peaks and troughs

I knew that dealing with Significant Other's depression would be a case of peaks and troughs. I just didn't realise that I would be looking back at what I called a trough 2 months ago and find that it was in fact a peak.

champagne cocktail

A combination of an icky week at work and it being my birthday tomorrow made me wander over to the champagne bar at St P@ncras Station and have this before heading home:



Bliss!

things I have learnt today

1) That being asked for money by a grown woman dressed as a fairy, carrying a large bucket simply labelled "charity", is unlikely to induce me to part with my hard-earned cash.

2) That it takes a nano-second to drop a pine-nut into a computer keyboard and a full ten minutes to extract it using an opened-up paper-clip and a blob of Blu-T@c.

3) That wearing a full-skirted frock on a deceptively breezy day is guaranteed to reveal your nether-garments to the paramedics who are taking their tea break in the ambulance bay.

4) That it is possible to walk around the whole day with a pen stuck in your hair and no-one will say a word, so you only discover it when you get home.

5) That if someone tells you at mid-day that you are "well maintained" you will spend the rest of the day feeling like some kind of National Trust landmark.

summer chic

An icky day in the middle of an icky week was enlivened this afternoon by the woman ahead of me in the queue for sushi. She was wearing a strappy sundress, flip-flops and...a Ushanka:

back in Blighty

Thirty-eight hours of travel from door-to-door later and we got home yesterday afternoon. I am still sooo tired that I don't remember much from the journey apart from a few highlights.

1. on the plane from the Sunshine Co@st to Sydney there was a child in the row behind us who screamed. She screamed when her brother got the window seat. She screamed when her mother fastened her seatbelt. She screamed (for joy this time?) when she was offered a sweet. She screamed for 2 minutes straight for no discernible reason and then her brother swapped seats with her and stopped screaming and instead took up kicking the seat in front of her. Which of course was mine.
2. on the 14-hour flight from Sydney to Dub@i there was a man across the aisle from us who kept his neighbouring passengers...amused...for roughly six hours by singing along to the music playing on his headphones. Every now and then he would hit a particularly high note and his immediate neighbour jumped a mile in her seat, poor thing. He seemed to have an inordinate amount of B@rry White on his playlist, and had clearly been a fan of the tv show "All.y McBe@l" because I swear he once did a bit of this dance in his seat (with his eyes closed).
3. we had a few hours to pass in Sydney so took the train from the airport to Circle Qu@y and checked to see that the bridge and the opera house were still how we remembered them.
4. they were :-)
5. I watched "Shutt£r Island" on the flight from Dub@i to London and it gave me nightmares last night.
   

last days

So on Saturday morning, Significant Other and I got all spontaneous and we hired a car and I drove us to where we could catch a steam train.
We raced the sunset to Hervey B@y where we had a romantic meal amid sparkly lights.


The next morning we watched the sun rise over the marina.

We stopped for lunch at Tin C@n B@y on the way back here.


And today we walked on the beach.

Just him and me, and it was lovely.

raving

We interupt the usual schedule of ranting at the universe to rave over Australia, and in particular, QLD. I have been here twice before but I had forgotten:

The air! Fresh like nothing you whiff in London, even on the breeziest of days.

The tomatoes! I hate them usually, it's a texture thing perhaps but I think that they come straight from Satan's armpit at home but here - so sweet and full of flavour. Nom, nom, nom.

The water! There is a shortage because of a long-standing drought so showers are no longer than 4 minutes long, but it is so soft that my skin feels like velvet and my hair is as soft as my darling little cat's fur.

The laid-backitude! If that isn't a word, it should be. The waiter at the Hervey B@y marina bistro (more on that in another post) last night waved us off with a cheery "toodles!"

And last but not least - the plasticised money! I dropped a twenty dollar bill briefly into the sink this morning and it is none the worse for wear.

I know that there is still a lot of poo to deal with in my life but - right here, right now I am happy.

improvement

You are all, every one of you, both awesome and right.

I can't tell you how much your comments and support have helped. I took your advice as, to a woman, you all suggested that I stop covering things up. So, when not-MIL asked yesterday morning "is Significant Other okay?" I said "well he is rather depressed". Not-MIL said nothing more on the topic to me but I heard her say something to not-FIL and later on in the day Significant Other was taken off for a father-son chat.

Before that, however, I also took a deep breath and spoke to Significant Other on Sunday night and told him that I thought he was being a bit unfair on me by shutting himself in the bedroom and leaving me to entertain his parents alone. I mentioned that this was all very difficult for me as well and told him that I was feeling sad and very homesick. I also said - not threatening, but simply stating the facts, that if things didn't get better, I was going to go home on Friday (it is not-MIL's birthday on Thursday).

And yesterday was a lovely day. Significant Other made me coffee in the morning, did his best to enjoy himself on a river cruise despite the rain, joined in the chatter around the lunch table and took me off for a walk on our own afterwards.

This is all your doing, dear interwebs, because you gave me the support I needed to find the courage to talk to Significant Other. So again - thank you!

Edited to add - just noticed that Blogger put the date and time of this post as if I were publishing in England normal, it is in fact Tuesday morning as I write this.

whimpering

I know that I am on holiday in a lovely part of the world and I should really get over myself but...I'm blue. Very blue.

Significant Other is barely speaking to me and spends most of his waking time lying on the bed in our room, leaving me to pretend that everything is fine to his parents.

My tummy hurts and I have constant nausea.

I'm back in the same state as where we lost Starchild 2 years ago. And even though we are an hour away from where it all happened (Brisb@ne), every time I turn my head I seem to be back in 2008.

I know that this is pathetic but - I'm thousands of miles from home and I could really do with a hug, dear Interwebs.

misnomer

It took almost 2 days of travel to get here - 6 hours from London to Dub@i, 16 hours from Duba@i to Sydney, 6 hour wait in Sydney, 1.5 hours from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast.

Ah the Sunshine Coast - what images does that name conjure up? Sun, warmth, sea, surf.

I'm sitting under the heater, my cardigan zipped up to my chin and the hood snug over my ears after a cold and rainy day, part of which was spent buying me a coat. Everyone I have spoken to today has agreed that we are having an "unusually cold week this week".

Ah well, there is a bookshop opposite and a coffee shop a quick hurtle down the road and we are on holiday so it's not really so bad :-)