Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

I am writing this at my parents' house in Carinthia where I have been since Tuesday night. Later today (Sunday), I am going to drive back to Highflyer's house outside of Vienna, but he probably won't be there as he is planning to fly to Innbruck for a few days where his sons (who live in Germany) are right now. We do try to coordinate our schedules, but it is not always possible if one of you has a more or less regular Monday to Friday nine to five office job (with a lot of home office flexibility, thankfully!) and the other one does not and often has to work on weekends and public holidays, but then might have several days off in the middle of the week. The realisation that "long weekends" due to public holidays falling on Fridays or Mondays are meaningless in his world caused some frustration on my end when we first started dating, as well as the fact that invitations by friends or family at short notice often mean that I would attend alone as his time off requires advance planning. By now I have got used to it and the fact that even after we got married I kept my flat in Vienna and typically stay there on "office days" created further temporary separation. Probably not everybody's cup of tea and people are often surprised that I have kept my old place (where he also sometimes spends the night on days I am there if his schedule allows for it) for several reasons. While it comes with some logistical challenges such as always having to think what item of clothing is where at  any given moment of time, it is not that big of a deal actually due to the vicinity of the two addresses. Also, part of us actually appreciates this scenario as we appreciate time together all the more and I am always overjoyed if Highflyer does have a whole weekend off and we have little to no plans other than enjoying time with one another. Holidays when we can spend time together 24/7 are all the more precious and we still don't get on each other's nerves and have yet (4 years and counting) to have a fight. So, yep, I do agree to that old saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder...