Sorry for the lack of a recent post but it has been a little busy on the work front. This usually means early starts and long days, hardly a recipe for a happy and balanced lifestyle (whatever that is).
During the past three weeks I have been trying to sort out a balance between home and work, something I didn’t quite manage. I am thankful that my wife Ann is a very patient person who likes her own company because sometimes we don’t see very much of each other.
We have been married for thirty eight years and miraculously we are actually still together. Now that doesn’t mean that we have always been blissfully happy, it just means that the good times have outweighed the bad times. In fact when we are asked how we have managed to stay together (yes people actually do ask us on a regular basis) we have a couple of stock answers ready.
My personal favorite is “for the first twenty years we were that busy paying the mortgage that we hardly saw each other”. whilst Ann’s favorite is “John’s Grandmother said it would never last, we are trying to prove her wrong”.
Now my Grandmother died about twenty years ago and we are still going strong. So I guess its just the fact that we are still best friends and we know we can rely on each other to be there when needed. Now this doesn’t mean we live every moment in each others company or that we do the same stuff together.
Anyone who knows us will tell you we are as different as chalk and cheese. I am the mad workaholic creative whilst Ann is a methodical accountant type, so I suppose opposites do attract.
Its all about compromise I do stuff that Ann likes, like going to watch Michael Buble (with several thousand women of a certain age) and she (grudgingly) does stuff I like, I can’t think of anything at the moment but I am sure given enough time I will think of something.
Now this coming week is yet another busy one, I have two live events to televise which will soak up the biggest part of the week with setups and rehearsals. The light at the end of the tunnel is that next week I am on holiday which will enable me to catch my breath and get ready for the busy run up to Christmas.
So my advice to the young couples out there who are starting out together, this is what I think makes for a happy marriage.
Both of you need to find a career doing something you enjoy, because you are working for a third of your time, life’s to short to be miserable! Find someone you want to spend the other third with who makes you laugh and is great to be around and finally this is really important, someone who doesn’t snore so you can sleep for the other third.
Now I know that I haven’t mentioned sex in all that so If you can fit in great sex with each other in between all that then that’s as good as life gets.
John D Eccles 