And so Christmas approaches again and it’s almost a year since my dad died. It will be a strange time, with a mixture of sadness, being without my dad, and happiness at potentially having more freedom to be with Sara, as I’m now a former carer.

Anyway, this can be a very interesting time when you are in a long-distance relationship. You have choices to make about where and with whom you spend Christmas and new year. Ironically, this year Sara is coming to Carlisle, after I’ve spent the last three Christmases and new years out of the country.

The thing I really like about the festive season is how it’s so easy to get lost in it all so you can really forget about the day-to-day humdrum of life. Sure there are other challenges to face, but if you can let yourself go, it can be a truly amazing time, albeit for me, this year, tinged with sadness.

So there is a lot of planning to take care of to give Sara and me the best possible chance to have the smoothest experience we can have. It will be a manic two weeks together, but by making sure all the essentials are taken care of in the way of food, visits arranged and so on, I am optimistic that we will have a great time.

The thing that has really struck me about this long-distance love affair is how long it can take to reconnect again in real as opposed to virtual life if you don’t work at it.

Because so much of a relationship is bound up in shared experiences, technology has a vital part to play in keeping the separate worlds alive for each other. We use Skype and WhatsApp all the time, as they enable us to share moments in our lives at little or no extra cost.

Getting to see a photo of something makes it so much more real and when you’ve a limited amount of time together it’s vital you can make the most of it. The closer you can manage to be when you’re apart, the better the time you have when you’re actually in the same physical space.

Have a great Christmas and best wishes for 2013.

Leave a Comment