This week has been very busy so far for Mrs Bob and me. After a long, slightly stressful week at work I had two days off, as my weekend is on a Monday and Tuesday. It’s usually a time of rest and relaxation – well, apart from my gym routine – but that’s another story.

This week was different, as Mrs Bob’s mother was heading back to South Africa for winter. She needed a lift to Ascot in Berkshire and had asked me if I’d drive her up. I asked Mrs Bob if she’d like to come too, as she can find long journeys hard physically, and isn’t always able to come. She said she would, and we could get a night away from home to enjoy some time just the two of us. Plus we could share the driving, as it’s a near-400 mile round trip.

Mrs Bob did the drive up, and with very few delays we were able to drop her mother off with an old friend in the early afternoon. This meant that we now had the day to ourselves to do with as we saw fit. We checked into our hotel, and got changed before going to get some flowers and visiting the church where her auntie and family, including her great grandparents are buried. This was, surprisingly for me, quite an emotional event, but it was nothing on what happened next. We drove five minutes down the road to our next stop. This was the place Mrs Bob’s father’s ashes are buried, and was obviously particularly hard for Mrs Bob, as she was very close to her dad. It’s been a while since we visited him, and we both had a good chat with him, cleaned up his stone, and just enjoyed a nice warm autumn afternoon in a beautiful setting, before heading back to the hotel.

After all that, I needed a stiff drink. I will explain that I was never fortunate enough to meet my father-in-law, as he passed away just before I met Mrs Bob. I have, however, talked to family and friends and I really wish I had been able to meet him. He was an incredible man who had such a huge impact, and is so important to Mrs Bob’s life that it was a huge honour to be asked to take his ashes and place them in his final resting place five years ago. So I do feel a big connection to him and, as such, I find it very emotionally draining when we see him. I know that as an Aspie we are not supposed to have emotions, but that’s a myth. The truth is that we really struggle with expressing how we feel, and processing emotions.

All in all, a very emotionally charged couple of days, with goodbyes and catching up with loved ones, a 4am start and around 400 miles on the road in a small metal container on wheels. Despite everything, Mrs Bob and I had each other’s back from start to finish and Dog (the cat) wasn’t too upset at our disappearance, despite his tweets to the contrary.