Well, my dears, today is November 30. It's been one year and most of a day since my sweetheart landed at Gatwick with the motorcycle.
It's been a bittersweet few days. Both of us have been thinking about it. I'll never forget standing at Pearson with Mum and Sarah, determined that the last thing my sweetie was going to see of me was a smile on my face as I waved. It was so hard, but I never felt more relief than I did as he walked away from security and lifted his hat with a smile. Mum and Sarah had their arms around me, supporting me, as we turned and walked out of the airport.
All of you who were there for us during that time know what it was like in the weeks preceding his departure. The horrible, surreal nature of it. And now, it's been a full year. And we would not have made this anniversary without all of you. Giving your time, your love, your energy and your spirit ... words cannot sufficiently express our gratitude for and to all of you.
How weird it all is. Slowly, I grow a little less homesick, a little more accustomed to living in the country I talked about moving to for over a decade. A knife turns in my heart every time I think about how we came to this, but the pain is slightly less with every passing day. Our love is strong. It carries us through. And we move forward.
He keeps making me watch 'Carry On' movies. Sometimes they're funny. At least they're amusing. If a trifle silly. He's interrupted my blog entry with a scene he insists is going to make me laugh out loud. We'll see.
Oh, I saw the physiotherapist for an assessment of my knees. She's referred me for ongoing physio for them, but her advice was that I should ... strengthen my quads. For god sake. The thing is, it seems that all these years I've been working on the wrong ones. There's a tendon that runs up the outside of your thigh, from the knee to the hip - the iliotibial tendon. So, it seems that in my case, it's far too tight, and it pulls my kneecaps to the outside of my leg. Up the centre of the thigh is your quad muscle. Beside that, on the inside of the thigh, is another quad muscle - vasculo-medial-obliques (that's wrong, but it's close). Anyway, it's too weak. So, the tendon is too tight and the muscle is too weak, and between them, they're screwing my kneecaps. So I have to loosen the one, and strengthen the other. Now, it all makes sense. And my first question is - why is this the first time, in 30 years of knees problems, the first time I'm hearing about this???!!!
So, now I'm dealing with it. Good grief.
My sweetie asked me to tell you all that he is now a 'lean, mean f***ing machine'. Translation: he's fitter and firmer than ever before. Really we are both much healthier a year in. Lack of stress, country life, a healthy diet (not like we didn't have one before) and exercise make all the difference. Did I mention lack of stress?
We bought our Yule tree the other day. It's still in the ground, and we're going to have them pot it instead of cutting it, so we can plant it in the garden. Our first Yule tree in England.
As for the 'Carry On' movie, it was a trifle amusing. It did not make me laugh out loud.
Oh, and today, we had a touch of Canadian cold. It was wonderful. Comfortingly familiar. No dampness at all. Sunshine and -2. Perfect. Crisp. Clean. Cold. Everyone here hates it. One man at our local even said it was unhealthy and that this kind of cold, kills. I loved it. Aleksandra loved it. My sweetie loved it. But then, we're accustomed to cold without dampness.
Oh, AND, we've bought a couple of area rugs for the house. Well. The Princess has claimed them all. No kidding. She's on the new rug before I'm done putting it on the floor. You'd think there was nowhere in the house that's comfortable for her. OK. Other than our bedroom, with boxes of stuff we've saved from the mould all over the office, I guess there really is nowhere in the house that's comfortable for her. But still, you'd think we'd bought these area rugs just for her!
So that's life here. We're trying to get Christmas organized, but generally, things are good. We're happy, healthy and, maybe, a little wiser.
I'm so glad you are both well, and from the sounds of it, you were unaffected by the storms that seem to be affecting the rest of the UK (except for London, based on what I hear from my cousins). Meanwhile, miss you terribly, but happy that life is much better for the both of you now. Hugs and kisses to you both and many head skritches for the pup.
ReplyDeletePS: It's Kat... don't know why it's calling me "unknown" when I signed in via google!
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