Making Music

♀ ♪ ♂

I guess you know the symbols for male and female as they appear above. 

The musical note is about two people making music together. If yours is just a ditty, then ours is a full blown concerto, which has been playing full on since we met. I still can't believe how lucky I was in meeting Ash after you, and the way you treated me. No wonder you never held onto any of the numerous men in your life. The only reason you and he FM have stayed together so long is because you'd both be hard put to find another...now.

Yes, in one respect I have been extremely lucky to have met such a glamorous woman as my wife. You, as I am sure you will agree, are not in the same ball park when it comes to glamour and beauty.

Talking of beauty - take a look at this photo from our home in New Hampshire. I find horses really beautiful.





5BF is this a magic number, or merely the second part of something I posted in another blog?
Either way it is a pretty humdrum reference. 

Here are a couple more shots of my Aston. This is a new one bought over here this year. I'd had the other one two years and there were some upgrades on the new one, soooo....went and spent a six figure sum:) I can afford easily and life is too short.

There's also an interior shot of my Bentley in France. It's the executive model as we both do quite a bit of work while on the road...mainly Ash and her fashion stuff. You can see that I still have a penchant for cream interiors.

On our trip to Oz later this year we will be going via Singapore where we have an apartment, so here's a shot I took last year while we were there.

We are still here in London enjoying ourselves. Weather looks better at the weekend so we will leave Town for a root around England, back to some familiar places and homes that we have. Our next destination after that is Paris.

In case you might wonder. The TW accounts that you see for Ash and I are not our main ones. Sorry to disappoint, but we were never going to let you see those. Although I do transact some messages through the account you can see.

So, how is life with you? It seems to consist as usual of weekends and meals plus some shopping....and little else. Aren't you bored with that existence? You could write a food blog based on all those meals you have out. Guess the cooking at home isn't up to much then. We eat in a lot as I am quite a competent chef these days, undertook some training in France 3 years ago and have now appeared on TV (in the US) and been published in cooking orientated journals. Not bad for someone who could hardly cook 10 years ago - you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Life can be exciting and, for me at least, it is exciting, if not so for you. All the foreign parts I visit, the cars, the houses, the boats, the clothes, the plane and most of all our families. Three grandchildren so far and a fourth on the way - we love it and them all. It's great fun being a granddad and I am enjoying it greatly.

That boredom you once spoke of would never have existed with me, but you couldn't wait...could you. I recall you nearly returned in 2006, so it tells me the 'glue' between you and him is not that strong...you are just hanging in there because now there's no alternative. I did warn you at the time. I suppose family have something to do with your rather mundane lifestyle. Being tied as you are, and not the least part of which is a lack of wealth, must be hard.

Once you might have had my sympathy and understanding, but not now. I have not changed in the intervening years. It seemed to me that between 2003 and 2005 you did! Or, as I suspect, what happened with the other men was your true character all along.

I bet you wish you had followed what I said back in 2004 and 2005. Your life would have been very different - very upscale compared to your present existence. I know you believe that too. I guess you have grown comfortable, if that's the word, with your present 'life'. Never thought he would have let you work beyond 60, but there you go ma'am,. You always choose the 'wrong' ones. You never chose me...I chose you and that was the first and only time my judgment has been suspect. Quite sad, in some ways, when I look back.

Seems a long time ago now, but I write these blogs to remind you of what and where a little stupidity and poor judgment leads you........... and leaves you.

Talking of leaving - I will leave you with a photo of Ash on a beach 'somewhere' that I took a few years back. You never had a body like this and you most certainly never will now.






We will be in Sandbanks (Poole) and somewhere in Yorkshire, then the Lake District and Cambridge for a visit... the latter partly for business and partly to see old friends in the City. Also calling in on an old friend in Bristol...called Trisha. I'm sure I've mentioned her...more than once LOL.

Ciao

Working Nine to Five

LL




How's it going over there? Still working nine to five - Monday thru Friday? At least someone has retired who you know. Celebrated with a lunch at our first restaurant, I hear. Ash and I were there last year and I told her about my first time there....well most of it!

Can't imagine working for someone else at your age! I bet you often think how your life might have been, if only....and there's your fella on last Friday night up on the banks of the Dee. Not the way to treat a woman. I nearly said lady but quickly corrected myself!

You have no idea how good my life is now. From the depths of despair at losing G, passing through what you did to me (hope you are proud of that - NOT) with your affairs, the lies and the theft of the trinkets (not forgotten). That told me all I needed to know about your character. Your actions certainly spoke louder than your words. Of the latter there was a sad lack of any expression of fondness, loyalty or, as I found out....honesty. Not a good epitaph to the time you spent with me is it.

In the end you lost out enormously. In monetary terms, millions of dollars, in quality of life and in the devotion I once had for you.

You chose a working class 'soccer nut' and the very odd life that goes with it. From what I am told you still work all week and just get weekends with him. You have had, by my count, pretty much 9 years of that. I asked you to come back in 2006 and I knew what I was doing. I was not going to desert you as you had me (or as you thought I might), despite what your twisted mind thought. I am not that kind of man. You chose not to and when I married Ash in July 2006, you really had lost me.

I see he's been straining at the leash, or rather the belt, recently. I cannot believe that you chose to play around with such a lump in 2005, and since. His gift of the gab undoubtedly impressed you. Do you believe he didn't take up that offer when that woman in Spain came onto him back then? If you do you were mistaken.

I have spent the same 9 years very happily with my second wife. We lead a very good and active one in all respects. She keeps me very young :) Physically, I have hardly slowed down, weigh about the same as I always did and able to keep up my end of the bargain... so to speak ;-). You know pretty much all there is to know about our travels and most of our homes dotted around the World, my sailing and my writing etc. 

Maybe all of that was too boring for you and you actually prefer working for the Government and grasping weekends as being 'special'. You use that word a lot. 

You gloated a lot after you left, but I think you have realized that there was nothing at all to gloat over. You just plain....lost everything that would have given you a life that you will never have now.

At some point you accused me of flaunting. You bet! I have a lot to flaunt about and I wanted to drive home that fact and the loss you incurred in 'apparently' leaving me. Your urges drove you into actions that brought short term pleasure but a big long term loss. 

The quote below sort of sums me up, too, particularly back then. You used to laugh at me when I said I had been thinking. Well there was always a reason behind it and I knew far more about your activities than you realized - I still do....and I noticed far more than you ever gave me credit for, including things you should have hidden a little better

FK6

This is also very appropriate, as is the lettering under the above quote and also later in the next blog I write.

Don't want all of this blog to be serious so thought this might bring forth a smile:

BJ or Blair Jonny R (BJ) and family were with us until yesterday. We've had a great time together and also been out and about here in New England. He's ex US Navy and still works for the Government in Washington DC...or close by. We met many years ago during my RN days - the days you didn't believe existed. I was over here on an exchange at Norfolk, Virginia way back in the late 60's. He's quite an important guy these days. Brought a friend along, too - 2 star. Sorry, no further information can be given on him.

Incidentally, the mall I showed you the other day is in Manchester.....here in New Hampshire.

We are coming over to Europe very soon - hope the sun is shining in London. Here's a few photos to keep you entertained. As I said once before, it would be interesting to 'talk' and compare 'notes', but I doubt you have the courage. You know how if you wanted to, but I guess it would all be a bit too much for you.

 Franconia Notch State Park

 Shore Somewhere in New England

 Someone Else's Baby - The Dog That is!

 That 'Thinking About it' Look

:)

I see he has been up the glen where there are eagles - you not with him? Shame. 

Luxury hotels are the 'norm' for us, no slumming it. I never did in fact, always had standards and kept to them, unlike some people.

Funny isn't it that I fell for a person such as you...once. When it came to interests and tastes we were poles apart. I think I might have introduced you to some of the finer things in life and you would have enjoyed it...a little like Eliza in MFL:). But you chose to stay in your comfort zone. I always knew you would - you are neither a risk taker or a person with any great ambition.

In the absence of any communication or anything positive from you...... a final thought....

We all want what we can’t have, and don’t appreciate what we do have. We fall for someone we know will hurt us, but ignore the people who care about us so much. We love when we should hate, and vice versa. When we get what we’ve been wanting, it never meets our standards. We can’t make up our minds.

That very last comment is you to a 'T'! As someone once said to you over here:

Ma'am!

Ciao...................... LL..........we'll be over soon.

West Coast~~~~East Coast

May 12 2014

We've had a great time on the West Coast both here in the US and in Vancouver, Canada. Arrived here at Cas and Liz's yesterday via Minneapolis. Heading for our home near Concord, New Hampshire later.

Here are a few photos of our trip. My photography skills have improved over the years and landscapes and people are now one of my specialties in this field. Have quite a portfolio.

 Vancouver Waterfront

 Multnomah Falls Columbia River Gorge Oregon

 BC Previous Trip

 Crater lake and Wizard Island near Klamath Falls Oregon

 Near Jasper

 Grand Canyon Sunset

 Crater lake and Wizard Island near Klamath Falls Oregon

 British Columbia

 Near Victoria British Columbia

 Ferry departing the islands near Vancouver BC

 Shoreline BC

 Vancouver with low cloud

 Trillium Lake Near Portland Oregon

 Near Jasper BC

Trillium Lake Near Portland Oregon

Not all are recent (note the snow) but they give you an idea of the quality and the beauty of some of the locations we visit. Grand Canyon was a little earlier this year whilst we were in Southern California



Quality - We can't really say that of your 'snapshots', can we, which seem to comprise of food, you and Fat Man. (Must be interesting or a challenge sleeping with him, if you get my meaning).

You used to pride yourself on being 'fashionable' after a fashion but it doesn't seem to be much in evidence these days...more frumpish than vampish, you could say. Mind you there are plenty of shapeless clothes in Primark I understand. We don't have them over here. Ash is more Saks 5th Avenue, Rome, Milan and Paris.... with a few things from London thrown in for good measure.

Whatever happened to the slim woman I 'knew' once...well quite a few times in reality ;)

We are coming over the Pond very soon so hope the weather is looking good in the UK and France (to begin with). Rest of our trip is our usual summer tour of our European haunts. I have stepped back from most of the day to day stuff these days and am enjoying life immensely. It makes a difference having a good and smart (in both senses of the word) woman by my side. She's by my side most nights too maybe a week or so in a year when she's not and I'm quite as active as I was back then. Nothing like a much younger beautiful model to keep things on the up.

Seems you like simple pleasures like an ice cream in the country. I well remember our very first seaside visit to a place ending in 'th'. Bit of a dreary hole but I was well and truly smitten back then and hardly noticed. On reflection, though....

Very little to talk about during the week on social media. Is your life that boring? I thought you didn't 'do' boredom...or 'boredum' as you spelled it.

I remember you saying when you were still writing to me that I was lucky to be able to live here in New Hampshire and Florida. A lot has happened since then for me, all good. No downsides since you were allowed to drift away as just a bad memory. It didn't need to have been like that but you thought you were in control of the agenda and acted according to your set of morals or rather lack of them.

By the way, there's no such thing as luck. What I achieved before you came along, and what I have achieved since, has nothing to do with luck. It has more to do with judgement, risk taking and planning...apart of course from affairs of the heart. There it's a different matter. Having said that I don't think you would have fitted into my world, regardless of whether I met Ash or not. You are at heart a small town, working class girl and I am a worldly, intelligent and traveled middle class guy.

You were lucky ...once...but you let it slip through your fingers. A lot like the rest of your earlier life. I guess impulsiveness was at the root of a lot of it. Always said you were too impulsive - look where it's gotten you....or not, in fact. They say women don't like arrogance, but adore confidence. What I see with FM is arrogance, most times. Me I'm the confident type:)


May 13 2014


Since starting this blog we have made it to our home here in New Hampshire. It's a beautiful day. Trees and forest look great, the horses look great and I just love seeing Ash dressed down in tight Levis. We are riding out later and maybe in....

Ben is loving it, running mad all over the meadows that are empty. Ben is our Golden Retriever in case you have forgotten.

This is a long way from East Anglia and the NW UK. Seems like another life that I led over there. At least one of those lives was a very happy one. You destroyed the other. I guess, in fact I know, you have regrets about what happened, although you will never admit to them. Your life could have been so different, but it seems you wanted to settle for something a little more humdrum and repetitive. It's a shame you did what you did,  we were OK together and would probably be much better together by now.

Never thought about it, but perhaps it's a little more difficult to find partners to 'play away' with when you are 60 going on 61. So, you are stuck with FM. Not my idea of a fun partner...nor yours if the truth be known.

You had me all wrong in your mind, maybe because I was still down after losing my wife, but I was not the 'boring' person you once alleged I was, as has been borne out by what I have told you since.

Unless we cross paths in an airport, or perhaps in the Lake District, you will never see me again. In some ways it might be quite interesting to talk again, but you are too much of a coward to do that. I still remember the coldness you exhibited when you handed the ring back...or more likely the fear and lack of confidence and security you suffer from.

It's difficult to convey in words what Ash is like but you get some idea from her photos. One thing, she is nothing like you. Totally and utterly different. More loving, secure, giving, intelligent, confident and of course.....beautiful. She can ride, fly, speaks three languages not including English and has two fine and well adjusted sons.

To keep you up to date, here are a few more photos - some may be repeats from earlier blogs, but I have included them because they are good ones:

2005

 This one was in London :)

 Like the car?

 NH

Guess who's Pool

You may well wonder who the beautiful younger lady is in this photo.....but you'll have to wonder as I'm not telling.

Ciao LL...things to do....