I am moving to a new office building.  I have been living in “the hole” (lab/shared office/cellar command centre) since 1996.  15 years of no windows (unless you count the Bill Gates kind), a door you have to close to read the white boards, lab equipment, Einstein posters, reference books, binders, tasting glasses, CDs, coffee paraphernalia and people.  Always people.

I packed up my office on Thursday morning last week.  As I dug into the desk which is not allowed to move with me, (something about matching decor–don’t ask–it is a sad subject) I uncovered so much of my life.  As is always the case, I threw out a lot.    A purge.  Old tax forms, thesis research material from my stressful days writing about tannin maturation, plastic trinkets, 30+ pictures of a sunset in Hawaii that all looked like the same picture, old business cards, pieces of crayons and chalk, Spice Girls trading cards (whaaa?), bolts, cards from people I don’t remember…

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From the farthest recesses of my drawers I dug out some treasures too. Pictures of my life starting a winery in a new country with a new family.  Building new vineyards.  Designing and constructing a winery.  Our first public wine tasting.  Old buildings where we made our first vintage.  Old friends who have moved on and old friends who are still my dearest friends.

When the desk was cleaned out, right down to the pencil lead and bits of fluff caught in the corners, I looked at what I had amassed.  Two boxes and one bag, all fitting easily on a rolling pushcart with room to spare.  15 years on a rolly cart.  I felt a bit demoralized as I pushed it out of the lab… across the cellar floor I had watched being poured years ago…out the big wooden doors that were built by two guys in the winter of 1996 in a hoarded up corner of the cellar… to the crush pad with my name carved in the concrete… past the amphitheater which had always been my dream to have if I ever owned a winery… and into the new building.  Into my new office.

A housewarming gift from the cellar workers sat on the new, empty desk…an ice bucket complete with all the fixings for making martinis and a beautiful card signed with heartfelt wishes for my move into the new digs.

I tucked the card into the back recesses of my new desk.  Time to start making new memories.