Well that will teach him …

 Nigel has headed off to have a Hamman and carelessly left his phone with me so my chance to sneak in a guest appearance and share the ‘life controller’s side of the story!  It’s about time he had a good hose down and sandpapering, at least that way I can be sure it is a classic soldiers tan he has and not just 3 weeks of grime.

We took a wander around the port in Essaouira yesterday and these fishermen tending their nets had the right skill set for living with  Nigel - the patience of Job!!  After 36 years together (yes Nigel 36!) I think that’s been a key part of remaining happily married.  And of course sending him away regularly on some sort of adventure without me.  Generally it’s a great plan but this time he left me with the kitchen refit so perhaps less ideal than usual.

We are different people wired in different ways. He’s the meticulous planner, investigator, interrogator (in more ways than one), the classic left brainer that modern western society favours. And I just show up to life, although not entirely a classic right brainer. So he has managed to navigate the last 4 weeks without incident and I couldn’t even get out of the airport without running for help!  Please understand this was not entirely ineptitude on my part it’s just you need to know the hotel you are staying in to get through passport control in Morocco and he had neglected to tell me that!

We were talking over last nights tagine about the ‘good old days’ and the once a week call. He’s always felt a little guilty about whether it was somehow selfish, so I’ll let you into a little secret - it just never bothered me at all.  The thing is we are neither opposites that attract, although some of that definitely does apply, nor are we really alike other than in one particular respect, neither of us is defined by the other. We are influenced, inspired, comforted, but most definitely I was never the military ‘wife of Major Buckland’. I’m just me, and he is very much Nigel. We each have our roles in life but they do not make us who we are, we make the roles our own.

So we now have a wonderful week together and Essaouira is a wonderful city. I’m spending the morning sat by the pool, listening to the breeze, and the birds and the nearby cries of pain from the sandpapering Hamman that Nigel is enjoying in the name of embracing the local culture. What more can a girl ask from a Saturday morning 🤫