had always found the Japanese to have high standards of hygiene. Her trip to Japan with Alan, one of their last holidays together had been wonderful. She was so impressed by the fact that in Japan school children clean their own classrooms and learn the importance of cleanliness from a very early age. The Japanese are very fond of bathing even though Jilly never felt the need to experience an Onsen. Alan had told her that he thought that she was fundamentally prudish. Jilly wished that Alan’s thoughts and opinions of her would stop popping into her head. She was entering a new phase of her life and Alan would play no part in it.

 Jilly was delighted to find that the Comfy Sea View room that she had booked was exactly what she needed. She looked out at the sea and smiled to herself. Her village in Norfolk was not close to the coast and she had always wanted to live near the sea. Jilly headed off to Preston Street and was lucky that the restaurant had space for one person. She started to relax as she read the menu and realised she was very hungry. First she would need a large glass of Chablis.

 She looked around the restaurant and came to the conclusion that she was probably the oldest person in there. She wasn’t the only person dining alone either. She found this comforting, as she would never have dined alone in a restaurant in Norfolk. She would have been frightened that she would bump into some couple that she knew, who would be bound to either feel smug, or sorry for her. Jilly knew that men who chose to go to pubs, or restaurants on their own never seemed to experience these feelings. She also knew that a lot of men spend less time thinking than women do. She was pleased to see that there were several women dining alone in this restaurant. They seemed comfortable and none of them looked as if the reason they dined alone, was because no one wanted to be in their company. Jilly knew that she needed to embrace her new single life. She was determined to make the most of her freedom. She wanted to erase ideas that she still harboured, that to live alone was in some way a sign of failure. She knew the statistics. Single households were on the rise yet Jilly still felt that very little was being done to cater for single people. A trip to the supermarket confirms that. Jilly could not remember reading a novel where the protagonist was happy to remain single and celibate.

 There was a large table of 8 people close by. They reminded her of her children they were probably in their late 20’s and were confident and noisy. She had always liked tuning in to other people’s conversations. The waiter took her order and the service was prompt. As she sipped her delicious Chablis, a wave of relief came over her. She had done it! She had escaped from Norfolk and a village where most people went to die. She was in Brighton and Hove where people came to live. Something the young people were talking about made her listen more intently.

‘Yes I’ve done it once or twice.’

‘Isn’t it a bit pervy?’

‘Well not really, you sit in a circle with your backs facing the inner circle.’

‘What’s the point?’

‘Well the idea is that clothes restrict you, so being naked enables you to move completely unrestricted.’

‘Well I see enough of people’s bits during the day job, it certainly wouldn’t be my idea of relaxing.’

‘Yes naked yoga would never be something I would rush to take part in either.’

Jilly stifled a giggle. I am no longer in Norfolk she said to herself.

The young people ordered more drinks including shots. Jilly wondered what their day jobs were that involved looking at people’s ‘bits’ and shortly the answer came.

‘Well this is one for the road, I am in A&E tomorrow morning at 8am.’

‘Poor you Mike, but let’s hope it is quieter than the weekend.’

‘Yeah, whilst its great to work in Brighton I do somewhat wish that the residents did not party so much.’

‘Or the visitors. All those Hen parties do my head in.’

 Jilly enjoyed her Tapas. She particularly liked the Yakitori. She pondered whether she should avoid attending the Royal Sussex County Hospital if it is staffed by heavy drinking medics. She was however, pleased to see that the women in the group were holding their own. She ordered some Saki and paid her bill. As she sipped the Saki, tiredness enveloped her. Her bed in the Artist Residence Hotel with its quirky décor was calling to her. Tomorrow would be another full-on day with Terry and the crew. She would have to be at the estate agents in Hove by noon to collect the keys. She had located a safe car park in Norton Street which was a little expensive, but close to the estate agent. She had packed some of her more precious items in her boot, so could not risk the car being broken into.

 Once at her new house she would have to begin the process of applying for a parking permit. City life came with its stresses, but Jilly was ready to embrace all that Brighton and Hove had to offer. She walked back to the hotel passing lots of bars and restaurants which were full, even late on a cold Monday evening in February. Before going to bed she took one last look at the sea which was very calm. She pondered what life would be like in this city. She wondered who she might meet and what new things she would embrace. She knew that naked yoga would not be amongst them. She checked her phone and was delighted to see a message from her daughter Pippa. There was no message from Marcus. Her children were living their own lives, one in Bristol and the other in Nottingham. Most people she knew in Norfolk thought it strange that she should choose to move even further away from her children. This type of thinking was very normal for Norfolk.

 Jilly had been quite logical in her decision-making process. She had plotted on a map of the U.K. where her friends lived and had concluded that most of her friends and family lived in the south east. Her children were leading their own lives. It was time for her to start living the life she wanted and deserved.