It has been more than two months since I am not based permanently with Maia, Ivan and Emese. As a second year PhD student I need to spend time researching post-socialist newsrooms. This brought me back to Bulgaria, about 8 years after I left it to live and work abroad. The experience of being back in my dear motherland for a longer period is worth a separate blog post. But the least pleasant part of it is that Emese and kids are not with me.

When it became clear that I will most likely need to spend most of my second year of research in Bulgaria back in May we made a quick decision with Emese that she will also relocate from the UK. For a number of good reasons moving together to Bulgaria did not sound like a good idea - not least among which was the fact that Emese's employer is based in Budapest; that there we have our flat; and that England is not exactly the easiest country for a single mother.

The transfer of the family back to Budapest wend quite smoothly back in September. I spent a few weeks with them before I went on to Bulgaria to start my field work. The start was then postponed until early November, but in any case, I have already been living alone in my parent's house in Sofia for several weeks.

This is the first time for me to stay longer without the kids and Emese and it feels very weird. We speak on the phone with Emese every day, and often I can hear Maia and Ivan on the other side of the phone. They came to visit me last week, and I was seeing them in Budapest a few weeks earlier. But I still miss them a lot when they are not around. On the other side, I am getting easily used to the life without kids (and woman) at home - I go out to see people every evening, sleep until time comes to go to work, and have more time for work than usual.

At the same time Emese is alone with the two of them in Budapest. They are attending kindergarten and nursery in one and the same place, conveniently chosen along Emese's driving route to the office. So she takes them there every morning, and collects them in the afternoons. After the first month of this routine she seemed quite exhausted, so I took up the initiative to at least identify a baby-sitter for her. This worked out fine, so now at least she has some help, particularly for the days when she needs to travel out of Budapest and is not always able to come back on time to collect Ivan and Maia.

And yet, this is a difficult period for us. Horgos has become a key point for meetings - as I can get there within a day by bus or train, and Emese can use it as a starting point for some of her business trips. Our next meeting there will be by this week's end, and I am looking forward to it.