Gah. Women.

Hah! Bloody typical. Have I posted before about an ex-partner of mine, FA2 and her complete lack of social contact? I think I've at least touched on the subject before at some point.

Anyway, FA2 moved far away a few years ago. We're talking across-the-water-and-at-least-twelve-hours-on-a-plane far, not a twenty minute trip in the car up the road. While she was leaving, we didn't do a lot of communicating, but I was under the impression that we'd ease off on the relationship thing while she was away. There were a couple of reasons I made that decision, but mainly because FA2 was going away for a reason. She was unhappy. Incredibly unhappy. The few years before we got together (we knew each other via mutual friends) had seen her go through a divorce that was a lot more complicated than it should have been, move house a few times, get really stressed in her job by a boss that took her for granted and then she had to deal with me.

She used to cycle through depressive periods. Roughly once every six weeks, she'd have a few really bad days before bouncing back and repeating the cycle. She hid it from everyone except me, but I could never find the right things to say or do during these periods. One night, during one of these periods as she was ranting at me for not expressing myself, I suggested she took a career break and disappeared somewhere for at least a few months to clear her head. We talked about it and I suggested somewhere slightly further away than London (as an example) where she would enjoy a complete lifestyle change and, as I said, clear her head.

Well, for the first time in a long time, she actually listened to what I said. She set the plans in motion and around six months later, she was ready to go. As I said, we didn't really talk about what would happen while she was gone, but I was under the impression I had mentioned that we both took a step back from the relationship. It wasn't breaking up and it wasn't Ross' old "Friends" favourite "a break", it was keeping the relationship alive without having to be concerned about making sure we called each other every single day. As I said, FA2 needed a change and this, I thought, was part of that plan.

So, when FA2 went away (the plan was for about a year), we remained in contact. At the start, FA2 continued with the calling/emailing every day or so thing from November until past Christmas and then it just stopped. I'd been replying/in contact probably about twice a week until that point.

Anyway, FA2 dropped off the radar, popping up to contact me a couple of times a month. I maintained me once per week contact, which started to get less and less personal as I had nothing to go on because she was saying precious little in return. This went on until we broke up and despite having each other as email and MSN contacts, she simply couldn't be bothered any more.

We've been apart for some time now, but she pops onto MSN every now and again. Sadly, she never really says anything of worth. Out of the last dozen times she's made personal contact (i.e. on MSN, not through sending group, impersonal emails) I'd say that two times were to strike up a conversation and the rest were because she needed some information about her PC or, the reason for this rant, tonight it was information on selling her house here at home. She still complains to this very day that I'm never in contact enough and each time we do have a personal conversation, she demands to know when I'm next going out to visit her (which is a good £700 flight away and would require three weeks off work). Does she not realise that her input into our so-called friendship doesn't give her the right to demand that kind of sacrifice?

Gah. Women.