Family Affairs

THANK YOU TO ROCOCO CHOCOLATES

I took my friend who is in between chemotherapy treatments up to town the day before yesterday to collect her Valentine’s prize from the Rococo shop. She was feeling well and happy and we had a really lovely day.

Here is the blog post she wrote on it:-

I had a lovely day yesterday. I did my stretch class which made me feel, well, stretched. Afterwards my friend (who happens to be the my stretch teacher too) drove us into town for some fun. We visited Anna Valentine at her studio. It is located in one of those really pretty Mews streets that are tucked away in London, just off Marlybone Lane. The building is beautiful. White wash walls, stone floors and open fireplaces. And her collection of beautiful clothes amazing. Having seen them at the fashion show a couple of weeks ago, it was great to see the detailing and fabrics up close. I got all dreamy about owning one. And I will keep dreaming about it because chances of me having the floaty nude coloured dress I was eying up are pretty darn minimal.

We then visited Rococo Chocolates to collect my winning box of chocolates. Rococo chocolate is delicious and the packaging lovely. I need to take a picture quickly to post as the chocolates themselves seem to be evaporating. I have no idea where they are going…

We then had a lovely lunch with maybe just a few bubbles… and a mooch along Marlybone High Street into the VERY nice shops. I may have purchased a couple of things while I was there. I love this bit of London. It is so close to the chaos of Oxford Street yet such a completely different feel. If you haven’t discovered it yet the you should.

Although I was tired when I got home and went to bed very early last night, it was great to be out. I am living most of my life at the moment either within this home, or the few surrounding streets in the local community. It was great to just be out. To look at lovely things. To laugh. And live.

BOY SUSPENDED

One of the boys in my teenage son’s class was suspended for two days today. My son just can’t believe it…..

They were all messing around with one of the boys phones. It got passed around the class and finally ended up with the boy sitting next to my son. He decided to send a text to the boy’s mother saying “I’m gay”.

A little while later a text came back saying “OK, lets talk about it later”.

The entire class were in hysterics, including the boy who’s phone it was apparently. They just thought it was the funniest thing ever.

Today however, was a different matter. The boy who sent the text was called in to see the Headmaster and told that the mother had found the text deeply distressing and as a result not only had she had to leave work early, but she had a panic attack. The school consequently saw no alternative but to suspend him.

Not good, but a bit extreme don’t you think?

My son and his friends are thinking about starting a petition to say just that they think that attitude is verging on the homophobic.

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CHILDREN AND EXERCISE

My two older children do so much exercise it’s ridiculous. Especially my teenage son. He’s in the first team for rugby and football and cricket at school and plays football for his local team as well. I can’t remember the last time he didn’t have a game of something or other on [...]

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BODY ODOUR

“OMG!!” said my daughter said to me this morning. “Your scarf absolutely STINKS! IT”S REVOLTING! IT SMELLS OF SWEAT AND IT’S MAKING ME GAG”. So I smelt it. It didn’t smell that bad to me.
Enter sidedoor my 9 year old with a let-me-smell-I’ll-sort-out-the-problem sort of flourish.
One big sniff [...]

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NOT SURVIVING DIVORCE AFTER ALL…..

I am feeling a little jumpy. I had an email from my X yesterday simply saying in writing everything that he had said last week. That he didn’t want to pay me any more maintenance. That he thought it was unfair. That I should get a full time job. I’m not sure what happens next. I guess he has a plan. It seems so wrong that after all the initial battles we had, even three years down the line, when he is about to remarry that I am not allowed to feel calm about my future and my security.

But that isn’t even the reason for my anxiety. This morning was a little stressy. At 7am I had to drive teenage son to school. Come back. Get lunch sorted. Usual stuff. Drive daughter to school. Park and do a 20 minute run with 9 year old son (new regime required – further details another time). Get back home. Get him changed. Get him in to school for 8.30am choir. Late.

Then I went to see the school secretary to book a time for his parent/teacher consultations. Two days ago when my X dropped the kids off I discussed the times with him and he said it had to be as late as possible because he was going to be busy at work. He ticked the slot we had agreed on. However, the secretary told me there were no slots left at that time. So we looked for a different time. She then pointed out that my X had made an alternative appointment just yesterday for a much earlier time with the headmaster – “just for him”.

Why would he do that without telling me? We’ve always done the school/children thing together.

What does he want to talk about regarding our son that I should not know about? Because he is moving away (today) I am paranoid that he has plans to take my youngest child with him. That would break my heart. I have immediately leapt to that conclusion. I hope to god I’m wrong. Is he waiting for me to say that nothing has changed regarding our circumstances, that I still have a primary school child to look after and therefore full time work is difficult, so that he can then suggest he lives with them instead? Can he do that?

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STEP SIBLINGS

THEN there is the whole other issue of how my children will deal with their three new step-siblings. SO WEIRD for them to suddenly double their numbers. My daughter is going to be the only girl. Good and bad. I suspect.

My nine year old came back from his weekend with his new family wearing a hideous pink and green plastic bracelet. “It’s a shag band” he told me. “My new step brother has told me that I have to keep it on and that if it breaks I have to have sex with someone”.

Bloody hell. It’s this sort of thing that is going to be a nightmare to manage.

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HOW TO SURVIVE DIVORCE

My divine blog friend in Tanzania called Janelle who writes one of the most extraordinarily moving and wonderful blogs I know – no more so than her last entry about gratuitous violence and the loss of a good man sent me an article a while ago written by someone I like the sound of called Anne Hill. It was all about her thoughts and advice on surviving divorce. I hope she won’t mind if I take a little of what she says and adapt it accordingly, because of course every individual situation is different.

Actually, to be honest, I’m really not sure that I am in a position to write a post on “How To Survive Divorce” because I am certainly no expert on the matter. Sometimes, like today, I can still feel fragmented and tearful. My ex husband is moving away on Wednesday. To his new 6 bedroom house with his new family. To his new life. Even after all this time apart from him it feels strange. The children are unsettled. My daughter said her teacher’s are being very sympathetic – which means she’s milking the situation for all it is worth at school. Things will change. I don’t know how yet. I don’t know if the children will want to spend more time with me because his house is too far away from their friends or less time with me because their all year round heated swimming pool is going to prove to be a major trump card.

ANYWAY. BACK TO THE POINT.

HOW TO SURVIVE DIVORCE (hopefully)

1. Your friends (and family if you’re lucky) will get you through it more than you will ever know. Don’t ever take them for granted. They will be there with you on your long journey back out of the black hole.

2. Be prepared. You are in for a long hard slog. Rumour has it that it takes half the time you were married to begin to get over your marriage. If that is too awful a prospect then bank on it taking AT LEAST four years. The first year is almost better than the next one. You will probably be a bit unhinged and angry in the first year and do irrational things and get drunk far too often. You may even have sex with a virtual stranger and then freak out about it and decide that you have caught some hideous sexual disease. In the second year reality bites and it’s all highly depressing because not only are things just as hard but you’re exhausted from Year One. If you’re lucky, by Year Three the drama has died down a bit (sadly not in my case as ex husband started going out with my boyfriend’s ex wife and caused disaster number 2). By Year Four you are able to see the wood for the trees and can finally start reassessing your life.

3. In the early days make sure you get out of bed every day. Sometimes your body feels so heavy it won’t move. It would have been so much easier to curl up into a ball, ignore the kids, have a quiet nervous breakdown in a corner somewhere. But it doesn’t work like that. You have to “face the dragon”. Deal with the shit. Go to the meetings. Brush your hair. Remember to eat. Remember to breathe. Pick your kids up from school. Put your make-up on. Fill out that complicated form. Go to that party on your own. Do the stuff you dread. You have to. It will make you stronger and consequently it will all get easier. You will do most of it on automatic pilot and then be amazed with yourself that you got through it. I managed to learn an entirely new trade during my most traumatised time. It saved me from myself.

4. Be kind to yourself. My old school friend wrote to me at the beginning of the whole process. She told me to do just that. To treat myself as if I was going on a date with myself (which frankly had no appeal whatsoever – I hated my own company – thankfully she invited herself along on most occasions which helped hugely). Have a massage, or go to an exhibition or a film on your own. Put yourself higher up your list of priorities. Sometimes it pays to be selfish. Try not to feel sad that you have no one to do things with or to buy you presents, buy yourself some stuff. Treat yourself to things. It’s important. Do the things that give you pleasure and forget the rest. Go on a cooking course, a knitting course, ride wolves, sail, play poker, write a book. Whatever. It. Takes. Buy a big comfortable bed and spread out in it by yourself. It doesn’t take long before sharing it again becomes a bit more difficult….

5. Cut the crap. Don’t go to everything. Do some sifting. Do the stuff that makes you enjoy for whatever reason. Let go of the social events that no longer work for you and of the friends that take more than they give. Drop the stuff that’s taking up too much time and getting you nowhere.

6. Most importantly keep your sense of humour. You will find that different friends are there at different times and for different reasons. Some can take you out and make you laugh and push you in at the deep end of your new scary life. Others are there for when you find your feet again and want some semblance of normality. It won’t always be funny, but there is always a funny side to be found. A different perspective to look at.

For the most part things will get better and easier. I still have my moments where I wonder how I got here – my “Je Regrette Everything” moments, but I guess the heavy pit in the bottom of my stomach gets lighter every year and I’m still here. Still breathing. Still laughing. Still hoping.

Sometimes, when you look at what is going on in the world and what other people are going through, having the time and space to mourn for your marriage is almost an indulgence. I am still a very lucky person who has three lovely children and a roof over my head and lots of fantastic friends and lots of lovely stuff to do and, and, and, and another year has gone by in a flash. But it’s springtime in London and even if it weren’t you might find it helpful to remember that “in the kingdom of hope there is no winter”.

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