Caring and Sharing

This is the view at the four mile point of our eight mile run. Patching village.

My family and friends know how lucky I am. It is often remarked upon. My husband takes good care of me. It is well known that he does most of the cooking in our household and in a normal world he does most of the shopping, well the food shopping anyway, but this is partly because he is a bit of a control freak on the quiet. No wait, there is nothing quiet about that, he is a control freak. He likes to be in charge. Particularly in the kitchen. Shortly after he gets up in the morning, he is already thinking about what he will cook for dinner in the evening.

We have a partnership and we fully understand that there are his and her rules, as well as jobs. They have been long agreed upon without the need for contracts. We are both pretty easy going and one important area of our lives is that we are both polite to each other and that alone is something that we see lacking in the lives of some other couples. There are never any shouting matches.

My husband is my triathlon coach and my day to day bike slave, wheels coming off and being replaced is not something I want to do or have any interest in, even if I did not suffer from quite weak hands these days after a number of bike accidents over the years. I am one of those people who always puts a hand out to save myself, so a half dozen breaks have left me without much grip strength. All I want to do is get on and ride my bike for fitness and training. It is a chore that he never moans about.

Its is not all one side though, and I can mention that after Steve has made a delicious evening meal for me, that I am the one who clears away, does the washing up (no machine), cleans the kitchen floor and makes a simple dessert. I do all the washing, hanging out, ironing and putting away neatly folded. The bin preparation before collection day, I do most of the time and I am head gardener and that is not such a big deal with so small a garden. Steve has taken on watering the duty during the last few of months stuck at home together.

This morning, after we had completed our training for the day; ballet- based workout with floor exercises, then Qigong that helps keep me calm and both of us supple. We also did a turbo training session for an hour. Steve had to go out and over his shoulder said, “You couldn’t clean the oven, could you?” And went on to say “I made a hell of a mess of it yesterday”! Another of ‘her’ jobs. It was spotless when he got back.