Optimism can be relearnt.

I had spent my whole life feeling homesick. The only difference between the two of us was that I didn't know what or where home was.

The old Chinese proverb springs to mind - No pain, no gain.

There's no doubt that relationships do suffer when circumstances change profoundly.

I suppose I wanted to have my cake and eat it. But then again, what were you going to do with your cake if not eat it? Frame it? Use it as a sachet in your underwear drawer?

So I'm back again to the eternal question, the one that has plagued me all my life: How Do Other People Do It? How come they were given life's rule book and I missed out? Where was I when God was dispensing capability and cop on? Looking at shoes, probably.

I think denial's fascinating. It's a jokey word, but it really happens, and sometimes in enormous ways.