A Taste of Freedom

Iven's away.
I'm pretending that I'm going I'm missing him terribly but the reality is this :-) :-) :-)
He's gone down to visit his Mum for a few days. His Mum is almost 93 so I think it's important that he goes once a year. But she lives 8 hours drive away and there's no other way of getting to her little country town except to drive so it's not something that he does regularly or with any enthusiasm. I, however, almost push him out the door with a glee that's a little excessive.
It's not that I don't love my husband - when he's not annoying me. It's that I feel free when he's gone. Free to just do what I want to do. Eat what I want to eat. Sleep where I want to sleep. Run when I want to run. And not be tied down by obligations. And even though my first thought when he texted to say the car had broken down just outside Glen Innes was 'I might get a few extra nights of the bed all to myself', I did text back a sad emoticon.
So with my new-found and short-lived freedom I ditched my early morning run yesterday (I'd been a bit sick the night before and sleep seemed much more inviting) and went in the afternoon. To be able to do this I had to rush home from getting the groceries in the morning and quickly whip up my one-dish wonder chicken curry, pop over to the acupuncturist for my final visit, speed home and bake a batch of biscuits then off downstairs to start the last rhythmic costume of the year. So much for no obligations.
We've been lucky enough to have a cooler week but I still didn't leave home till after 5:30 and it had cooled. Running in the evening is so different to the morning. I have to cross quite a few roads on my routes and in the morning I never wait for the lights to change. In the evening that's not an option so getting started was a bit slow. But finally I got in a groove. The first kilometer took forever to tick over and when it did, it said 7:30 - what the? I know I've gotten slow but that's ridiculous. Then I remembered that I hadn't waited for it to get the satellites. Then the second kilometer was a confusion of mistakenly pressing the stop button somehow then starting it to time my toilet visit (and I've discovered that what I consider to be a long toilet visit is still only a quarter of Iven's long toilet visits - I can fully blow-dry my hair while he's on the throne). That kilometer was apparently over 7 mins long too. So silly but I wanted to start the run over again so my data was accurate.
The rest of the run went smoothly. It's a hilly route but I was feeling strong for a change and that feels awesome. I was running like a rockstar - who's not drug-addled or a heavy smoker - and I even had my photo taken by the papparazzi lurking in the university (he was lucky that I was feeling good or I may have gone all 'roid ragey on him and broken his camera). I hadn't decided how far I was going to go. It's an 11k run that can have another loop tacked on the end to make it 15.5k. Guess what I did?
Of course I did the extra (please don't tell Coach Chris - the man is positively scary!). It was a beautiful evening. I was feeling good and I had no obligation to be home. Freedom tastes amazing!
So Hon if you're reading this and really, really want to spend more time with your Mum I totally understand. You have my blessing. Yes, I'm missing you desperately (or I was this morning at 4:50am when the chooks decided that it was time for breakfast). Just let me know what day you'll be home and I'll make us a roast chicken dinner (that'll teach em). And until then I'll cope ... just.
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For those of you who just look at my blog to see my beautiful, genius dog, I've got a special treat for you today. Another Toby video! He's got a new trick.

It's not a terribly useful trick and it makes the eggs a bit slobbery but I think it's clever.