Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
liked her job, she found it difficult to adjust to the part-time nature of the work and it also
took her away from Samuel, leaving her, in her own eyes, as a part-time parent as well.
'I'm sure I could find something with my qualifications and languages,' Natalie said.
Interesting.
'OK,' Danielle said, nodding at me, 'What will
you
do for a living?' There was a brief silence
as everybody, except me, gave this some thought. Then, like a well-briefed barrister, but in
floral shorts and a buttoned-up polo shirt, I took to the floor.
'I've been doing a little research…' I began.
My case for the defence was this: I would commute, simple as that. This place, I explained,
is within an hour and a half's driving distance of three airports (Tours, Poitiers and Limoges),
all served by dirt-cheap budget airlines and flying direct to London. Failing that, it would
take two hours to get to Paris by train and either fly from Orly or Charles de Gaulle or even
take the Eurostar. Yes, I would be spending far more money on travel than at present, but we
could sell our house in Crawley, pay off the mortgage and still buy a sizeable property here
mortgage-free. I wouldn't need to work as often because of the lack of mortgage, so I would
concentrate solely on the weekend gigs, Thursday to Saturday. I would leave Thursday morn-
ing and be back home again for Sunday afternoon.
They all looked at me. Clearly I was better prepared for this argument than they were, but
it was Natalie's opinion that counted most and I could see she was tempted. She loved this
place as much as I did, and although she also loved being near her parents in Crawley, deep
down she knew that if she wanted more children we couldn't do it in the house we were in.
'But you hate the travelling,' she said. 'You'd be doing more of it.'
I was ready for this.
'I hate the driving,' I replied. 'I hate the M25, the M1 and all the other Ms in between. I hate
how tired and irritable it makes me, but I won't be flying the planes or driving the Eurostar;
I can be relaxing. And anyway,' I continued, about to deliver my clincher, 'in five years' time
I'll be off the comedy circuit and just writing from home.'
'But the travel - surely not?' Danielle asked reasonably, though her French accent as always
came to the fore as she got more vexed. 'It will be too much.'
'Look,' I said, addressing the group with my closing arguments, 'the travel at the moment
is too much. I can't go on doing that. Yes, this way will be equally tiring, maybe more so.
But I'd be coming home to here, to peace and quiet, not to a box in Crawley and that makes
a huge difference. Natalie wants another child, but I'm not happy mortgaging ourselves up
to the hilt somewhere we don't want to be on some faceless estate with a rough school just
to do that. Natalie wants horses too. In Crawley, if you had a horse you'd come down in the
morning and find it on bricks!'
'What is he going on about now?' asked Natalie's grandmother.
