Diary of a Separation (Once Again Guardian Soulmates Comes to the Rescue)

In relationships, real or potential ones, can we look for the pluses and not just the minuses?

Mario López-Goicoechea
3 min readJun 9, 2021

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My eternal companion: city jaunts, nine-to-five and even dating

Wednesday 14th August 2019 — Friday 30th August 2019

You know you’ve met “the one” when a five-minute conversation turns into a two-hour, topic-jumping discussion and neither of you wants to leave. Even on a first date the signs are there. Here’s a suggestion: instead of looking for red flags, can we look for green ones?

It’s been raining almost non-stop in London. Today was no different. Still, I managed to sneak out to the Felix Project social. It was lovely to meet other volunteers and staff and find out about them, what they did for a living, what their plans were and what their outlook on life was.

I’ve come down with something since I returned from Kingston on Monday. I hesitate to call it a cold but there’s been plenty of sneezing and coughing. Enough to convince me that I’m now the proud possessor of a third catarrh in less than a year.

Before that, the last time I’d had a cold was 2014.

Another social, this time with the East London Radio crew, including volunteers. We had such a lovely time. There’s a pizza place next door to the studio and that’s where we all shacked up. I’m always fascinated by people’s stories on their relationship with radio. We all had a tale to tell on how radio has been such an important part of our lives.

After the meal, my plans were to go salsa-dancing at Juju’s but I couldn’t make it. I got soaked on my way there. All I could do was turn back and go home.

It’s been a long time since I had a day like today. In a nutshell, my day started with a blocked toilet (my fault) and a Penalty Charge Notice (I never paid the congestion charge when I drove from Kingston back home in August). I ended up coughing up for the repairs of the toilet whilst also going online and paying the fine.

The only respite came in the form of The Chambermaid, a Mexican film I watched at the ICA. Beautiful and nuanced, it was the perfect remedy for my day.

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