Albina flies to Poland

On Wednesday Albina was off to Poland. On Friday she will be travelling by train to the seaside town of Kolobrzeg with her cousin Hania. They will be staying in a spa for three weeks.

I was in no hurry to get up that morning so we watched the news together in the shameless luxury of our TV bed. We chatted over the do's and don'ts at home during her absence, such as switching off the lights, saving energy and not turning up the radiators, watering the plants, getting the cleaner in at least once a fortnight, having the fridge and freezer defrosted, not having any strange women in the flat, etc. The usual stuff. Albina didn't want me to risk aggravating my fractured thumb so I booked a cab for 12 noon. Within 20 minutes we were in Terminal 5. As I had booked a premium BA staff ticket for her, she was put into the club section of the aircraft.

When I got home I realized suddenly that for the next four weeks I would be alone. That needed to sink in. Certain daily practices would change. I would no longer need to serve her tea with bread and jam first thing in the morning, no longer needed to respond to her morning alarms on her phone, which I then had to run and switch off on the occasions when I was not at work, I no longer need to fill her water bottle at night or massage her back and her legs as we sat watching the TV. I no longer need to justify if and when I was off to a meeting, only to be met with her complaining that I never spent enough time at home, I had similar complaints if the meeting was only on zoom, or when I disappeared to write a blog or a letter or email for the Polish theatre or for the Federation of Poles in Great Britain. Her lifelong disdain for my social and Polish community activities had drained my energy in more recent years, as I no longer wanted to fight her over it. She wanted the next 50 years of our marriage to be concentrated on her and not on my public life. As she had been on pemanent night shift when working for nearly 20 years in BA Cargo, she had never adjusted to a normal daytime 12 hour clock. So she would watch television until 3 or 4 in the morning and then stay in that bed until around noon next day, or even 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I was then able to utilize those morning hours either by going for a walk, or visiting the gym or writing an article. The only exception to ths routine were Mondays and Tuesdays, when I travelled to the office in Ashford, near the Airport. She could tolerate that because I was paid for that privilege. 

That is why I am steeling myself to divest myself of all community activities from the beginning of next year. Albina most wanted to go on this Jules Verne 80 day adventure, so that I could spend all of that time with her. So I am in training to be her exclusive companion for the whole period on board the Borealis, as it circumnavigates the world. I will make the effort, but at least I will keep a blog. 

Also, this leaves me free to follow up on obtaining a booking time at the Indian Visa Application Centre in Hounslow, which has eluded me for the past week. I have our formal application forms completed but need to get a booking in early December after Albina returned from Poland and hands me her passport. I also need to sort out the hearing aid with Specsavers, get a date for my second cataract operation, contact Andy Slaughter MP over the changes in POSK, and prepare some material for the Federation of Poles in Great Britain. Thank goodness I'm not too busy.