Apartment Living...

A few weeks ago we spent a week in Melbourne.  The Husband's work has a lovely apartment in Chapel Street, one of the main shopping drags in Melbourne.  It's busy, vibey and chocka full of cafes, great shopping and beautiful people.  Our apartment complex had fabulous facilities including an out door garden'y area and an indoor pool.  It was a block from the Yarra River and had views of the Melbourne skyline.
So what's with my real estate'y pitch and description?  Well, I was intrigued and fascinated with apartment living.  I couldn't help watching other residents getting about their lives.  Because that is their life - they're not just there for a week like we were,  before heading back to burb'sville, school, the local shops, and the quiet streets where I live.  This was their life.
I stalked watched one particular young couple whose windows were directly across from ours.  No kids.  Professionals.  I imagined how their life was - running along the Yarra with the early morning rowers before putting on a corporate suit, killer heels and striding off to their marketing/advertising/accounting/lawyer'y type of job, then meeting up home later to swim some laps before heading out for a casual dinner and glass of chilled pinot gris.

I know how it works because I used to live this life.  Problem was, I didn't really know I was at the time, nor appreciate it for all it's youthful-life-is-full-of-opportunity'ness.  I fretted about stuff that was inconsequential, I didn't really, truly love and appreciate the life I led.
And now that part is over.
Don't get me wrong because my life is fantabulous now...it's just will I look back on THIS life I am living NOW in 10 years time and think why didn't I appreciate it more?  Why didn't I take myself out of the picture and look at my life as an audience member and think "god, she's got it great - I'd love to be her again".
Am I making sense?
I think what happened to me in Melbourne was I saw myself and The Husband 12 years ago, when we actually lived in Melbourne in a fantastic apartment with a ridiculously large expense account, working out in the mornings before walking to work in a corporate suit and killer heels, grabbing an exhorbitantly expensive fruit salad for breakfast along the way.
The couple I watched used to be me.
Not the me now, who stood watching them while my boys fought behind me, and one broke something off the washing machine, and as I filled drink bottles and put snacks into little plastic bags in readiness for a trip to the zoo.  It's like my old life and my new life were mirrored.  Interesting.
But instead of feeling all wistful, I'm going to imagine my life in 10 years when my boys no longer want to be with their mum, when I need to shop at more age appropriate clothing shops, when I need to cut my hair shorter because nothing ages woman more than long grey hair, when I can't run as far...and then I need to think to myself, what will I see when I look back at my life now?  What will I be wistful for then, that I am actually experiencing now?
What should I be grateful for right now, at this very moment?
What will you see?