"When I get to Warwick Avenue, meet me by the entrance of the tube"

Embankment (not Warwick Avenue) seems to be my tube station of choice at the moment; last week I met friends there twice, got heels caught in the bridge twice, and last night I went there again, but carefully hopped over the cracks in the pavement to avoid any shoe casualties.

As we hadn't spoken for 2 weeks, I was worried it was going to be awkward; but we slipped back into our easy way of getting along and making each other laugh, telling each other what we'd been up to and eventually getting onto the subject we needed to talk about. Us.

It was a freezing cold night and so we walked as we talked - up to the London Eye and back again, past the Oxo Tower, the Tate Gallery, over the Millenium Bridge where we stopped for a bit and were sad, over to St Pauls Cathedral, onto Fleet Street, past the Courts of Justice and then back up towards Embankment tube.

Even though I knew it was coming and even though we'd both separately come to the same conclusion over the last 2 weeks as to what we wanted; like the song says 'breaking up is hard to do', and last night saying goodbye at the tube station was even harder.

A while ago I saved this article from a supplement in The Observer, cut it out and kept it. Not sure why, I just thought I might need it some day. It might offer good advice to anyone else reading this who's going through a similar thing. The whole article is good, but not entirely relevant as the woman in question was going through a break up that was entirely one sided, whereas this one isn't. So I cut the bit out that applies to me, although I have the rest if anyone's interested. Anyway...

We take love and the loss of it ridiculously personally. Yet of all the emotions we inspire in people love is the one we are least able to take credit for. No one falls in love with something tangible. It won't be simply because we told a good joke, or shaved our legs, or read Turgenev in our teens. Love is surprising and arbitrary and that's why it's so terrifyingly tenuous. Trying to understand why it's suddenly being denied is patently impossible. There are tangible reasons why a person might be good at a certain job, none whatsoever for why they tie up our heartstrings. There are so many triggers for someone falling in love with us, and I'm not sure we can take credit for any of them.

Love is brutal, and that's a fact. It emerges from hiding when you least expect it and retreats faster than a flood. You can't tame it, control it, second guess it or reclaim it. So what to do while you're suffering withdrawals? My own recipe goes against popular wisdom. Don't act fine; let your chin down, wallow in the depths of despair. Heartbreak is the perfect excuse to go into seclusion. Instead of letting your girlfriends ease their own consciences by dragging you out in their wake, I'd close the door, put on a sad song and have a good weep. We're simple creatures, really. We can only stomach so much happiness - and the same goes for sorrow. Be melancholy, take to your bed, eat crisps, watch Love Story, refuse to take calls, gorge on chocolate, write letters you don't post, emails you don't send. You need to plumb the depths until you can't take another drop of self pity. Then suddenly something as incidental as a sunset will catch your eye, you before you know it you'll be out there, heart racing, ready to take the plunge all over again.

[edit: full artice here]