But that's where I kept my doubloons!

My parents moved house when I was at university.

They told me first, which was a plus. It would have been more difficult if I had arrived home, laden with gripes and furniture, only to find a stranger standing there. Like in Flight of the Navigator.

But I felt a bit divorced from the whole procedure. In a way, it was a good thing. I didn't have too many emotional goodbyes, or too much heavy lifting. The only problem was that my dad took the opportunity to throw everything away.

Not important, useful things, of course. Just the random bric-a-brac that lived in the attic. The kind of things that should probably have been thrown away years before, but I saved because of sentimentality: old boxes for long-dead electrical appliances, blank cassettes, hundreds of stuffed animals, old magazines (that Gamesmaster #21 might be worth something one day!).

It only seems a problem now, because I can imagine all kinds of gems that were lost. I picture leafing through old journals, re-connecting with my past self like Richard Herring, marvelling at abstract art I did at primary school and complete novellas. I should have been there to sort through it all.

Except I know there was nothing of the sort. I didn't really make things like that. My diaries usually lasted two days at most. I was rubbish at art. Also, I looked through all that loft debris quite regularly, so I know nothing was there.

I think I secretly hoped that there might be a letter I'd written as a child, addressed to the adult me, containing personal secrets or long-forgotten information. Or the location of hidden treasure. And now there's no chance of me finding it.

But it's probably best this way. It's unlikely that there was anything like that - and if everything had been kept I'd know it for sure. This way, in the back of my mind, I can imagine that somewhere, in the attic of 459 Coxford Road, there's a gold bar, wrapped in part of the Turin Shroud, with my name on it. And a video of Samurai Pizza Cats.

***

This seems a little bit short/boring to constitute a whole entry. But do I have rules about this kind of thing? One of the posts below is just a video, for God's sake!

I suppose I'll let it slide, but next time I'll have to do something more interesting, like a picture of me dressed as David Bowie, or a hilarious dialogue between two wallets.