home - and awake - at last

So, a chaos week before going away. A really crap start to the holiday, with cancelled flights and British Airways making serious fools of themselves by the way they handled the whole problem, and eventually, a good flight with Virgin.

Got to Denver a day late, but my buddy there had rearranged life so that we still got to do all that we planned. Including a rodeo, combined with a stock show, which was awesome. Some incredible horseriding, some really cute cows! And then it was off to the mountains, with me wearing shorts and a tshirt cos it just wasn't cold enough for anything more. Could have made an interesting pic - me at the edge of the skislope with sandals on, if only I had remembered to take it. The skiing was awesome, albeit painful. All round I am not fit enough, and specifically, my knees definately aren't! But I loved it anyway, and wished I could have been there longer.

After that, it was back across the globe to stay with my aunt in Germany for a few days. I'm not quite sure why that was mandatory, but my mom seemed keen that I went, and it was a good visit too. Except for an overdose of castles and cathedrals... yeah, I know, they are impressive, but I am as impressed by seeing them for two minutes as I am ever going to be - after an hour or two, most of what I feel is an intense desire to bomb the places so that I can go have coffee somewhere! I am so not a good tourist...

Highlight of the trip was getting four (!!) mails from the dude, with a confession that he 'missed me a bit' - this is the dude equivalent of an entire book of sonnets, I guess, and was much appreciated. And a suitably passionate welcome home, this week. The animals survived, most of the birds did too, I'm uninjured, still employed, still vaguely sane. And even more in love than before. I missed him incredibly. There were so many things that he would have enjoyed, and that I wished I could share with him. I left my vehicle with him so that he could spend some time working on his - instead, he fixed a whole bunch of things for me, things that needed to be done but weren't urgent, and that took time and effort on his part. Next week will make it a year of physical stuff, and almost as much of loving him. I am still so ambivalent about it all - in a way, I was hoping to find out that I could spend time away without thinking about him constantly. That didn't happen, I guess, so it's back to the bit about enjoying it while it lasts. And I am...