Life as a married man

Well the first thing, after leaving my wife to go look after her family, was to walk back to the restaurant where i'd managed to leave my spare clothes. It felt like the walk of shame... a morning walk in the same clothes as the night before! And it was not to get much better as i got to the restaurant and found i had not left any trousers there, so i had to spend the rest of the day wearing trainers, a t-shirt and my suit trousers! Oh well, with a heavy head and having found Ian, the two of us made it to a pub near Euston for some decent British Pies and Ale. Although it was nice to be at a pub with all the Uni mates, I was not with my wife, I was nursing a hangover and I was on apple juice for the first couple of hours.

Finally, with the sun shining, and similar memories from the day after the "stag party", it was time for a beer and then to return home saying goodbye to friends I wouldn't see again for a year or more, to prepare the BBQ for the Krause's, and to see my wife again. I'm still getting used to using the word. I feel it will take a while longer. Though I have had some practice in the last 10 days, being without her, but talking about her and the wedding to everyone. See, after the BBQ dinner and then an English breakfast the next day, Andrea returned home, leaving me to spend a couple more days with my family and mission impossible to get everything into a single suitcase.

Mission impossible was achieved and the nice Russian lady from Aeroflot didn't charge me for excess baggage. Two flights and an 8-hour layover in Moscow later and I was back in Beijing, without electricity (it had run out), at 1am. And then several hours later I was at work. And life was back to normal. Except I was alone. Which was normal. Not in the last 6 weeks when I had been surrounded by various family members or friends (in the UK or in Germany) or my wife and not in the few years before then, when I've been living with Andrea. Rarely have we been apart more than a week (maybe 3 times in 3 years). So that is life as a married man, alone.

Thankfully, those 10 days end on Sunday, and then I may be able to give a better view on what like is like being married. And it might not just be about getting used to wearing a ring. Which I am still wearing, and have not lost. Yet.