Monday 16 February 2009

Head fook.

It's strange how sometimes horoscopes seem to fit seamlessly with your everyday life. Or when you think of a song then it comes on the radio, or you talk about a person and then they call.

Today's been a day like that. Reading yesterday's travel section of the Telegraph over breakfast and the front page stuck out like a snail on speed: "Can a holiday mend a broken heart?" it asked, before launching into a feature on how a journalist managed to get over her disastrous 4 month marriage by building a hut in Ecuador. I got half way through then skipped to the next page. A second headline caught my eye: "How blue skies and calypso can help ease the pain". Another break up story, advising a holiday to the sun to chase away that feeling, the one words can't touch for authenticity. A few pages further, and there's a spotlight section on Serre Chevalier, where I spent last week skiing, partying and feeling better than I have in months.

What made those printed words so poignant? Obviously, I'm feeling happier after my holiday. The ex had quietly sloped off into the back of my mind, leaving me wondering what the fuss was all about anyway. However, no matter what you feel about a situation: when you're sitting in your car outside a tube station waiting to pick it up and bring it to your house, you never know how it's going to pan out.

All those stories about how a holiday can cure a broken heart, there's some truth in that, I've got no doubt about it. Without that holiday I wouldn't have been able to sit in my living room with a cup of tea and laugh, joke, tease and catch up with the bloke who's meant so much for so long. It helped me to stand firm, put myself first and not concede to his suggestion of dropping him back to Wandsworth instead of the tube station. It meant I could wish him well, say it had been really good to see him and actually mean it.

What a holiday couldn't stop was the long hug which said everything else, the difficult stuff, the things that a 'catch up' doesn't include or make time for. It couldn't stop me watching him in my rear view mirror as he walked to the station entrance, snowboard on his back, with every bit of me wanting to call him back and drive him home as I normally would. A holiday couldn't stop me from sitting in my car for another few minutes, tears running down my face, before starting the engine and going home to put our empty mugs in the dishwasher.

13 comments:

The Unbearable Banishment said...

A holiday can't stop a lot of things, but it's a damn good way to start stopping. A blue post. The good kind of blue. Not the depressing kind. The B.B. King kind.

Brennig said...

Sympathies.

Anonymous said...

Jo :(

I think you're doing very well

Anonymous said...

I think a holiday can make you realise that everything's not totally pants and you can have fun still... but I don't think it can mend a broken heart... only time and moving on will do that. xx

Mouldy-Old-Tartlet said...

Poor Jo :(

The holiday was definitely the right way to go about taking your mind off things .. now the rest is just up to time.

Hang in there kiddo :)

Emsbabee said...

I guess it allows you to realise that you can have a lot of fun without them. But that in itself can be quite sad.

Please Don't Eat With Your Mouth Open said...

unbearable - a reflective post!

thanks brennig & blueskies.

pjb - you speak wise words. although had we not ever met up again there would have been some scope for getting over it all very quickly, i think.

m-o-t : I'm hanging, and also...maybe another holiday is in order?

emsbabee - Yeaaaah thats quite sad. Like it's not necessarily better, just different.

weenie said...

A holiday helps by taking you away from your normal surroundings and memories and allows you to have fun and forget for a little while. Your mind and heart will be grateful for the break but only time can heal them fully.

Anonymous said...

I came here to comment on a post I enjoyed about Blackberries, but it seems to have disappeared. Copyright infringement?

Please Don't Eat With Your Mouth Open said...

weenie - time, time time...i've got plenty of that!

mjohnson - blackberries? as in phones or the fruit? I haven't written about any of those either way . Now I feel like I've disappointed you :-/

Anonymous said...

at least the ex let you catch up, i recieved no reply to my message of catching up.

Holidays = sun = amazing pick me ups though.

Time Traveller said...

God I know how that feels. All evening you think it's ok, I can do this, what was all the fuss about, until the moment he walks away.

:) the dishwasher thing. I used to do that, the way to get over that is clean up BEFORE he leaves - so theres no sign of him when he's gone.

Please Don't Eat With Your Mouth Open said...

That's the one TT. That bit when it hits you, knocks you sideways like maaan, I've been fine for the past hour - where did that come from! And good shout on the clear up plan. Better still, get THEM to clear their own cups up :)

 

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