My spirits have been lifted today by something rather simple - a telephone call from W.
Perhaps my slide towards being an old curmudgeon has been halted by St. Valentine. Perhaps it’s just an affirmation of the old quote though - “It’s good to talk”.
As those who read this blog regularly will know, I am working in London at the moment, which entails a 7am train journey each day (meaning I have to scrape myself out of bed well before that). I usually try to creep out of the house as quietly as possible in order to let W have her last hour’s sleep without some big clumsy oaf stomping about and turning the bedroom light on and off.
I had to go back into the bedroom three times this morning while searching for shoes, a shirt, and my security pass (which was still in the breast pocket of yesterday’s shirt - I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve done that trick now). Each visit was greeted by “swshthlightff”, and the duvet retracting even further into itself.
I left the house feeling suitably guilty.
Once on the train, I got my laptop out of my bag, put the bag in the compartment over my head, sat down, and unzipped the protective sleeve… and discovered a red envelope with “Jonathan” written on it.
I’m not going to tell you what was written on the card inside the envelope (clue : it’s St. Valentines day today), but I will let on that a tear trickled down my cheek, and I sat there smiling like an idiot.
It’s the little things, isn’t it. Earlier this week I had been sounding off to friends in emails that I couldn’t see the point in St. Valentines day if you are in a relationship. How foolish do I feel right now? Very.
I’ve drifted away from the subject I opened this post with in quite alarming fashion. Time to get it back on track… the telephone call.
While out buying lunch on the streets of London I called W to thank her for the card, and found myself sitting on a bench for five minutes - just swapping the story of our day so far. I walked away from the bench with a spring in my step. Perhaps it was a magic bench?
Perhaps I just love W lots…