Connie used to plan her life around her summer cruises in Vemara. When her son David got to school age she had to modify this annual scheme but the principle remained intact. This made it easy for her to slot back into the old routine after she divorced and her son was living with his father. Dad looked after the school runs during term time and David stayed with Connie on her boat in Rye or Boulogne at weekends…or flew out to exotic places like Gotland, Brittany or the Channel Islands to join Vemara in the summer holidays.
Up until last year my daughter planned her annual life around summer music festivals. She was running a stall selling Indian silks. A friend of mine who was seventy earlier this year suffers from rheumatism. He plans in terms of the winter months…November, December, January and February. The last place he wants to be during the English winter is in England. This year he has been living in Vietnam. Other winters he has been in New Zealand. He seeks out warmer climes in the winter but for the rest of the year he likes to be in England.
Heidi works part-time for East Sussex County Council. She plans in terms and school holidays. In term time her life revolves around Rye Harbour. But with her schooling duties taking up just two days a week she has the flexibility to drive over to Robertsbridge and takes the train to Lewisham where she lived up until the end of 2004. Here she meets old friends, goes to the theatre, art galleries, restaurants and so on. She has a couple of places she stays over. Half term and the Christmas, Easter and Summer holidays are seen as opportunities to get away and do something more adventurous. Before Christmas Heidi was working on her project with villagers in Lwala on the shores of Lake Victoria for ten days.
Temperatures on Planet Earth have been static over the past eight years according to Professor Bob Carter.
When two people become a couple one of the first problems to deal with are conflicting calendars. Our problem is conflicting planning paradigms. This is something else. I do indicative planning...see weblog for 29/1. My paradigm does not mesh easily with Heidi’s. To me the answer is obvious. Heidi should give up her two-day a week job and set herself up as an ownworker. So I have pushed a number of opportunities into her path during the past nine months. But so far only the Good Yacht Guide has looked promising. Heidi also thinks the answer is obvious. I should behave like a normal person, get myself an apartment in Rye and reorganise myself into her paradigm. Unfortunately this to me is the wrong solution to the wrong problem...and would breed new conflicts.
This morning we agreed we had reached an impasse and were just making each other’s lives a misery and decided to break up. I think there are a couple of other things going on...one of which is the mismatching of our material situation. Heidi has a house while I have had little interest in acquisition over the past twenty years. Been there, done it...and given it all away to my ex-wife. This has changed now I have a chance of winning Heidi’s hand. Anyway the die is cast...at least until the next text exchange.
So the day started with the break-up of my marriage...long before the wedding...and then got worse. The curse was working itself out. In mid-afternoon matters were brought to a head with Mr. Roud when he turned off the electricity to the boat. There was an altercation. He told me to get myself and the boat off his moorings. I refused and told him there was something called due process and he had better follow it...adding for good measure that freezing a tenant whose rent and electricity was paid up until the end of the year not only constituted harassment but also attempted manslaughter.
At Ryesingers practice in the evening I was welcomed back like the long-lost prodigal son...a nice change after having been called everything under the sun earlier in the day. It was not worth lighting the coal stove when I got back to Vemara at ten so I got into my pyjamas, put on my dressing gown and crept into my sleeping bag. The boat looks nice by candlelight. It was a cold night outside.
