"Interview" Part 2

Nola asks how I met my husband, and what it’s like where I live.

I imagine she refers to John, my partner, and not the ****hole and sports fanatic I stupidly married when I was too immature to know any better and who thought I was grossly overweight at 65 kilos – and then told me after 8 years when he went off with a mutual friend that I should have held him on a tighter rope. If you need holding on a rope at all then you’re not worth having – and I realised that even in the midst of the misery at the time. I never married again.

John is a sweet gentle soul who has put up with me for over 20 years. I met him when I felt low after my marriage ended, as did he over the recent disability of one of his much loved daughters, who died a few years later. He sang bass with a local amateur local opera society, and I was looking for an activity - such as helping backstage - which would help me think of other things, and a mutual friend put us in touch. It was an unlikely partnership at the time, but we helped each other and have remained very close. He spoils me to death.

John with Rusty in his favourite place

We live in a bungalow with a garden, in a village just outside Bristol which is very quiet, although the garden backs on to a field by the motorway, so the hum is always in the background – except on Christmas Day… My neighbours are mainly retired people, friendly but mostly keep to themselves. The couple opposite kindly look after my cats when we go away, and the couple next door have an adorable little boy aged 2, curly blond, very cute, sturdy and tough. At Halloween they dressed him for trick-or-treating in a pointy black hat as tall as he is, with a sweeping black cloak – I wish, wish I’d taken a photo of him because he looked good enough to eat.

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Back of the house, with annexe & and conservatory newly built in summer 2006 when my mother was coming to live with us. Sadly she wasn't able to enjoy it for very long.
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In Bristol you have the cultural, shopping and employment advantages of a reasonably large city (3/4 of a million) and some beautiful architecture here and there – what survived the blitz of World War II that is. And in 15 minutes you can be out in lovely rolling green countryside with the hedgerows, small irregularly shaped fields and lots of trees which are the feature of most of Britain. We’re also just across the Severn Bridge from Wales. However what I love best about living in Britain is that you're surrounded by history, and in most cases the sites, buildings and monuments are treated with respect and lovingly preserved for posterity.

-oOo-