Two Sides

“There are always two sides to every story…” I’ve said it myself a few times, and most of the time it’s true.  It’s also an underlying assumption about any relationship breakdown.  As a result of this, even though everyone I’ve spoken to agrees that E’s behaviour has been completely out of order, an unspoken question […]

Valuation

I received a third email from E last week pressuring me to sell the house.  This one was even shorter than the others: “Hi Haven’t had a reply re getting the house on the market. It’s been 6 weeks since I raised it and 2 weeks since my last message and with no response my […]

Honourable

E believes he is an honourable man. Don’t laugh. He really does. In the meantime, the rest of us are still struggling to reconcile the person we thought E was, with the person that the evidence is beginning to prove he actually is. There was the E I thought I was with for 25 years. […]

Pigeon

There’s a phrase I love about pointless arguments:  “Never play chess with a pigeon: the pigeon just knocks all the pieces over, then shits all over the board, then struts around like it won.” Looking back on some of my recent communication with E, it seems strangely appropriate. These days communication between E and me […]

Holiday

We’re now nearly two weeks into the school summer holidays and I’m already losing track of what day it is School summer holidays always assume a comforting, steady rhythm.  I’ve never filled the days with endless activities, for us the school holidays have always about being lazy, not getting up on time, and just enjoying […]

End of Term Report

Last Friday marked the end of the first whole school year that the kids and I have done on our own. Looking back, I’m incredibly proud of my little gang.  This time last year we were still struggling in the wake of E’s leaving and trying to get used to being a family of five […]

Fictions

Back in April, there was an interesting moment on twitter.   A female user challenged women to describe themselves in the way they thought a male writer would portray them. There were some brilliant tweets.  Here are a couple of my favourites: “Her breasts entered the room before her far less interesting face, decidedly maternal […]

Work

Working full time, after 18 years out of the workplace, has been a brilliant but, at times, slightly strange experience. I know lots of women can find being at home with their children very stressful, whilst others can find it very boring and not challenging enough – but I absolutely loved it. I loved being […]

Bad Day

I’ve had a few days this week where I’ve felt really down about everything. It’s so frustrating when these days hit –  it’s bad enough what E did, but the fact that it’s still hurting and upsetting me 18 months on just feels unfair and makes me feel like I’m being self-indulgent – surely I […]