Home alone. Wednesday May 5 2010

I love being an empty nester – sorry kids. Much as I love my children the fact that we deserted them to embark on this latest adventure made the whole separation thing a lot easier.

I know of friends that are dreading the day their last child flies the nest and they are faced with each other’s company for the first time in a long time.

We were fortunate in that I didn’t happen to us. Emma headed off to boarding school in September and Charles checked in for the last 6 months of high school as a boarder, just as we packed our bags and headed south to Brazil in January.

Children coming here are a bonus but not the norm. I am a great believer in “the association of ideas”. By that I mean that one assumes that something happens because something else is happening or it is the time to do something. Living in Princeton involved children, school runs, playing lots of bridge and Mediterra on Friday night. Oh it’s Mediterra so it must be Friday. Oh we are in the UK so it must be July. More worryingly, oh I am cooking supper so there must be a glass of red wine on the go. You get the picture. We humans live our lives by routine and, in the main, that is very comforting.

Then all of a sudden that changes and life takes on a different tack. I have to interject here that the children are both in fabulous places. Charles is about to finish high school and is set to go to Washington DC in the summer. Who wouldn’t want to study politics and economics in the hub of the political universe? Emma is at her whacky boarding school and loves every minute. “Why can’t I spend the summer here” to quote her. So they are both in great places so I don’t feel too bad.

But then so are we. Hey, let’s go out to dinner/away for the weekend/come with me on a business trip. So far it has been fabulous.

Until that is this past few days. Steve went away on Sunday and it was not the sort of trip I could go with him. He left on Sunday afternoon - ugh - to go to the north of Brazil to rally his sales team ahead of a new drug launch. He was staying in a very nice resort hotel but I wasn’t with him. Instead I was in an empty house (still no furniture – 4 months and very much counting) with only the dog for company and funnily enough she wasn’t really interested. Hmmmm? – what is a girl to do? Marcelo was off duty so although the car was in the garage there was no way I was ever going to drive it. So I downloaded a movie to watch, cooked a TV dinner (never again) and went to bed around 9.30. I locked myself into the “safe” room upstairs and the only thing on TV were views of the security cameras dotted around the house. Funnily enough it is not the same as Desperate Housewives. With the burglar alarm and the dog for company it was a long night.

The caipirinha helped me to sleep but I was seriously bored. I take my hat off to all those single people everywhere that do this on a regular basis. I hated the whole “single” process.

Come back Steve – all is forgiven