I’m back.
The few of you who read these diary entries will almost certainly know where I’ve been. If you don’t, here’s the summary: my marriage ended; my wife is living with someone else; the children are living with me; we’re all getting on with managing the aftermath from this. Because there are others involved, I’m not mentioning further details or names at this point (although those who know me are welcome to contact me privately). I have been keeping up with my diary posts, but almost everything from April and May will remain unpublished at this time; for the foreseeable future, and possibly forever. We’ll see…
So, where were we?
The Elderbeast is now attending PEAC classes on Thursday mornings. We drop the Kinderbeast off at school, then head off to PEAC. Almost immediately, I pull out on a roundabout right in front of an ambulance (well, if you’re going to crash into another vehicle …). Luckily there’s plenty of room to spare and it’s not even a near-miss, but it’s still not a great start. Alongside the general collapse of my life as I knew it, I’m also anxious about a work-related social event later in the day. I’m anxious about social events at the best of times, but despite feeling like I’m almost back to normal (following the events detailed above that will heretofore collectively be referred to as The Event) I don’t seem to have enough left in me to fight the anxiety.
It’s a busy day. After the PEAC drop-off I dive into work, have a couple of meetings, then dive right out again to collect the Elderbeast from PEAC and deposit him at school. We’re having a working lunch type thing at work, so I also drop into Coles to pick up drinks, and then into Subway to collect three enormous platters of food (one of which is entirely cookies)–it turns out the Subway order has not been paid for, so out comes my credit card.
I get back to work and get a call from Rachel, who is off getting some legal papers signed, but it turns out I haven’t given her all the papers she needs and the trip has been wasted. I have to wonder how much this mishap on my part is going to add to my legal bill.
We continue with the planning meeting and I make a valiant attempt to make a dent in the cookie platter, but it’s futile. The whole team then heads into the city for the dreaded social event, which turns out to be more of a meeting in any case. I plan to head home afterwards, but in a genius move this particular company has a well-stocked bar hidden away in their meeting room. I stay for a beer (my first one in months, and it goes down very well indeed) then head off having perfectly enjoyed the overall experience.
I’m taking the kinderbesten to a friend’s house for dinner in the evening, and I’m worried about running late. I’ve planned ahead somewhat: I’ve left the car parked at work, close to the train station, and asked Rachel to drop the kinderbesten off at her parents’ house, which is close to work. However, things start to look a bit slipshod when I get to the train station and find I’m facing a 17 minute wait for the next train–and it’s not even 6pm yet! Then it turns out that Transperth can’t even run trains late properly as the train turns up less than ten minutes later.
Everything runs like clockwork, and we have a terrific dinner (crispy southern chicken) at my friend’s house. On the drive back, the Elderbeast asks to listen to Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds, which instantly means we’ll have nothing else in our heads for at least the next three days. He decides he wants to read the book, and I find a copy for his kindle for less than a dollar which he ploughs into (“It’s amazing already!” he responds when I ask if he’s enjoying it).
It’s been a long day, and there’s nothing for it but for all three of us to head to bed as soon as we get home.