Categories: uncategorized
Date: 19 May 2006 14:22:22
My wife left me.
You could call it a trial separation, although neither of us had any intention of it being permanent. It was simply that the perfect job for her came up in one country while I was still contracted to stay in a different country for another four months (and had no other job prospects). So we lived apart for four months. We'd done it for a couple of weeks before (for much the same reasons) and survived, so weren't particularly worried. Weekends became pressured but precious, and weekday evenings became incredibly free. And we became connoisseurs of Belgian trains. (For those who ever have cause to travel between Brussels and Cologne, don't take the Thalys - there's a slow train that leaves before it, takes only half an hour longer, but is empty (because everyone is herded onto the Thalys) and has huge comfortable seats with loads of space - a much more luxurious experience than the Thalys cattle trucks. Mind you, this advice is 6 years out of date and things may have changed). Looking back I can remember the positives - the spare time and the precious weekends, and although I know that the loneliness was terrible, my recollection of that is much less vivid than the good things. It's well-known that memory accentuates the positive, but why does it do that? If I don't cling on to the memory of that loneliness I could find myself wishing to be alone again, and what good would that do? Is my mind secretly conspiring to destroy what contentment I have? Actually that sounds quite plausible ....