The Second Best Bed

So at this moment in time, when I just grabbed a few minutes to catch up on my blog, Richard is in the air about to land in Abu Dhabi.

He's on his way to Australia and will be back next Sunday afternoon about 3:30 PM.

At 3 PM that afternoon I go off to Paris for three days to do some training with a client over there. 

I arrived back from Spain on Wednesday morning and bumped into him in his office after a gap of five days when I was in AKA doing some training work.

Ships that pass in the night is the phrase, and it would seem to be true.

Yet when we do manage to end up at home together in our bed it is the most wonderful place in the world.

We bought it after our civil partnership six years ago with John Lewis vouchers kindly given to us by our friends and it sits in the first bedroom that I have had that I would call a haven.

 I don't sleep well. At least I can't get off to sleep. Once I'm asleep, I'm away and have little problem getting back to sleep, but leaving the cares of the day behind and heading for the arms of Morpheus can take hours or drugs.

Rich is absolutely the opposite.  His head will hit the pillow and he will be asleep. And yet he is the one who will always wake early.

 I'm the one who naps easily.  I can be asleep within seconds of sitting in an aircraft seat and hardly ever disturbed by the ferocity of takeoff, or even be abruptness of cabin service on British Airways! Richard often tells me that he metaphorically sees me putting on my pyjamas as we arrive at the airport…….. or indeed the station for that matter, as the train is another location for my perfect slumber. Quite often I can be travelling up to Yorkshire to see Mum and have taken some work with me to do on the train, and unless I've had at least 2 3 shot lattes, the work will be forgotten as I cuddle down in my reduced priced first-class seat and slumber.

 Rich is the opposite,  although due to the enormous amount of international travelling redeye flights is done over the last 7 years, he has managed to establish a reasonable sleep regime for himself on these longer flights.

However don't feel too sorry for him. At this very moment he's in his own first-class cabin on Ethiad Airways  and judging by the amenity kit alone, a picture of which he e-mailed me this morning before takeoff, the experience on the flight will be something worth staying awake all. In the meantime I have the  prospect of our bed feeling rather empty.

I think it was Shakespeare who left “the second-best bed" in his will. That's certainly what ours will feel like for the next 8 nights. Fabulous mattress, gorgeous quilted top, and fabulous frette linen apart,  the best bed in the world is the one that has the person you love in it.