A series of unfortunate events but a cracking holiday regardless. August 19, 2012

So…. Annie (of last years Whitby ‘fame’) and the boy and I set off on our summer holiday. Annie’s big Landrovery Discovery thing was pretty well packed, Henry dog was in half the boot and Lucky was on my knee with his head out of the window… the sun was shining…. the sky was blue….

…..and the car broke down just outside Peterborough.

We had a visit from an AA man… who suggested another man with a big tow truck would be a good idea… we saw some horses in a field and Rafe had his first poo in the open air (since he used to run naked and pre-toilet training incontinent in the garden).

The tow truck, driven by a very nice man drove us back to the start of Annies journey…so the boy and I were going away from holiday at that point.

The garage Annie uses lent us a courtesy car….a smaller car… so we moved our gubbins from one car to the next… jettisoned some things we hoped wouldn’t be neccessary for a week in Suffolk… pondered briefly where we’d put Annies daughters (joining us down there) on the way back…

…and set of again for Suffolk.

We arrived at dusk and the house was lovely… its in a village I used to live in, but a part of the country Annie didn’t know at all.  It was lovely for me going back… lovely with a dollop of poignancy.

I took the dogs for a walk up the track by the cottage and immediately met someone I used to know… unsure she’d remember me after a decade I cautiously said hello – to be greeted with a hug and a five minute fast pace highlights of the doings of the parish council – of which I used to be a fairly bolshie member it would seem.

Back to the cottage and a sleep in the true darkness of a rural night with only the distant hum of the overnight harvesting.

Oh yes…. and as I unpacked I realised I’d forgotten my purse with all my bank cards in! (second disaster?)

Sunday dawned bright and sunny and we went to the beach in Thorpeness… my local geography came back fine and the boy and dogs (yes even the aquaphobic Lucky) frolicked in the waves.

The boy ate iced-cream, we saw the house-in-the-clouds and the mere and then on returning to the car discovered we had a flat tyre… not a bit flat…. but totally flat, with a ruddy big twig through the side-wall.

Ah..so this must be the third disaster… I reckoned we could change a tyre between us and set to. It was at the point where I was winding up the jack fairly ineffectively and had just broken a nail down to the quick that Annie managed to achieve eye-contact with a male of the species and reeled him in with her damsels in distress routine.

Gallant man he was too…. dressed in his towel from the beach he did indeed change the tyre, whilst we chatted to his wife and small boy.

I wish I’d got their name and email as that small boy promised if he ever found pirate treasure he’d give me all the diamonds. 🙂

The next day Annie’s girls arrived and the week became a lovely holiday of continual sunshine, beaches, a castle, visiting old friends and neighbours, celebrating Annies birthday and generally kicking back into the slower pace of life Suffolk brings.

Oh… except for Wednesday.

Wednesday Annie drove me to A&E with another gall bladder flare up… where I spent two and a half hours waiting to be seen. The doctor, as my GP said, did offer to refer me to a surgeon but I’d end up with an out patient appointment in Suffolk ; sooooo… she gave me some drugs, anti-inflammatories, anti-spasmodics and anti-biotics… or rather she gave me a perscription and a half hour wait in the hospital pharmacy (when we eventually found it).

And then… like all good things the holiday came to an end. I hadn’t managed a walk on the common, there just wasn’t time.. there just wasn’t time in a week to see all my favourite things… and becuase of my restrictive diet no reason to visit my favourite foodie places down there like the Orford smoke house, Swiss Farm sausage shop…. and only the boy got to eat chips in Aldeburgh as they are cooked in beef fat which kinda put the vegetarians amongst us off.

An early rise on Saturday morning… I hailed the morning with the dogs on a last walk and spent a few minutes wondering howcome I ever left and then into the car, mostly packed the night before, and the last bits of luggage packed around us in any available scrap of space and we headed home.

Off to a stumbling start. January 17, 2012

So after my last post the intention was to find some time where Jane and I could sit down and have a ‘proper talk’. Possibly even a ‘Proper Talk’ if not a PROPER TALK.

But first we needed to get the boy back to school…always good for gaining space for uninterrupted conversation as evenings are still very much the domain of the insomniac seven year old.

And let’s get his birthday party out of the way and the enslaught of friends and relatives that come with such an event. (it was a roller skating party and although i hadn’t been on roller skates for about twenty years, i did okay and even better quit while i was ahead before i fell over and did something nasty to my back).

And then I needed to get my daughter back to Uni… which was followed by a couple of days over with the cigar smoking bear.

And then home…. and space…and back to a solo double bed…and maybe…yes maybe the time and space to talk.

But then on Saturday morning we woke up to no electric…and oh! a waterfall down the garage wall, easily sourced to the boiler hanging on said wall.

We managed to get a plumber out…and had the forethought (eventually) to turn off the water in the street (thanks to Mike next door… though what the neighbours thought seeing him coming out of my house with us both in pj’s on a cold saturday morning – i have no idea)… and we also ran as many taps as we could to try and distribute the water fall.

We were both kinda stressed…. even though we managed to get a plumber out… and even better a plumber who was booked to come and see us on Tuesday anyway to sort out a couple of radiators. Rafe pointed out that listening to waterfalls and birds is good for stress…. so listening to the water pouring into the garage and  our chickens clucking in the garden MUST be relaxing. 🙂

Plumber left…. we had electric and gas….but no heating…. in the first real cold snap of the year.

So the boy and I decamped to Annies over in Leicestershire…. the boy skived off school a couple of days and Jane stayed to man the fort with a borrowed heater and hopefully several layers of jumpers.

So here we are at Annies…its bitter out there… but the woodburner is ticking over nicely… Henry dog is contentedly harumphing in front of it and i have a sofa of blue to sit and type on. We’ve been well fed (Annie makes not just edible vegetarian food…but desirable veggie food {three helpings of veg and macaroni bake down tonight})… and looked after…and have had the run of her new guest room and en suite (one of the best toilet views i know; out over the Vale of Belvoir).

But I want to go home.

After all the kerfuffle of Christmas and visits and upsets… I just need the peace of being at home. Part of me wants that peace so much i no longer want ‘the conversation’ let alone a ‘Proper Talk’…. after all… anniversary over things will probably settle down to pottering along again.

But we do need to have the talk.

Especially when I read janes blogs…. she’s exploring herself, her politics, her sexuality…. and it just feels like every exploration she makes takes her further away from any sort of solution we could have as a couple.

So home tomorrow… cold or no.

And then…. we shall see.