Business Trips – and Losses
If only we could see things before the experience teaches us things that we already knew.
I recently travelled to Christchurch on business, and along the way discovered that living with my
my lifelong partner had become a way of life for me. Gone are the days of singularity that I used to thrive on. Gone are the solitary enjoyments. As soon as work was done, and the night drew its velvety cloak around the city I realised that I was missing something. The beauty of the Cathedral, the quaint victorian houses, the neverending flatness, and the willow trees crying their leaves into the river Avon, had little appeal without someone to share it with. Oh how I longed to be able to show my wife all these beautiful things, How they were diminished by her abscence. Even sleep did not come easily, even after a 13 hour day. The sounds and the ceiling held my eyes and ears captive until the wee hours of the morning. the next day not even the flower adorned tram, trundling past my balcony could raise a smile.
Don’t get me wrong, or think me maudlin, I enjoyed every moment of Christchurch’s architechture, nature and history, It was an awakening of how intertwined my wife and my life had become. Through it all, the irritations, the constant, or so it seemed, nagging, and the annoyances counted for nothing. I really missed my wife.
It was good to finally get back home, and after five minutes I longed to be back in Christchurch !