Things Happen For A Reason

Do you believe that?  I didn't think I did until this year and this year has been one of those seminal moments in my life where I knew I had to do something, where I was the happiest and saddest I've ever been in my life and where I finally burst free from all the baggage and cr@p I had accumulated over my life.  Where suddenly life meant more than possessions and where I came into contact with one person who catalysed my life and many others who suddenly made sense.

I like the idea that things happen for a reason, that you meet people when you need to and that a sequence of events seem unconnected and then materialise as important and integrated.

The point would be that being told of the book 'A New Earth' at the moment when I most needed to make some sort of sense out the mess I was in and the turmoil in my head.  It was a year where I saw the other side of my life - I feel a bit like Ebenezer Scrooge being shown Past, Present and Future and having the Epiphany and that magic of realisation what on earth had been missing in my life.  Not just what was missing but finding out why I was so screwed up so often why I'd have massive highs and deep deep lows and why I never seemed to move on.

I'm not going to say it is my marriage or cancer or me because in reality it is a mixture of all three.  Mainly me though, it's all in your head (Mr. Tweedy" for you Chicken Run fans out there).  So much of the "suffering" was self inflicted and mostly negative.  I noticed it in a friend who was down on his luck and just exuded the outward signs of being in a bad place, down on his uppers and not looking on life in the right way.  Same as me, the perennial victim of the piece.  So many negative thoughts, so many burdens taken on board and carried.  I know I still am prone to do this but armed with what I know now it is short lived.

I was feeling particularly sad about the year when I wrote yesterday's blogs.  Reflecting on what "might have been" but, of course, it's history and if it was meant to be it would have happened and that's the end of it.  I suppose you look at models and you hold them up to judge others by and there's me saying I'll never meet anyone like 'X' and that's not the case, it's just the mind playing tricks.  So going back to dealing with it, I went to bed thinking a bit like that and then just went over the facts of the matter and woke up refreshed and with a clear mind - baggage gone.  So I am controlling it but of course occasionally my head gets the better of me.  I'm working on it though.

New Year's Eve is going to be so strange but I think I do need to get myself off to the pub for the night and see what happens.  As a local, I got an invite.  It isn't meant to be too crowded and is meant to be a good laugh - let's hope so - it would be nice to meet a few people and to get used to being on my own (but not on my own).  Staying in with Mrs. F. just isn't an option - it's also a good way to try and say a symbolic goodbye to 2013 and look forward to 2014 and all that is to be. 

Late Yet Again

This will change I'm sure once I get away - I want to get back to eating, sleeping and business hours :-)  I keep out of the way but Mrs. F. did go and see one of her friends tonight which I am pleased about - she needs to go meet people and talk it through.

I ended up finishing off my beer, watching Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and some episodes of Family Guy and that was my lot really.  I've been feeling a little sad but I reckon that is to be expected.  Silly things, seeing the photographs of the children on the wall and seeing stuff around the house that I may not take with me.  I'll see if I can get copies of the photos - as I'm doing that for a living I imagine it should be OK.

I can't say that I'm overly looking forward to New Year's Eve at the moment.  I've been invited to the local pub and whilst I may know some people, I'm no natural conversationalist - well not to start a conversation anyway.  I might be fine once engaged in conversation.  I think I should go anyway to give it a go and see how I get on.  It would beat sitting at home and whilst my youngest has lots of friends around I can at least escape the house.  I don't know if Mrs. F. is going to be here.  It all feels so strange after all of these years not to be with her on New Year's Eve.  Perhaps I should see in the New Year as I mean to go on?

I'm running out of prescription tablets and now realise that I will run out before they get a chance to measure my Blood Pressure in just over a week's time.  I reckon I can do without the drugs for a few days anyway so perhaps leave it until then and get the prescription sorted. What's a few days?

I have loads more eBay items to parcel up and post and that's tomorrow morning's chore I guess. 

It's been a rough old week and only a few more days and that will be about it I think.  I can get on with life a bit and start to prepare myself for a new life, in a new place, with a new view on the world.  

2013 - The Year That It All Changed

I see last year that things weren't good and in fact as I look back on this blog over the last 7 years or so - I can now see that it never really was great.  For many years there had been a gradual erosion of my home life and I couldn't tell you even now why that was.  Let's say that things hadn't been good for 20 years or so but they weren't unbearable or anything it's been a gradual process of wearing me down but I combated it with working abroad and long hours and working away and abroad so that I didn't need to be here.  I made plenty of cash so that meant that the family never did without and I'd invested well when I was younger and that too meant that around the time I became ill we had little if any debt, the house was paid off, we both have pensions and so on.

In truth we can look at Bladder Cancer as the beginning of the change because since that time I've not had the sort of high powered top of the tree management jobs I used to have.  Most of the old me was kicked into touch by being ill.  The brash, go-getter, top of my game person no longer exists in that way.  My stamina and ability to commit to a long term job or indeed to any job, possibly due to knowing that I really, deep down inside, didn't want to.  I recollect writing a lot about collateral damage quite early on in the cycle of treatment I was having.  I knew then, if I reflect on it, that it was only a matter of time until something had to change.

Without going in to all of the details, it's fair to say that things were failing on many fronts, communications being just one of them.  Let's face it, lots of people have rows and disagreements.  We tended not to have those, mainly because I don't particularly enjoy confrontation anymore and also that I am not a pleasant person to argue with anyway as I have a personality INTJ that makes me pretty adroit at it and you have to be on your game to counter me.  I DO listen to you if you are arguing a good case in a good way and I can change my mind too.  However in a situation in the house which is often contrived and illogical it can get very messy.  Again, I look back at the blog and see a number of instances of this emotionally charged half digs that I tend to walk away from rather than see me bite and then proceed to destroy my opponent with words and logic.

On the subject of INTJs I cam across this which I thought was very interesting indeed.  I looked long and hard at this because as you probably know I met someone in the middle of the year who made me completely re-think everything.  More of that in a moment.

At the beginning of the year, I had been trying to work on what I wanted to do and the business that I am now looking at appeared to be the way forward but something was holding me back and it was to do with support and whether or not living here, in the way I was living was the right thing to do.  I was also in the process of going through a series of Psychometric tests and then later some reasoning tests which led nowhere.  To me, if I had have got one of those jobs I could have disappeared back into Corporate land and perhaps lived for a few more years in a work defined way, trying to find work that took me away as often as possible and that was all engrossing and I would have earned enough money to have bought Mrs. F. out of this house if necessary and that was an option as I was looking at the options until I realised that it wasn't just the marriage that was over but it was my old lifestyle too as I could no longer work with the "type of people" I had worked with most of my life (not all of them).  By that I mean the sort of vacuous, wastes of Oxygen who don't add anything to life or society and appear to only be there to stop the rest of us achieving what we were tasked to do.  The ones who are truly incompetent and I am often surprised how well they can breathe with their heads shoved so far up their own arses! 

There were a number of reviews, the last throw of the dice I now realise, looking at other things we could do together.  A B&B, small Hotel, a Tea Room, a Camp Site and Tea Room anything that might involve the two of us.  Mrs. F. was interested until I produced the business plans and ideas and then they too were cast aside and I was left with this vacuum.  I realised that Corporate Life may not be right and the people I spoke too were just see through, clone like tossers and I'd dealt with these sorts of people all my life.  Surely there had to be something else and also why was I thinking like this?  Sometimes I do things intuitively (well I would as an INTJ) and I wonder whether I was giving off an aura of "I don't care" dealing with them - I certainly held no punch back with one of them.  The world's moved on and I don't want to be part of that world.  I was faced with the choice and all I really wanted to do was to try and find something that I would be happy doing and I did a lot of looking around and did some more plans on perhaps doing some part time work and self employed work which, in part, I did actually do at one time.

My health continued to improve apart from, once again, feeling that I had a recurrence and also the suggestion that they had seen a tumour and once again living through the horrors of perhaps having to go through all of that again or perhaps losing my bladder.  So that really challenged me and having to also wait for hours to have the operation - they once again got me in early but didn't operate until the afternoon!  They found nothing - which was a great relief but that's twice now.  Perhaps that brought it all back to me?  I don't know maybe it jogged me into wondering what was I was doing?  Here I was a recovered Cancer patient and it may be back and all the old dreams came back in those 4 weeks.

I had been losing weight and I noticed that the panic attacks and the claustrophobia were subsiding and I feel great these days - it was a case in point with a load of us squeezed into someone's living room a few nights ago and it was hot but I was fine - I didn't need to go gasping for air outside like I used to a few years before. 

In the middle of the year someone I knew and I became very close and what ever you may want to call it, for it wasn't an affair, nor was it a fling but it was a collision of two people for a short while in the most intense and magical way.  For a short time I was immersed in a relationship that could go nowhere but what it did for me was release my mind and allow me to open my eyes, ears and to start to see what life could hold for me.  Suddenly it was a new awakening for me.  Someone who appreciated me for who I was, who loved my music, my art, my books, my films.  Who unlocked all the things that had shut down in me. My writing, my reading, my music everything that I used to be and no longer was.

Then I read Eckhart Tolle's 'A New Earth' and suddenly it all started to make sense to me and I finally realised that for years and years I'd started to shut myself down and become withdrawn.  That I'd appeased others and complied and that I was no longer ME.  The real me is creative, fun, artistic, musical and above all suddenly I was able to gaze around me at the wonder that's around me.  The countryside around here is fantastic and people are great too if you just give them time, if you look with eyes that don't judge and then I realised that I had to do something about it.

There was a sadness knowing that I couldn't go on with either my friendship nor with my marriage and both relationships were terminal and that both had to change if I was to move on.  In August I told Mrs. F. that our marriage was over and in September my spiritual Angel and I moved on.  I can't even begin to tell you how painful it was but for only a short time.  I'm an INTJ, I realise that I have to move on, that whilst it was going to hurt like hell, it wouldn't be like that forever.  Time heals but also the ability to realise that in fact I was - or would soon be - free.  Free to go and build a life that I wanted, that expresses who I am, what makes me tick, how I like to live and it will be whatever it will be.  It will be a bright new world and whether it lasts a month or many years, I plan to enjoy it and to make of it the best I can.  

I could dwell on the past or list my regrets and 'what ifs' but to what end - it's all happened, I can do nothing about them.  To let them rule my present would be counterproductive and achieve nothing except perhaps more misery and sadness and I've had 8 years of sadness and misery if not longer.  In the summer, for a short time, I was alive and felt the sun shine on my body, the air move through the trees and the fields.  I wandered around the countryside here on such a high and smelt every aroma, heard every sound and became alive again.  I was awoken to how my life could be, what it was like to be loved and to love again.  It was like a ray of sunshine from a black stormy cloudy day picking you out for a short while.  I've never felt like that before but it was what I'd been looking for - perhaps for all my life.  My own little Epiphany, my own realisation that it didn't have to be like "this" it could be wonderful, fulfilling, all encompassing, peaceful, fun, loving, musical, artistic and beautiful. If there is one sadness, it is that the person who unlocked this in me may never be part of it.  Maybe that's the way it is.  Some people live to enhance the lives of others and you just glance into them in your life and for a fleeting moment, that sunbeam on a stormy day, they light up your life and then they are gone.

Leaving that as a small disappointment on the year because I have to appreciate that it was a sign not a prophesy, I finally arrive at the end of the year in a bit of a bad place because it is difficult in the house.  I know the girls both feel it as well and Mrs. F. is very very upset still and carries her misery around for all to see.  The pain in this house can be felt everywhere, it's no longer the place it was and it isn't as happy as it once was but I'm not all to blame for that I feel. It takes two people to make things work and up until I got ill I felt that it was alright - not great - but we managed and we fitted around the arrangement.  I did all the right things not necessarily for the right reasons and we got on and the kids did well and there was money for holidays and so on.  After I got ill it all changed but gradually, not overnight.  

2014 beckons me onwards.  It will be a little frightening but an adventure and exciting too.  It's a clean start for me and a new page.  What I do with it is up to me but starting a new business and living a bachelor life should be fun in themselves.  I have no doubt that there will be some surprises along the way - I will just have to deal with them as they come along that's all.  I have no doubt that there will be a bit more pain in the divorce but this is now what I want and it would be nice to live the next phase of my life and try and be as 'alive' as I was in the middle of the year.  Quite how I capture that again I don't know, it burns inside me now so perhaps I'm just waiting for the move to the new place to drop the burden I feel here and finally go live my life the way I want to.

A Happy New Year to you all

Interesting Reading

I went back through my blog just doing some general random reading of posts and I started seeing a trend coming on about how I was being treated in the house by Mrs. F. and in some ways by the girls.  It's surprising to see that I even wrote about them but I see that, at the time, they really p1ssed me off and I see my reaction to them was normally to walk away and not to get involved in it - or to explain something and walk away.

I see a pattern emerging in this and once again I feel OK with my decision.  I do have other documents and notes and a huge mindmap that I used to set down all the problems I was facing and I just need to look at that and also I wrote a note for Mrs. F who wanted to know "why?" and that's pretty explicit and holds no punches back. 

I think I might do a retrospective on 2013 because it has had just about everything in it for me.  It has brought so many things together and it looks like I finally get my life back in 2014.  That's something to be eternally grateful for.  What I really like is that I will be able to get back my art, my music, my writing and my reading again.  These things have been pruned from my life and absent for too many years IMHO.  To be able to live in a house of music again will be great and to just pick up a book and read it will be magical.  I feel like I've been some sort of Hermit these past 8 years or more.  

I'm particularly impressed that I can go back over my writing and my other journals and find instances where the things I cite as reasons for divorce are clearly demonstrated and the results are often documented over the course of a day or more.   It's damn late again so I'm going to head off to bed but I find that this blog and my journals are pretty good at fleshing out what is going on.  I wonder whether I'll keep these blogs going though as this one has gone way beyond what it was for originally.  Maybe I need open up a new one with my new chapter.

Not In The Same Room

Yes it's difficult - Mrs. F. doesn't stay in the same room as me at the moment so it is all a bit of a fun filled circus.  I don't think it is done to make me feel bad - I think she doesn't still accept what is happening to her, her whole world is collapsing around her and the sooner I'm gone the better.

I believe the House that Flocky and I were interested in is being vacated later today which may help us kick start something along.  The atmosphere is choking and as with many things like this the stress appears in ways you don't expect.  Lying in bed and not feeling hungry and I'm in a sort of light depressive state at the moment.  The trouble is that it's not easy to go and do anything although I've invented things that need doing and tomorrow I can see me sitting in my room taking up time doing them and letting Mrs. F have the run of the living room and the TV.

Of course I also feel bad for her too and so that's hurting me although I can do nothing to help her through it, I hate to be the person raining down this situation.  I know, I know that it was me who got the rough end of a lot of it for quite a long time but even so I don't like the idea that what I do hurts people.  But there you go.

So not long to live through this now - about half-way through this holiday period and half way through the agony of the separation.  I can only imagine how upset she is going to be when I go and I think I will feel upset too.  It will give me the freedom to get on a and build my business - something I am severely hampered with at the moment.  I find I can't actually finish off the work on the detail of the business but I do feel that I've done all the work and it just needs me to pull it all together to get things moving.  There are lots of details but they can be overcome and whilst I'd have liked a January start maybe it will be a bit later.  Never mind - in the overall scheme of things - it just isn't important.

What is important is to work on staying calm (as possible) and to try and work through this.  It is without doubt highly stressful and so I work on my breathing and also on my 'meditation' or more like it is inward thinking and reflecting.  I can work on getting myself to good equilibrium but I find that I do need to work at it a little more.  This is things like ignoring the past, not worrying about the future and living in the now and trying to enjoy all parts of it.  I know that I am stressed as my tinnitus is back and has been since Christmas Eve.  When I get an opportunity to concentrate on thinking things through I can bring it under control  I do tend to get it under stress and of course, this being in the same house but no one's really talking to you is part of that burden you carry.  I don't think anyone is doing anything "on purpose" it's just the dealing with it mechanism  they employ.

I watched the animated movie 'Up' earlier - what a lovely movie that is, especially the first 5 or 10 minutes - quite emotional and sad in some ways and then later when the chap opens the album to see that the journey wasn't about travelling at all brought a smile to my face and I liked the fact that the writing stated that the couple's journey had ended but that his should go on and he should find new adventures.  How sweet that was - how poignant in my case too I felt that it was similar in many ways that I've had a journey to get where I am today and everything that has happened contributed to it.  Happy and Sad moments some amazing things have happened and 2014 just means to me that I turn that next page over in my book and the next journey will start.  

I don't think that I've made a mess of my life and I don't look back with too many regrets now.  I suppose I could go and say "what if" but those weren't taken and even if they had of been we can't predict whether they were anything to do with where we have arrived at.  But at least I'm not leaving a mess behind me.  I haven't gone out of my way to be nasty or to anything like it - I just hope for all our sakes that we at least stay in touch and continue to at least be friends although I'm not entirely convinced that is what it will be like for a while.  I have to give Mrs. F lots of time I think.

I've been late every night this week, eaten too much rich food at all sorts of strange hours and had far too much drink  as well.  Clearly New Year's Day cannot come too soon for my body to get back into recovery mode!   

So I was Invited

To be truthful I was being a bit devious by not asking whether there was a party last night or not and I thought I'd play it to the bitter end.  It sort of worked as Mrs. F wandered in saying was I coming?  Coming to what?  I then protested that I didn't think I was invited but apparently I was.  So as it was 10 minutes past when the party started I said I'd get ready and meet her there - I could do with the walk.

I did walk there arriving after her and left after her and walked back.  I think it was gone 2 am when I arrived back but there you go.  I enjoyed it but I was quiet for the first few hours - unusual for me but again - reflective mood I suppose.  It got livelier afterwards so that was OK.

I'm feeling still a little low but not sick or anything more flat I suppose you'd call it, neither happy nor sad - just in between.  I'm sure that will change eventually.

I think I am going to make it a point to drop off the drink in the New Year - at least the beer - in the last 4 weeks since I've been drinking leading up to Christmas I can see the affect on my waistline - it's frightening how quickly I've added a notch the wrong way on my belt.  of course I'm only 3 or 4 pound heavier but it really notices.  So once in the new place I will be on Red Wine only and no beer except for high days and holidays as they say.  Certainly I will not be having them everyday or once a week or more as it has been of late.

I think I will make a conscious effort to draw the line after New Year, get back on diet and go for some more weight loss and see what I can do.  

Progress Sure and Steady

It sounds like I'm down and yet I'm sort of low but it's just the situation here at the moment.  It's difficult to explain it I suppose but when you are in constant contact with someone you've lived with all your life and you are splitting up it's pretty easy to get on each other's nerves - twice today I've had a bite back.  I ask a question and get a sharp sound bite back that is all defensive and aggressive - it doesn't need to be as I calmly remind them (it isn't just Mrs. F) I didn't say why was something done in a certain way I asked where something was.  It's pretty simple stuff but it's like this all the time and it is just constant and wearing.  But then as Flocky and I discussed, it was like that all of our lives.

This slow, chipping away, this forever something wasn't right here or there or why are you doing that.  Today was a case in point.  No sooner had she arrived back with her Sister and her Boyfriend than I had to drop everything I was doing to go replace his car battery.  I don't mind doing these things but a bit of notice would have been nice or even an inkling that I was expected to be doing it.  I did get up and do it but this sort of attitude I've lived with all my life.  

There's a good article here about it - it's absolutely bang on.  Lots and lots of little niggles and digs and eventually it blows up into a big thing.  Things that actually don't need to be said.  They are power plays and again the book 'A New Earth' by Eckhart Tolle looks at this Ego and Pain Body type stuff.  For me it meant years of erosion of my self esteem and my self confidence already laid bare through the cancer and all of that.  This 'misery' and 'pain' heaped onto me. 

I know well enough that it isn't long now until that goes away and I don't need to suffer or feel it anymore.  That will be great for me - a little unnerving to start with I am sure but I am sure I can grow into it and that's what I hope will happen.  I've always been quite OK with my own company and that's not a problem to me.  As long as I can have my music and get on and do my thing.  Make a few bucks here and there and just get on with my new life.  

How disturbing it has been that some people in the room knew our situation and others, Mrs. F's father, sister and brother (and their partners) did not know what was going on.  It was a surreal few days.  No wonder I felt strange.  I suppose it will be a bit difficult to deny anything has happened when I don't live here! :-)   

I just have to get through these days and realise that all these feelings are mixed.  Somewhere it is the feelings of the end of an era and all the good times we had - for we did have good times and then there's the other bit that's the guilt which I pile on myself but when I think about it I did just about everything I possibly could and it didn't change - it got worse.  Things are still bad - in fact no one has actually changed their behaviour that much I feel just as alienated as did last year as I do this.  I know it's the right thing to do - just knew that it was going to be difficult and a little sh1tty.  

Heavy Feeling

Life's sort of heavy at the moment - burdensome and it's that Mrs. F is here all day and so am I and the kids are here too.  Communications are kept to a business level and that's OK I think but it is very curt and matter of fact - at least we are talking :-) 

Not feeling great - haven't eaten at all today and it's gone 1 pm and still don't feel like eating anything at all.  I find that all this rich food doesn't really agree with me - not that I've over indulged on the food.  Now the beer I do seem to have gone through a little more than I thought I would have but that's me "coping" and seemingly the only drinker in the house - I guess it is me that drank all those cans :-)  

Nice to see Flocky for a few coffees this morning too that was good - lightens up my mood and he's in a good place too so  that's great news.  

I can't moan - I see on Facebook another chap who is having a particularly nasty divorce went around to walk the dog and bumped into the new man who had stayed overnight at his old house etc etc etc.  He didn't see the funny side - who would :-(  Poor sod he is the "victim" as such I suppose there's the instigator and the victim in all of these.  Mrs. F. is the victim in our particular case but living in the same house for the moment has been a strain - at least I know it's not long to go now and I can get away and hopefully take a few days to get my head around it and then take a deep breath, gird up my loins and move on.  :-)  

I believe there is a party tonight.  I have no idea if I am invited, no one has told me about it but I am aware it is happening.   Wondering whether to go or not anyway!  

Here comes the bad weather again

Really windy again outside.  Had a funny old day again today - didn't feel great to start with and after a few drinks seemed to come back into kilter again.  I'm pretty certain it is that I know it's my last Christmas here and together with the family.  It was so strange to know that half the room knew and half didn't and funnily I've only let slip one detail about getting a place to start my business so it wasn't too bad!

We've had a small mouse infestation - two of the little blighters met their maker last night and I think I just heard one of the traps go off again a few moments ago.  

Got a note from my friend who didn't call me - apologising about that but it isn't a problem.  Got a note from someone who bid for some stuff on eBay, ignored me every day that I wrote and sent invoices suggesting that her baby had done the bidding :-) Of course that's possible but not on successive days surely?  So it's out of my hands and I suggested they contact eBay with the excuse - it's good but not realistic!

As for me, well I'm OK but a little sad because I know that this year marks the end of this sort of family gathering and whilst I'm separating from my wife I kind of realise that I'm also separating from my kids too - not that I want to but that's what it feels like and I didn't expect that.  I was interested to hear that L may be going on holiday with Mrs. F. this year and that our trip to Las Vegas may not be on as L thinks she will be working.  I kind of think that you should do what pleases you but no one else thought I was right.  Ho Hum.  She's 21 and apparently legally able to drink in the US - of course here it is 18.

Me, well I'm past Christmas and Boxing day and heading off towards New Year's Eve and so far so good.  I kind of feel very strange indeed and I just know that it is because change is coming.  Change I want, change that I know needs to happen but also there has to be a certain amount of trepidation in that too.  There's also the life that I dreamed of but won't be fulfilled.  All my earlier dreams of the summer aren't going to happen and that to me is a huge disappointment but I've learnt to live with that now but it still remains a problem that sort of recurs and whilst I can deal with it, I don't always manage to catch it in time.  Maybe I will have the life I desire but it wont be this year coming.  Perhaps I will find myself able to choose a direction - I don't know.  The main thing is to deal with the present, dismiss the past and not worry about the future.  That seems to me to be goal I can achieve quite easily.

Not Right Though

I'm hoping that it is just the rich food that's making me feel not to well - I'd guess it is also stress and slightly underlying feelings associated with this particular Christmas.  My mate used to swear by Brandy and Port as something to ease things out - it seemed to work yesterday not so much today though.  Been crazy as Sister In Law's boyfriend's car wouldn't start last night so we managed to get it going with jump leads and she has just rung up with him not feeling well - stuck in a layby and so A and Mrs. F. have gone off to rescue them.  

We are expecting more people around today and I do feel slightly shaky - not sure what it is but there you go.  

Oh well - let's hope that they rescue them, I settle down a little and we have another good day given the circumstances.  I know this is only a temporary thing, these feelings and they will soon go away.  

Not Too Bad

Excepting that Mrs. F got me a small present and I didn't get her one.  That's OK though.  It was a much better day than I could have envisaged.  

So far so good.  I am pretty pleased that it has gone so good so far.

Damn It I Feel Sad

I've been kept out of the preparations for most of the day and they've all gone to Church and I've just had a shower and suddenly I've come over all sad and it's bound to be that this is the last Christmas that I'll be in this house, in this situation and that somehow I'd expected things to be a bit different.  I didn't expect to still be here for Christmas I suppose which is a big change.  Additionally I also guess that I had thoughts of sharing it with someone else - but that was just a pipe dream and could never be either.

The combination of being the "bad" guy tonight and being on my own in a house full of people is a bit disturbing.  I'll make the most of it though.  I've not been tempted to have a drink yet - I've eaten a big lunch so as to make sure there is something to settle any booze onto.  I am aware that I need to take it easy too.

I hope it will be a good night tonight I'd hate to think that through my presence it would disturb any harmony there may be there.  I suppose it's up to everyone else - if they don't want to be happy I reckon.  I will go there with the right attitude and just see how it pans out.

I don't expect to be cut too much slack from Mrs. F and the girls although L is always good value so I hope that she helps to make the evening.  Just need to grin and bear it I suppose.

And So It Begins

I was interested to read an article recently in the Daily Mail (OK it raises your blood pressure and isn't really news at all).  I've managed to wean my mum off reading it because it is a stream of bad news and over hyped news threads that are there, after all, to sell newspapers and to play on the pain body of people.  

The article says a fair bit about emasculation and I have to say I related to it because over the years that's how I've felt it has been.  Regular readers will remember where things that need to be done in the house need to be done NOW.  If I don't drop what I'm doing it gets attempted to be done as if I'm at fault.  Today is an interesting point.  I normally do a fair amount of the preparation for Christmas Day on Christmas Eve.  I especially do the Gammon, my speciality.  Not today - that's being done now by Mrs. F and the children.  Preparing the Veg.  No that's also been done. So that's all my usual jobs gone for today.  Heaven alone knows if I will get a look in tomorrow to do the meal itself.  I imagine I will but we will see.  

I'm now keeping out of the way as it is just too difficult and I've been ignored twice already - not sure if she's deaf or just being obtuse.  As I said to Flocky - I've only got to endure this for this year.  I have no idea what I will do next year and does it matter?  Probably not.  It's going to be a rough few days I know but I can ride this out, I've ridden out bad storms before and I know that once this is over, I can be on my way and it's behind me then.

I like the idea of drawing the line (previous posting) and then moving on from there.  I wonder whether I will just spring clean my friends and contacts and start anew?  It is very tempting to just sever all ties with many of them and just forget about them and move on.  It clears away cobwebs and history, it removes temptation and allows me some freedom to move on and upwards.

I find the thing that I will miss the most about not being here in the Village is the opportunity to go for my walks and silly things like heading to the Curry House or the local Pub, the Post Office and those familiar places and faces.  It is the place I've lived longest having lived here twice.  It feels like home in many ways.  I may well be able to move back this way or around here somewhere.  Time will tell.

So - it is interesting that Mrs. F. is keeping herself very busy at the moment - her way of dealing with it and at the same time, I don't think it is deliberate, I'm edged out of all my usual duties.  Just like I was on everything else I used to do.  It's been a gradual erosion of my position since the kids were born I think.  It's been coming for years and years and like most blokes, I do anything to keep the peace and in fact added to the downfall.  I see that I've just been one to go with the flow but that's led me here.  Oh well hindsight is a wonderful thing, it felt at the time I was doing the right thing.

I need to be on my guard today not to hit the booze too - it is very easy when we go to the party to drink especially if I am being ignored or isolated which I have no doubt will happen as Mrs. F. will seek out and be in the kitchen with the other ladies.  Maybe the lads will spend a bit of time with me - not holding my breath though.  

As I said earlier, this time next year this will all be over and I'll be doing something else I guess.  It doesn't matter what that something is as long as I'm happier then than I am now (not difficult).  Looking forward to 2014 and to say goodbye to 2013 a year of so many emotions, contrasts and of such change.  It's had absolutely everything.

Exactly - Now's The Time

Time to draw a line under everything that has gone before and move on with a nice new sheet of paper.  The past is history and doesn't need to come along on the new journey.  Time to leave my regrets and disappointments as I can't do anything about them, they've happened and that's that.

Live for the now.

And So - It Is Time To Accept Your Medicine And To Move On

When I was really ill and I had to have Chemotherapy I realised that I'd have to "accept my medicine" and as hard and as stressful as it was, I would have to go through with it if I were to combat the Cancer and if I was to give myself any chance of being well again.  There's a pay off for the pain you go through and whilst it isn't a measure of efficacy it is a re enforcement of "no pain no gain" sort of psyche.  

The reason that I'm taking all this so well is that it isn't the physical pain nor the mental pain that can get me - I know that.  I try my very hardest not to be affected but I'm not always successful at it.  Waves of self doubt wash over me but I know that my course is true, that my cause is just and that I am doing the right thing.

What I wish for myself right now, is not attainable which is unfortunate.  I will not end up with the person I wanted to end up with, in the circumstances I dreamed of and that met my dreams and overactive imagination.  So disappointment all around in many ways.  My dreams and my ambitions of many years lie ruined at my feet.   Or do they?  I cannot write off my marriage, my children nor my life up until now.  They are what they are.  I'm proud and love my children very much and they've turned out to be very nice human beings :-)  In many ways my wife and I were very happy for many years and built this life and all the material things around us.  

I say it is all in ruins but perhaps that's because at the moment it does look like that.  Beyond the veneer I expect it to be a lot different.  I see my life changing significantly and I do hope that Mrs. F. will grasp the opportunity to move on in her life too.  I so hope so.

An evening with Flocky was good tonight to sort of tune our heads again.  He had last year the Christmas I am about to endure.  My last family one, half the people around Christmas day will know what is going on and half will not.  It is difficult but once this is over - new opportunities arise and new horizons appear.  I feel that it is already taking place and acceptance is near.  It is awkward as we look back to about 24 years or more of family Christmas gatherings.  Presents on Christmas Day and the joy of being a family together.  I feel like the "baddie" in the Pantomime - all the audience hissing and spitting at me :-) Oh well - it wont last long and I can move on.  This time next year will be whatever life has in store for me.

How the New Year calls me on to greater things and how I look forward to being my own person again.  At the moment I am not really getting to grips with the business and other things because I'm still stuck here in the house which has "atmosphere" shall we say.  Roll on 2014 and a new leaf in my life. 

Christmas Starts Today

The Turkey and other bits will arrive courtesy of DHL if they can battle through the gales and rain that is (Update: Arrived).  The house looks ready, I've hopefully wrapped and am about to post the last of the eBay stuff (for a while).  I've managed to get up after an awful night's sleep.  Frankly I should have slept like a log but was having a number of things rattling around in my head mainly related to a phone call I am going to have at lunchtime today.

I haven't spoken to "my Angel" for over 5 months now and whilst we exchange pleasantries online we haven't spoken for real since I met her briefly for a coffee one day.   She means so much to me but in the New Year I need to be in a position where she meant so much to me.  That little change in tense should say why I was in a bit of turmoil overnight because it's a statement of moving on and letting go of my past and despite all that happened in 2013 and all that it meant, how I felt, how it enabled me to finally become self-aware and the great debt I owe, the only way to really repay that is to make use of it and move on.  

Because it feels ungrateful it gives me problems but also whatever thoughts and ideas I may have had about the future haven't happened, aren't likely to happen and cannot be forced to happen and anyway, none of it is in my control either.  It's like Tantalus and I will never be able to achieve what lies ahead if stay in the same place grasping for the same thing - it isn't going to happen.  Being human often means that you grip on and chase things that are impossible or can never happen.  If they were meant to happen then they would.  It's no use trying to force it.

I have no doubt that we will remain friends but I want today to be a turning point for me.  So much is changing around this time of year.  It's my last Christmas in this house, my last "together" so to speak.  It will be the last as a family unit and I have no idea what it will be like next year.  I have no idea of my situation.  The New Year is always a good starting point for resolutions etc, a milestone of sorts and I won't be able to go into 2014 carrying any baggage.  I'm sure there will be some and that there are regrets and of course everything isn't ideal.  I just made myself "poor" and of course made Mrs. F. the same but it isn't all about that by any means.  

The one thing that has to come about has to be for me to become happier and to live my life and start to rebuild and enjoy myself.  I find it a shame that I've been "unhappy" for such a long time and didn't do anything about it.  Soon, I'll be in a position to be happy and to have, as near as possible a clean sheet of paper to work with. Let's hope I make the most of my opportunities and just enjoy it every day.  Keeping the worries about the future at bay will be a challenge but I have the tools to do that - I just need to work on using them and keeping positive.

It's Too Easy

To do what I did today.  I went out for a walk, went to both pubs in the village and had just a few beers and soaked up the atmosphere.  Got an invite to New Year's Eve at the Woodman (maybe I'll go).  What was too easy was that on the way home I bought half a bottle of Scotch and I note that 3/4 of that is gone!  I don't feel particularly drunk - I've been drinking steadily all day I suppose.

Got another one of "those" moments as well when told I'd need to be in Monday as the food was being delivered - it was the first I'd heard as I was told that both girls would be in.  Let's hope it arrives early in case I need to be out!  Thanks for the notice.  I shouldn't be surprised either that people just go to bed without saying goodnight and people come and go and don't tell me.  I suppose that's just making me feel like I feel anyway :-)  It will soon be over and that's what I keep telling myself - in a month it will all be over and I can get on with a newish life and have none of these "pressures" and pains.  Well that's what I hope anyway.

It was interesting that things are being put in boxes for me - like all my Chinese crockery and other stuff of mine.  In a way I'm glad that it is beginning to be like that - much as it hurts - it does mean Mrs. F. has accepted that it is going to happen.

Sunday - Should Have Been Going Out

But wasn't certain that being set up with a blind date just before Christmas was actually a good thing.  It's like the body isn't cold yet and I'm really not ready for all of this again, not so soon anyway.  I am recovering from the shock and disappointment and I'm not sure how I would react or behave because despite saying it isn't affecting me as much as it may perhaps should I'd be a very cold fish indeed if it wasn't affecting me in some way.

I wondered whether to just jump on a Plane after Christmas - perhaps I will if it isn't nice.  Or maybe go hit some other bolt hole.  As usual though I really need to be here to have a look at the house but I suppose if that got sorted PDQ then maybe I could head off for a while.  But wait, I have a committee meeting to attend to as well!  And yet again once that and a few other things are out of the way perhaps a short break might be a good thing?  Who knows - I can work on that later no doubt.

Not to plan

Things haven't been going to plan all day today.  Was having breakfast well actually cooking it when Estate Agent rang saying had we had an appointment made to see the house?  Well no we hadn't.  She had an appointment at 10:30 apparently and Flocky and I didn't want to miss that for sure so we asked to see at 10:00.  Poor old Flocky was only just out of bed so he flew over here - I had half of my planned breakfast a rushed Espresso and off we went.  We got there to find that no one was in the house so we couldn't view it anyway.  

We headed back to the coffee shop and had a few coffees and I then had to head off for a lunch with a few of the lads.  That was quite nice and interestingly we went to the Chinese restaurant we had been to recently where I had over done the Sake!!  Pleased to say I didn't do that but we had a nice meal followed be a few beers but surprisingly - it was all over by 5:30 and so I was home at 6:00.  

Then Mrs. F. was dressed up to the nines ready to go to her company's Christmas Lunch - which is great - it's nice to see her actually in nice clothes and smelling good.  Shame she doesn't do it more often IMHO.  I hadn't recalled her telling me but of course, these days I have to do a fair bit of mind reading! :-)

Soon I'll be out of here and I won't need to worry about what is going on or who is doing what and so on.  In many ways I'm pretty glad about that.  It kind of hurts too somehow.  I'm going to have to do some more things that hurt soon as I cut away from the house.  I do need to work on a plan to make sure I don't lose touch with my children and so I will have to ensure that I keep in touch with them.  

This arrived in my inbox today - I thought it was rather poignant:

"You are not IN the Universe, you ARE the Universe, an intrinsic part of it.  Ultimately you are not a person, but a focal point where the Universe is becoming conscious of itself.  What an amazing miracle."

Eckhart Tolle

Business Like

I'd say that Mrs. F. and I always did have a business like approach to things especially finances.  We actually sat down and worked out some financial stuff last night and we didn't get upset or tearful we just got on and sorted stuff out.  It was interesting as we need to cancel one lot of credit cards - well they want to charge us for the privilege of owning them and as I have another 3 or 4 cards that don't cost me - what's the point?  They didn't even argue the point...  You'd have thought they'd want to retain a customer.

It's the main credit card so I have to change all the people I have it registered with to my new one when that arrives!  Doh :-)  Actually it isn't too sad as long as I remember which one is which.  We are both going to now have our own accounts and of course that's fun too.  Who pays what bills and so on.  Mine is going to take a massive set of hits in the next two or three months.  Mainly with paying the rent for 6 months and any deposit and any other incidentals.  On top of that I have the investment in the business to make which whilst I can make in stages is still needed in less than 6 weeks start to finish I'd suggest.

For the first time in a long time, I found this morning as the sun shone in to the kitchen and I made breakfast that I felt a twinge of regret almost pain at what is about to happen.  Whilst I've felt bad all along, this is certainly a different feeling it was knowing that I'll be moving out of here, my home for all this time and that I'll be setting a new course and direction.  The main thing I suppose is not to worry about the future too much it will be what it will be and worrying about it will achieve nothing at all.  If I'm there for 6 months or 6 years it matters not, it's the journey, it's the ability to release and break free of the boundaries and barriers that were set and closed in on me over time.  

I see that over the years there was a general erosion going on.  When I first got married I managed to listen to and play music of all kinds on my guitars and keyboards etc.  I was able to look after an enormous garden, we made wine, beer and all sorts of jams and things from the gardens and hedgerows.  I played Golf regularly (my golf clubs are rusted, dusty sticks in the garage now).  I used to play Squash and Badminton - the latter to a good level.  I read books avidly.  Now more recently I've read more and more thank goodness.  I used to write creatively and again, recently have gone back to it. 

No wonder I felt claustrophobic, the walls of my life kept narrowing down on me and the straight jacket threatened to completely strangle me.  I feel much better having written these few sentences because in essence this is exactly why I am leaving and more so why I am excited too.  Of course I'm going to regret giving up what many would envy as being a good life.  I have everything I could ever need and almost don't need to work.  But at what cost to myself and also if I am honest, to Mrs. F. too.  What would it be like for me to be like I've been these past few years.  I've been depressed and moochy, I've been faddish trying to sort out what on earth was wrong with me.  I've flitted around trying to work on my general health and my mental health and if I'd stayed she would have had to deal with someone who wouldn't have been happy and who was sinking deeper and deeper into a depressive state.  

Well - that's quite enough from me this morning - I need to get a few things done - some more stuff to post off and my daughter L comes back from Uni later so that will brighten the place up and we can perhaps decorate the house and make it look a little like Christmas and see if we can get Mrs. F. cheered up a little.  She just can't be bothered to do anything and we need to step up to the plate and do something about that.  I also don't want everyone else to feel not wanted when they are round here.  It's unfortunate that since I've mentioned it, many people thought that they weren't really welcome when they came around here.  I know on occasion I've had to apologise over Mrs. F's apparent gloomy demeanour.  I suppose I'm used to not getting an answer when I talk to her or getting one of her looks.  At least no one need worry about that if they pop around and see me next year!

I feel better already - I have written all this down somewhere so I don't keep falling back into the trap of why did I do this and am I doing the right thing :-) 

Well That's An Education

Interesting place but a little smaller than I thought - it would probably do but the agent suggested somewhere else so we had a quick look at the outside and it does look good.  Flocky had a laugh though as it is opposite someone we actually know which is funny - of all the roads and all of the houses..... :-) It's strange how often that sort of thing happens and you bump into someone or something unexpected comes up.

Hopefully we will get to see it tomorrow or Saturday.  At least it isn't on a long contract and also looks like we might be in a bargaining position too on that one.  

Still no decorations up here - not sure if the girls are going to sort it out or not - I will wait for instructions before doing anything.  On the way back Flocky dropped me off nearby where there is an old fashioned Greengrocer shop - Mmmmm I have some lovely Chestnuts and have rescued my Chestnut Pan and will roast a few off tonight - yummy.

I've tidied up downstairs and have loads of junk now in my office - not quite the plan I had in mind when I started.  I still have loads of CDs and LPs and Singles lying around - I will just have to work out what to do about them once I get to a point of knowing what I'm doing.  I suppose I could continue to sell them but it is getting tiresome now.  I may well offer these out to someone if the Charity Shops don't want them.  

I'm trying to get into the mood by listening to Christmas songs but it isn't working at the moment.  I think L will be back from Uni tomorrow so that will cheer the place up as she's as mad as a box of Frogs and so at least the house will be happier than it is now - not difficult I have to say.

So, an Education?  This rental malarkey is all a bit different and it's easier to be a layabout and get a rental property than Flocky and I who have no debts, no mortgage and no credit "history" as such.  How funny that it is difficult for us and we have no problems actually paying!  You gotta laugh!

So onwards and upwards.  They say moving house and divorcing are the two most stressful things you can do and we are doing them at the same time :-)  It isn't so much the stress although I can feel the tension but it's the upheaval and suddenly after 25 years here I've got so much junk - still - and I've cleared a load of it out.  It is funny that I have loads of stuff like guitars, amplifiers, piano, two keyboards, a trumpet and music stands and books.  Two huge exercise machines and suddenly space starts to be at a premium.  Luckily Flocky has a house full of stuff so I may get away with a small move now and then have to work out what to do later in the year and dependant on what happens with this house will determine what my next move may be.

Reality Bites

I told Mrs. F. that Flocky and I are starting to look at property - and there's one that looks good we are seeing in the morning.  It's just about ideal in terms of what we can see on the photos and description.  Quite nice and far enough to be out of the way from here but not too far.  I know the area a little too so that's good.

Spoke to Mrs. F. tonight and she is quite business like about the finances and we are going to adjust some of our finances especially Credit Cards and the like.  I have some in my name and have applied for some others to give me a bit of flex really.  There's stuff all over the place so we will rationalise that but I have a lot of things that are set up to come out of the credit card so I need to go and adjust that pretty quickly.  Things could all go pretty quickly by the looks of it - we will see tomorrow when we go view the property.  Hopefully it is still available as they had some other people there earlier.  Mind you they also had another property which was a little closer to me - 15 minutes walk I suppose.  That is also a good back up.

Anyway - will see in the morning but I suddenly feel very different tonight than I have before because it is now the business end of leaving the house and I can see that Mrs. F. appears to be able to discuss, in short measures, what is going on.  Bless her.  Let's hope that this can be done as painlessly as possible and that we don't hurt each other more than we have to.

Well let's see how it goes.  It's exciting and daunting all at the same time.  After last night I really felt that I wanted to be out after Christmas - just because it is so depressing here at the moment.  We don't know how to deal with each other being here and if I am out of the way at least we can text or email each other and sort stuff out like that.  I can come back to the house when she isn't here and take it from there.  I think I will be quite sad to leave this house in many ways as it is where the girls grew up but life moves on and change is a constant.

I think I've squared a few other things in my head as well now.  It isn't surprising that my head is awash with details and loose ends and I think I said that I'd lose some friends and in some ways I'm going to have to do the losing of some myself.  By that I mean - put them into the distance and not to proactively encourage them unless by some miracle they decide to continue the friendship.  I feel sad that this will be an outcome but I need to give myself every opportunity of this being a clean break and a new beginning and I need to "divorce" myself not just from Mrs. F. but also from much of the flotsam & jetsam that washed up on the shores of my brain.  Some relationships are dead and over, some are on life support, some aren't as strong as they could or should be, some are imaginary and some will never fruit let alone blossom.  Hard as it is, these have to be cut out of my life and cast aside as they aren't helping me move on.

This hard pruning sounds drastic but I'm guessing you just have to do it.  These people are part of my old life - if they bring something new to my new life then maybe, just maybe we regrow the relationship.  Let's see what happens.  

If it is possible to be excited and apprehensive all at the same time then that is what I am.

House Hunting

It's taken a while but here we are near enough to smell the coffee.  Seeing Flocky in a short while to go through a couple of places and maybe to see if this place which is local to us might be worth having a look at.  It certainly looks doable and covers both of our requirements.

I had a funny old night, my friend was over so we went for a beer and very nice that was too and then for some reason I got all hung up on something trivial (it happens) and tortured my mind and didn't catch it quick enough to stop it going around in my mind.  I thought about it this morning and dismissed it in a second!  Stupid brain, I hate the way it does this.  I know what it is all about - it's the coming Christmas and New Year and it is also about turning my back on one part of my life and moving off in a new direction and I couldn't see beyond the sadness of it and of course it is just a change that's going to happen.  I think some of the these thoughts are reactions are just unexpected - you know that they are coming but you can't "experience" them until they happen.  But there you go.

It's all about change and moving on and it's also a bit about leaving behind many things and that was also about realising that I'm "letting go" of more than the marriage it is also the life I had and in some way I think I'm going to lose some friends too because maybe that's the way it rolls.  I should be used to it because that's what happened when I got ill.  

I know once I am out of here and onto my new venture that I will be able to spend real time building something and also not "feeling guilty" about things - I certainly note that I am whether by accident or design taking on that sort of mantle.  I feel really bad for what I am doing and I'm the one being contrite and humble all the time.  That too will fall away and go I'm sure.  

I know I'm bound to be upset, confused and the like - it is going to go with the territory without doubt.

Lonesome Day

Well no one has come back yet so it's been a quiet (apart from my music) day so far.  I had to reset my mobile phone yet again - must be the 4th time in 2 years! Damn thing so it is back to where it was and I've had to upload Apps and type in huge huge passwords - I tend to use massive passwords to help security - it is a pain in the arse when it comes to this sort of thing though.  

I'm almost free of posting stuff out now - have some non-payers which is annoying to say the least as they just waste your time and who wants that?  I have had one of the deliveries I was waiting for arrive bang on 1 pm so that was good but of course I missed the funeral.  These things happen of course!  I'm waiting for my festive coffee pack to arrive - that will cheer me up as there are some speciality coffees in there which will be nice to have over Christmas.

I have finished, just about, all the Christmas Cards now and just need to arrange with Mrs. F. which are to be dropped off (I can do a number on Saturday) and which need posting and that's the lot then.

I think there's some cleaning up of the house to do - I've arranged to see the Asthma Nurse in the New Year so that's all OK and she can do my Blood Pressure at the same time.  Will have to see if I'll need an inhaler or not :-(  Don't fancy that but as an ex-smoker I may need it.  

I think that's most of the stuff under some sort of control now apart from working out what I am going to take with me, how to resolve and split bank accounts and so on.  That's my next job. 

A Taste Of Things To Come

I'm in a strange place at the moment.  Home alone, Mrs. F. and the girls have been out for some sort of birthday bash in Cambridge and they are staying there overnight I guess.  I was hoping someone would be here to pick up some of the deliveries arriving so I could go to one of the Lodge member's funeral.  That looks unlikely so I will have to stay here for the deliveries.

I've got some posting to to do too and a load more eBay stuff probably the last major posting the rest can be done piecemeal.

The house is empty so I have my music on a little louder than I would normally at this time of night listening to Steven Wilson and Drive Home - featured on an earlier post (and below again).  It pulls me back to listen to it's message again and again.  It's about breaking free from the past and moving on and it is one of my tracks of 2013 alongside so many others I could list - perhaps I ought to do that.  Perhaps I ought to come clean with you all and tell you what really has been going on in the background unless you've read right in between the lines and got past the innuendo and false trails.

Life is so simple and so complex for me all at the same time at the moment.  I feel great excitement and anticipation at the opportunity to turn the page and write a new history, a new chapter for myself.  I do however look back at some wonderful moments this year that have slipped through my grasp and pulled me up short of my dreams and desires.  Such my friends is how 2013 was for me it has been a momentous year.  How I wished I'd known what I know now - 20 or 30 years ago :-) 

Oh, Right, That's How It Feels

This separation malarkey is very strange.  There's some extra "stuff" to deal with - especially today as it is Mrs. F's birthday.  The first time in 36 or maybe more years we've not been out or done something on her birthday and it feels very strange indeed.

Even more strange as she announced this morning that she was off - which I knew about - but that she was staying overnight and wouldn't be back until tomorrow.  I know roughly where she is going but that's about it.  the girls haven't told me and so it remains a mystery.    Oh well, so be it - I was surprised how that stung though.  In a month or so it wont matter what I do or what she does or where we go as we won't be under each others feet.  Somehow I did find it a bit shocking though.

Oh well - roll with the punched old chap! :-)  I really didn't expect myself to be affected quite like that.  There you go.  I imagine then that when I move there'll be other wobbles like this.  Also I ought to expect similar at Christmas time.

Mrs. F's Birthday

Well I got a card and I got the book - I think I will sort of leave the book lying around somehow for her not give it to her for her birthday.  I feel awful about it but there you go, it cannot be helped and today I've done the newsletters to friends and family announcing to the world what is happening.  It should be cathartic but it isn't at all, not in the slightest, it actually makes me feel a bit sad really.  Mrs. F. was out for the majority of the day and I came back up here to let her watch Sports Person of the Year in peace in the main room.  She was watching it in the kitchen.  She is out tomorrow apparently going to Cambridge for the Day so L may be involved in that too.  The girls are taking her out for the day - I'm pleased about that and of course, I feel empty and upset that I won't be taking her out for her birthday for the first time in about 40 years :-( 

But I have the opportunity now to move things on and go hunting for a place this week.  There are a couple that strike my attention and I'll be seeing Flocky in the morning for some coffee and a chat about the strategy to go find a place.  We don't have long and of course with Christmas in a mid week situation and New Year the same it doesn't give much available time to find and sort a place and arrange moving although that shouldn't matter too much as I don't actually have to be out of here on a certain date.

It's amazing what things I need to sort out so - that's my next job to work out what accounts need sorting out and so on.  Also I need to start considering - although not too quickly changing my emails and other stuff.  It's all great fun.

Christmas Cards, Newsletters and Goodness Knows what else

Yes it's that time of year folks.  I've done nothing but Newsletters and Christmas Card writing all day and I'm only about half the way through it.  Also looking at houses at the same time and taking phone calls in between.  Feels like I've been at it all day so far.

I have a load of orders from eBay to fulfil and can hardly believe it but have got through 100 padded envelopes and just had to order more to arrive on Tuesday!  The Post Office is a nightmare on a Monday and so I will try and post all the things that I can print and post from here first and then sort the others out after that.  The post boxes are also getting stuffed full too this time of year!  Crazy you'd have thought they'd up the number of collections but they don't.

House hunting later this week if there's time and the headlong rush towards Christmas has started.  

A Day Out

This time last year 4 of us ventured off for a grand day out.  We went to Gillingham for a Lodge meeting and just had a ball of laughs all day long.  On the way home we had jokes on our phones and read them out one after the other and the journey took no time at all.  

How we laughed on the way home.  Just one of those really great days out so this year 3 of the 4 are going and we've dragged another mate along too.  I am looking forward to it but also to just being circumspect with the booze too.  I noticed that of late I've just slightly overdone that.  I know why but just need to be aware, I don't want my Sunday wiped out as I have plans to get on with Christmas Cards and Newsletters and getting them out of the way in one hit.

L is back from University for the weekend with her boyfriend so that's nice.  She's great fun and livens the place up and cheers up Mrs. F. and me.  I spoke to Flocky earlier today and it looks as if we will be ready to go look at houses as of next week which will be good.  I spent a few hours today having a look and there are some suitable places on the market - two though have open days tomorrow which is a bit drastic as we aren't around.  Anyway - we can see next week and there's a number than can be viewed some local (but not too local).

Mrs. F. is out on Sunday, I am out Tomorrow and this all seems to work quite well.  We aren't getting on each other's nerves or rowing we just try and keep out of each others way.  Sad.

Well must get some shut eye - big day tomorrow and looking forward to spending some time out with my friends. 

No Internet

No Internet for a day makes you extremely productive :-) Internet is back but I really do need to leave this machine and go and sort out the Christmas Cards.  I think I will try and have them all done by Sunday night if I can.  It is ridiculous how much the postage is these days - it would be far easier to send electronic cards (impersonal as they are).  I used to send thousands of them at one time when I ran the business.  

We sat down and had a long (for us) talk last night about money and our future.  Poor Mrs. F. was shaking as we spoke I feel so sad for her, it certainly upset me to see her so affected still.

Mind you we did move things on and it sort of started the conversation off about how we will sort out the bills and standing orders, the credit cards, the various bank accounts and the like.  It was difficult because it needs logical and mathematical sides to be applied and it doesn't help when you are hurting and sad and upset.  I find it quite difficult myself these days, it makes me feel bad, not about what I'm doing, I'm comfortable that I have made the right decision.  No I feel terrible about being the person who has inflicted so much pain onto Mrs. F.  

In fairness we actually inflict our own pain onto ourselves and it's worth remembering that you can choose to beat yourself up inside when you can switch that off.  Your own mind (your pain body) is happy pouring and heaping misery  on to yourself, just like mine is now making me upset because Mrs. F. is upset.  I'm not physically hurting her at all.  I'll let you think about that for a while.

At least we have a way forward and in fact it is a bit more practical than I thought she would be so that too is good.  Small steps, easy steps are the way forward.  I didn't think I'd be tearful but I have been these past few days I guess because I see Mrs. F. like that and I don't hate her I just feel sad about it all.  For her as she sees no future and everything is a problem.  Whatever I say about it, of course, isn't right.  It just makes it difficult to rationalise some of these crazy pain body type thoughts especially if she feels that there is no future, no way out, there's not enough money and so on.  She is finding it difficult to come to terms with having to get a smaller house and that it may not be in this area.  Where her parents live and where we have lived for a good part of our married lives, where the children were brought up and so on.  The house has an emotional attachment I guess.  But I've tried to show her the maths but of course, it too proves difficult to apply logic when combated by emotion (sounded Mr. Spock like there).

Well at least things are beginning to move on - I am out Saturday, Mrs. F. is out Sunday, it is her birthday on Monday - I've got the card and the book - not sure if I will give her the book for her birthday it may not be appropriate or for Christmas - we will see...  

Even Made Mrs. F. Laugh

eBay - sold some of L's Dolls House Furniture and a very nice dining table and chairs and all the cutlery and crockery.  With me so far?  Good.  She got £7.50 for it + £4 P&P.  

I just got a message in  pidgin type English saying that they weren't expecting it to be this they were expecting a full dining room suite to sit people at :-) LOL  WHAT?!!!

Once I got over the shock and finished laughing I see that they'd like to return it for a refund which is even funnier really - what were they thinking it was all labelled as Toys and Dolls House Equipment and who could deliver a dining room suit for £4.

So I've started to write a measured response to see if they really do want to send it back, it isn't covered by the distant selling regulations and so I'm not obliged to give them the postage back and pay for it to be returned as well.  They'll be lucky to see half the money returned by the time they've sent it back (as they will have their own expense).  Anyway - it gave us all a laugh here and the language is something else to behold bless them :-)

Oh well - I will have to use all my skills to word it without sarcasm and lead them to consider what is the best course of action for them.  What a crazy world we live in where anyone thought they could get a dining suite and all the stuff to go with it and get it delivered for that price - so funny and even Mrs. F. smiled and was amused.

That's eBay settled - now for Christmas

It is one of those things I planned to do was to leave the listing around about now and clear the decks ready for Christmas.  Mrs. F. really hasn't got the inclination to do much so I said that I'd do whatever she wanted me to do.  Of course I haven't got a clue what has or hasn't been done so today I'm tidying up my office and putting stuff (Vinyl records and CDs) into boxes to store them for a short while ready to sort and dispose of in the New Year.  I think I can off load the CDs easily enough but the records may be a difficult one. 

Once that little lot is cleared I can get onto tidying the downstairs rooms and move it on from there.  I have things like the cards to write, the newsletters to post and email out.  It's all difficult I have to say.  Mrs. F. still doesn't want be to tell people that might by some convoluted route get the news back to her dad, her brother or her sister.  Don't ask me I don't get the logic either :-) 

I have a few more meetings to go out to - I was meant to be up in London today but I feel I've been on the booze for weeks and yesterday was a very long session indeed and all that beer has put a few pounds on me already - I can see it - that's how quick the damn stuff works :-)  I am also contemplating what to take with me or not when I move as I have things like guitars and the like and I think I'd like to take my musical instruments with me - if nothing else I can pick them up and start to play again.  

Lots of things to think about and do - I feel a list and a mindmap coming on this afternoon to capture and plan it all out.

I'm still feeling a little emotional - a little fragile after the weekend - it really did strike into me the pain Mrs. F. has and the difficulty I am having talking to her.  Such a shame.  Hopefully it will get better in time.