- discovered the exchange rate between the currencies of Great Britain and Australia - one Frazzle dropped into your mouth is sufficient remuneration for one kiss (at least when on Swiss soil);
- heard you sing that you come from a land Down Under, alternated with the idea that Australians are all ostriches;
- fallen out of a train in Vienna - frightening Germanic words and high, bare, rumbling Germanic engineering;
- been so sickened at your imminent departure that I found myself incapable of eating;
- slalomed through the streets of Budapest, without a word of Hungarian, in pursuit of a flight which I genuinely thought was going to leave without us;
- made you the birth spark of every single word of this blog - the revealing, the derivative, the obvious and the thought-provoking alike;
- giggled to myself at the unprovoked invocation of the word 'antipodean,' my guarantee of mock rage from you;
- realised that strawberry milk is our elixir, and promised that the tap will remain shut off until we are together again;
- read with joy about the non-existence of Ern Malley.
"In the past year, we, with the aiming of tending the non-physical but nevertheless tangible third party that constitutes our relationship, have...."
For, of course, this is all about we, and how we go about bridging distances, doing our best to maintain the structure and discipline of a short-range relationship when we are anything but, and the third party of our relationship is even more fragile than normal.
One year on from the seismic moment which turned everything on its head, when you were the first flash of lightning and I the rod, I spend the dying moments of our first anniversary thinking of you, the random, chaotic way in which we met, two gas atoms bouncing about urgently until we finally connected; the paranoia and nerves as I went to meet you at the airport for the first time; the broken halves we leave behind when we are separated.
It has been hard at times but the most demanding climb leads to the most breathtaking views during the journey. After a year of pushing on, I would like to continue the ascent, for my eyes and mind and being are at peace whenever I stop for a moment to contemplate the fruits of our labour.
Happy anniversary, Bluefish!
