Look darling, I've got to go.: May 2011

Wednesday, 4 May 2011

New Blog

You might have noticed something of a lack of recent updates. After my initial period of optimism just after the Lieutenant started his tour in Afghanistan I lost the ability to do anything besides bemoan my lack of boyfriend/job/money/life, and I suspect it doesn't make for great reading material.

I did, however, come into possession of an iphone and began something of a love affair with a number of photographic apps, so in place of whining or trying to force 'funny' onto a page here, I started a photographic blog elsewhere. Here's the link:

http://dailydetails.tumblr.com/

Tumblr isn't my ideal site and leaves a lot to be desired in terms of format and personalisation possibilities, so I may move back over to Blogger at some point in the future. I am also painfully aware of being the oldest person on Tumblr by something in the region of 10 years, which isn't helping in the run-up to the big 3-0!

The gist of the thing

It's September 2008 and I'm cremating several slices of bacon and a couple of croissants in a somewhat pathetic attempt to serve up the perfect leaving breakfast, his last meal as a free man, to my boyfriend, who has only just thought to pack a bag and is racing round emptying drawers and making a mess. 'I'm going to have to clean all this later' I think to myself as I watch him digging through the laundry pile like a Jack Russell unearthing a dinosaur skeleton.

The bag is no sooner packed and the breakfast eaten (or hastily deposited in a plant pot), than his father whisks him off to The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. I refuse to go for fear of blubbing hysterically and destroying our reputation before he's even donned a pair of combat pants. It's hard to look chic in an evening dress when everyone's seen you with snot candles.

So I decide to do the strong thing and stay at home, sobbing so uncontrollably that I drop my phone in a glass of orange juice before he's even on the M6. We'd only lived together in our tiny Salford flat, our very own little Green Zone, for a matter of months but had become rapidly accustomed to each other's company. It's hard not to really when the living room struggles to accommodate a two-seater sofa. So you can imagine my glee when my phone, still a little damp and smelling somewhat citrusy, rang that evening and his familiar voice brought news of the first day. He'd arrived safely, they had queued for a long time to be issued some hideous green overalls and a pair of trainers obviously surplus from the 1980s. There was so much to say, and it was so good to hear his voice, but he stops short; and that's when he utters the immortal words that were to define our relationship from that day on; “Look darling, I've got to go”. Something had come up.