Yesterday was one of my toughest day so far.

I woke up in a panic at 07:20 on Sunday so I could travel down to Victoria Coach Station with a good friend who had spent the night at my flat. She had an early coach to catch so I decided to tag along as this would be the last time I’d see her in a while. The journey down was smooth and thankfully I was feeling neither exhausted or hungover. We found her departure gate, hugged and said our goodbyes. As she boarded the coach I could make out a few small tears, but I felt predictably okay. That was until I started walking along Buckingham Palace Road – then I started to feel something. A little ache in my heart and the hint of a tiny tear in my eye. Though by Victoria Station I just had a chocolate croissant in my tummy.

The Girl was popping out in the afternoon so I was to have the whole afternoon to clean the kitchen, pack my suitcase and box up the television et al. The kitchen cleaning and suitcase packing were easy. But I found the packing up of my XBOX 360 to be surprisingly heartbreaking. To comfort myself I played on it for thirty minutes, but it just made it harder. Realising how futile fighting it all was I wiped the hard drive, wiped a metaphorical tear and boxed it up.

Then came my breaking point. I looked around the flat and realised that every surface, every corner was littered with The Girl’s things. I checked my inbox only to find thirty emails from stupid eBay buyers asking if I would accept £100 for my television. I started to panic – convinced myself that we weren’t going to be ready. The stress combined with the heatwave had turned me into an oily, sweaty mess. And the tension with the lack of food had given me a sore tummy.

I can’t remember how I spent the next few hours. Probably fidgeting nervously, working myself up more and more. Later on that evening when I met The Girl I was a mess. A tired, confused, sweaty, stomach cramping mess. The Girl asked if there was anything she could do to help, but by this point I had already realised what an idiot I had been – letting everything needlessly get on top of me. She calmed me down, we packed up the boxes and she bought me some soup.

There was one silver lining yesterday. This Marmot jacket was on sale. So I bought it.