An Announcement...

Dear London

By the time you get this letter, I’ll be gone.  (Actually, I won’t, but it seems appropriate to start with this line.  In fact I’ll just be starting to plan going.  But emotionally, I’m already gone.)

Things haven’t been going brilliantly between us for some time, we both know that.  Really, since the kids were born, we just don’t connect like we used  to.  It’s not you, it’s me; at the risk of sounding like a cliché, parenthood has changed me.  I know I made a pact that nothing would ever change what we had, and I’d stay with you forever, but... well, I’ve moved on. 

I find dealing with you exhausting and draining, and despite what everyone says, I’m not convinced that kids are really for you.  Thinking about it, you are the George Clooney of cities:  good to look at, interesting and fun,  great for a fling, but nothing more. Since the kids arrived, I’ve seen a different side to you: you’re high-maintenance and generally impossibly to navigate.  Also – and I know that this shouldn't really matter, but it does - you’ve gotten bigger since we first got together. I just don’t find you attractive any more.

Plus, in the past few years the way you blow hot and cold all the time has started to grate on me.  I know it was one of the things I used to love about you, but now I need some sort of weather security. Just when I think it’s clear blue skies, the waterworks start.  I can’t do it any more.

I’ve found somewhere else.  It’s like you in many ways, but less frosty, more accommodating, and very exotic. Its name is Singapore.  I'm sure you've heard of it; it has a reputation of being a bit controlling, but I think I can manage that.  I just need to get my affairs in order, and then I’m – we’re - gone.  If it’s ok with you, I was thinking of staying through til Christmas, and then heading off in the New Year.  December has always been fun, despite our growing differences.

A part of me will always love you, London.  We’ve done so much together.  But it’s time for me to go.  The kids need somewhere that allows them to be themselves a bit more and doesn’t close in on them.  And I need the childcare.

Bye. 

RL