At a certain age, a woman nests.

Amusingly, I thought that a woman nests when she’s expecting or when she’s expecting something else from life from now on.

Actually, I think I was purging more like.

My child rearing years are long gone behind me. Well, to be fair, they never arrived but nevertheless, today I was back into my massive decluttering and spring cleaning fever.

I’ve been using my days to get through a long To Do list that involves doing a massive spring clean of the house. Today I tackled some items in it.

In some way, it’s getting rid of the old stuff, things that have no longer any use for me.

Today, I vacuumed the entire house (again – for the second time), including all the walls, corners, cornices and ceiling just in case I hadn’t removed the dirt and dust the first time round.

The cat had no idea what I was doing.

I opened all the doors and windows and let the sunshine and breeze in. I turned on the CD player and listened to Hawaiian musician Gabby Pahinui. These are a few of my favourite songs of his, Hi’ilawe,Wai O Ke Aniani and He’eia.

I then mopped the entire house – the wood parquetry and kitchen, bathroom and toilet floors. I contemplated getting on my hands and knees to scrub the grout but I’ll leave it another time.

I also washed down with soapy water and then dried every single internal door and its frame in the house.

I have no idea what overcame me – I just felt the need to clean and I cleaned pretty slowly, enjoying the process.

The house, the music, the breeze, the light, the clean smell – I felt this is where I was meant to be today – here and now.

I was happy and content. Hawaii is my happy place. I felt like I was there.

Aloha.