A letter to the boss PART 2

The Recap

It was all going so well. There I was, busy planning my cosy winter wedding for March when he rudely left me on a jet plane to go and serve the Queen.

(Fast forward several weeks… )

There I was planning my sunny August wedding, (the one that should have happened in March before he rudely left me on a jet plane). He called me on a crackly phone from a dusty corner of Basra Palace to tell me “I’m posted to Cyprus. In June!!”

PART 2

My right eye starts to twitch, and my teeth go into an overdrive of grinding.
He disappears in a puff of atmospheric interference, and, I will have no further info until the next time we speak, whenever that may be?

WHAT NEXT?

Smile and wave, I guess. Carry on planning my already cancelled-once wedding. At that point he’ll already be living overseas as a single man; a posting that will take place approximately 5 weeks after he is due back from the war zone he wasn’t even supposed to be in.

After a few days of wearing shades to mask my twitching eye, I settle myself into the joyful new reality before me.
At some point this year I’m moving to Cyprus. I mean, CYPRUS?! Wooohoo!

I am extremely excited yet my mind is in a spin. The logistics of this year are becoming ridiculously complex. Nothing is going right. I have now planned two weddings, the future of the second one is also hanging in the balance. I’m so excited about the future but the “fear of the unknown”, giving up my career and starting a life as a dependant is making me nervous; I wish he was here to hold my hand. 

After what seems like an age, he flies home for a whirlwind R&R and we finally get to make our plans.

OUR PLANS

1. We will reunite on a day in May
2. SAY GOODBYE again in June
3. LIVE apart the whole of July
4. Get married on a Saturday in August then Fly to Cyprus..

(sound like Craig David)

Simple.

In just a couple of months we’ll be off on an extended honeymoon in the sun! What a perfect start to married life! We can’t wait.

We feel sure nothing else can go wrong…

WHAT WENT WRONG

Dear Military Man,
After you return from Iraq you will move directly to Cyprus, (do not pass go do not collect £200). You may not take your girlfriend or her dreadful CD collection with you. She is not entitled. You will have to pay for her yourself.
Kind Regards.
Smug Person in Office

Arggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (again).

Our best option seems to be;

Write a letter to THE BOSS.

OUR LETTER TO THE BOSS.

Dear BOSS,
Once-upon-a-time, I was engaged to this really nice girl. We planned our fairy-tale wedding. You cancelled it. Now I’m posted overseas and you won’t pay for me to take her.

Yours faithfully
A Military Man
(fresh back from a dusty place and getting it in the neck already)

HIS RESPONSE.

Dear Military Man
I can sympathise with your neck ache issue. (Women! Tch!)
Furnish me with evidence and I will see what I can do.

Love and kisses
THE BOSS

I like this guy.

Within 24 hours, a note from the Vicar in hand, we have all the evidence we need.

Dear BOSS

Please find attached, proof that I would have been married by now if it wasn’t for “you”. Also, please see copy of the assignment order for an overseas location where me and my future wife would quite like to live together. Preferably with all our things. I have enough problem with her stealing my pyjamas. Please don’t deny her her own wardrobe.

Yours faithfully
Military man. (Feeling hopeful)

HIS RESPONSE

Dear Military Man.
You can have a house and you can have some (Not ALL) of a married persons allowance. I suggest you recommend she leaves her crap CD collection behind to make room for all your tour t shirts. Remember to prioritise!

Best wishes in all your endeavours,
THE BOSS

The Boss – a really great guy

So that, was that.

We can finally get married and move to Cyprus.

He lives in the block, I still live at home.

We have pretty much NOTHING to make our house a home at the other end.

I shall therefore entitle the next drama

THE WEDDING PRESENTS.

More letter writing

Dear Wedding Guests.
We really appreciate you agreeing to join us for our wedding in March. And again in August. Some of you have generously bought stuff from our wedding list but if its not too much trouble …Can we have our presents now please? If not, money would be great.
Pretty please, ta very much, ever so grateful,
MR & MRS H (to be)
(or not to be…? Who knows!?)

We are extremely lucky that with days to spare we have most of the gifts in our possession. We sit on the floor in a dingy barrack block hall packing our worldy belongings into large brown boxes to be shipped and laughing about the ridiculousness of it all. That was my first, and definitely my most random experience of packing boxes. It was to be far from my last and I am now Stacey; expert of overseas moves and packing pants into shoes.

He did indeed leave again on a jet plane just days later, to start our new life without me. Some say he plotted the whole thing to perfection in order to escape the stress of wedding planning… he still denies it to this day. (I believe him).

Thanks to the amazing support and outstanding sense of humour of those around us, I married my best friend as planned in August 2004. For better for worse. It was an amazing day filled with love, laughter and dancing. The best kind of day. I will never forget it.

We chose the perfect hymn to start our life as man and wife. It raised a few eyebrows on the day, but to us, it was the perfect way to start our journey together and we have stayed true to it ever since.

One more step along the world I go,
One more step along the world I go;
From the old things to the new,
Keep me travelling along with you:
And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
Keep me travelling along with you.

Round the corners of the world I turn,
More and more about the world I learn;
All the new things that I see
You’ll be looking at along with me.
And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
Keep me travelling along with you.

As I travel through the bad and good,
Keep me travelling the way I should.
Where I see no way to go,
You’ll be telling me the way, I know.
And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
Keep me travelling along with you.

Give me courage when the world is rough,
Keep me loving though the world is tough;
Leap and sing in all I do,
Keep me travelling along with you:
And it’s from the old I travel to the new;
Keep me travelling along with you.

Please look out for my future blogs, exploring living overseas.

If you would like to share your story, or an idea with me please do get in touch via the contact form below or via my facebook page. Your feedback and input are invaluable to the success of this blog and I’d love to get talking about your own experiences and find out more about what you want to read. Thank you so much for your continued support it means so much. S ❤️