Home is security.
Knowing I will have somewhere to go to where I can shut and lock the front door, and nobody can get in unless I let them in.
I don’t have to see another soul if I don’t want to.
And my little kitten sat there waiting for me.
It’s decorated and furnished how I want it to be done – not how somebody else has said it has to be. I have all my books on the bookshelf. I’ve got a bed that I have chosen for myself.
Because the flat was totally unfurnished, it actually took me a while to move in. I was still in the rehab for another a month before I moved in.
I was one of the last from my group in the rehab to move out. So there was no point in going back. In the past it’s been different, but now with mobile phones the way they are, and with video calling on WhatsApp and all the rest of it, it makes it so much easier to stay in touch with people.
As it’s worked out, I live in a little town called Eccles. And there’s this big long road with roads coming off it. And you can start at one end of the long road and then walk down to the other end. It’s about a 15 minute walk, but there’s five of us living on the streets coming off this one road.
My first night in that flat, it was just heaven. Just amazing.
Obviously, in rehab you weren’t allowed to smoke in your bedroom, for example. So I was sat in bed smoking. It’s the only time I’ve done it, I do not approve of smoking in bed! But yeah, I just sat on my bed and had a cigarette.
And I closed the curtains and ran around starkers.
I stayed in the bath for an hour.
I’ve been here nearly 30 months now. It’s fantastic.