Tempted?

What do you give up to write? Along with anything other than survival housework (sorry Aggie and Kim), in order to handle NaNo plus the usual business, house, kids workload this month I gave up TV and newspapers. Being a news-free zone for nearly a month has been rather wonderful (what is there except doom and gloom at the moment anyway?). After burning the candle at both ends through November writing about temptation, adultery and the fall-out from betrayal it was quite odd seeing celebrity chef and family man Gordon Ramsey splashed all over the headlines this morning.

He has (allegedly) followed in Jeffrey Archer's steps with a woman who sounds like the kind of professional mistress every wife dreads (she's even written a book about it). There's something horribly predictable about the whole thing. I was researching contemporary Spanish society last night - a chipper paragraph declared that it is generally accepted Spanish men will be unfaithful, but now it is more common for women to take lovers too. So that's ok then. In Ramsey's case you just think how does he have the energy - all those restaurants, cookbooks, TV appearances, marathons - not to mention the picture perfect family. What do you think - are affairs inevitable? How and why do they happen?

With the new book I've taken Hemingway's model of the single woman befriended by a married couple - the old cuckoo in the nest. When it happened to me, I was (of course) the last to discover that then boyfriend had been putting it around with not one, but two of my friends. Unfortunately, my then 'best friend' waited to break this to me gently until we had all decamped to an isolated farmhouse in France for a couple of weeks. It was an interesting holiday.

TODAY'S PROMPT: Infidelity - illicit love affairs, a great dramatic plot device. Think of Lady Chatterley - or a couple of my favourite films, Diane Lane/Richard Gere/Olivier Martinez in 'Unfaithful' and Jack, Angelica and Meryl in 'Heartburn'. What are the books or dramas dealing with this subject that have affected you? Maybe you have personal experience to draw upon? I get a lot of 'oh your husbands a pilot - don't you worry about, you know, air hostesses?' from other women. Well of course - long periods of time away from home in exotic locations with women paid to look attractive at all times. Recipe for disaster right? Recipe for insecurity, sure - but that's where trust and a long relationship have to come into play - it's difficult. Why not take some time to explore your thoughts about trust, love, temptation and infidelity - or give yourself a break and try a news blackout for a few days.