Five days of happiness and now the reality of my last 10 days in London for a while, if not for quite a while. I leave on April 10th to live abroad in Portugal where I still have a small apartment that is wheelchair friendly.
It sounds good, doesn’t it, but the negative certainly outweigh the positives. I don’t know anyone there, other than my Carer who will come, and Pedro that runs the local bar. As I am not going to be drinking, the bar isn’t quite as it was long ago.
Whilst i manage my thoughts mostly quite well, I’m certainly still given to depression at times, and solitude is where the demons reside, I’m afraid. In Portugal I’ll be far away from the mates that I do rely upon, and in terms of things to do to distract my brain, it’s certainly no London.
Itll make no difference to how often I see my offspring, as less than never is still never, so some things will be as before. The weather is of course better, and the outdoors can be explored a bit, although punctures are potentially a big risk near thorny scrub beaches and arid land, and I’m not really supposed to expose myself to the Sun any more, Post dermatology findings.
So that’s a lot of time watching DVD’s then and writing I think. I may as well learn some Portuguese too – that might help me?
I do hope I might get the odd visitor if I’m there for a long time, otherwise I might end up like Ben Gunn from Treasure Island, or something. I’ve seen some castaway films and they’re quite exciting, but none of the heroes are paraplegics as far as I recall.
I’m hoping that my girlfriend can cope with a long distance relationship, as she is ever so amazing so far… typical that I have the bad fortune of having to move 2000 miles away as soon as I get the girl.
Fingers crossed tightly.
I do hope to move back to London in due course, but for now I only have the one option, and it’s the Algarve, so that is what I shall embrace, rather than dread.
It ll be good to get away from the cold weather – that stuff makes me spasm a lot!
I am a bit worried about you being out there on your own and with only a Carer. I have grown quite fond of you since reading your blog and I think you need your friends around you. See how it goes and then you can always come back. A message in a bottle is the way to communicate now. Love to you Margaret x x
Well… there is email…?
X
Why ?
That’ll be down to choice…. my only one!
Russ- while Portugal sounds nice for a visit- living there because that’s the only option left to you is hard for me to understand. You own half of your ex’s income and benefits, half of the house equity and until your girls are 18 – you have legal rights to them. I don’t know what kind of lawyers live over in London but based on insurance, disability and your ex wife’s income- you should be living where you want to live and those lovely girls of yours would be visiting their father on a regular cadence. This is no longer about sympathy and sadness. It’s about business and equity. Go find yourself one hell of a lawyer who can set a balance to this insanity. Enough.
Hear hear … Monique – you said it..
Time to spark up your laptop and keep in touch via Facebook and all that stuff, mate.
We’re all still out here, and even though it’s better to see you in person, we’re all still happy to have a natter via the screen.
And if you start writing a book while the laptop is on… 🙂
Hope you will have lots of visitors. Wish I could come over! And hopefully you will soon be back in the UK in a new home of your own. Chin up, lovely.
For goodness sake don’t grow the long hair and the beard to go the full castaway! You could write your book while you’re there – that’s another traditional castaway thing to do……
Look after yourself
Auntie Mxx
What do they use for paper, these castaways?! Or do they write it all in the sand and then the blinkin tide washes it all away, or a soddin endangered turtle digs it all up?!
Soooo wish I could pop over for a week or so.
Tryyyyyyy!!!