Apr 10 - Talking It Out

  I'm a bit behind on blogs as you can see.. it's in fact Saturday afternoon as I write this blog for Wednesday.  But of course Wednesday and Thursday were not only late nights, they were very important nights, so I chose not to interrupt them with blog writing.  I will catch up, you'll just have to be patient.

  After work on Wednesday, Mr Smart met me at QV and we went to Stalactites on Lonsdale Street to have a quick dinner before we sat down to do some serious talking.  I will digress from that just momentarily to show non-Melbourne readers just how committed the owners of Stalactites are to the name of their business.  This is the interior of a building that looks otherwise ordinary from the outside.  I have no idea why they decided that would be a good move but the quality of their food and their open 24 hours policy keeps them very popular.
  Anyway, after a quick and tasty tea, we discussed where to talk and why.  Mr Smart's idea was to opt for a neutral place which on reflection seemed a good idea.  A neutral place holds less distractions and also allowed us both to feel unhindered by habit.
  We walked to the Exhibition Gardens and found a picturesque relatively well lit park bench near the fountain.  The only distractions, hoards of possums roaming around unafraid, prompting relatively frequent head turns and animated shouts of "Squirrel!" (If you haven't seen Up then you won't get that reference and have presumably been living under a rock for the last five years).

  We talked, and talked, and talked.  For three or four hours solidly we talked about what we wanted and didn't want from our relationship, our needs and desires, and it felt very positive.  We probably would have talked another hour or so, but in the end the constant sound of running water from the fountain got the better of us.  However, we felt in a positive enough frame of mind by this time, to retire to Mr Smart's for the evening.

  Wednesday's food was:

• Breakfast was a 35g Carmen's dark choc, blueberry and almond muesli bar followed by a 35g Carmen's dark choc, cranberry and almond muesli bar.
• Morning snack was a mandarin, two Brazil nuts, two pecan nut halves, two hazelnuts, two cashews and four almonds.
• Lunch was 300g tomato, lentil and bacon skinny soup with a buttered toasted multigrain muffin.
• Afternoon snack was a William Bartlett pear.
• Dinner was a Stalactite's lamb souvlaki.

  While I'm not about to divulge the specifics of our discussions, the end result is that Mr Smart and I are staying together.  We're not ready to write off our relationship without putting some effort into it, and my guess is that with our new focus on communicating better, we have a much stronger base to grow from.
  Jess