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Around a year after writing the first ‘Gamekeepers Girlfriend’ post I can honestly say not much has changed, other than I am thankful for Febreze, internet and warm socks.
Much to my disappointment I am still awaiting the glamorous gamekeeper lifestyle my friends and some of my family still think I have and I still don’t have a tweed skirt and pocket puppy. (If you haven’t read part one of the Gamekeeper's girlfriend series , click here).
Im writing this after a lovely afternoon exploring followed by a pint in the sun as opposed to yesterday’s romantic evening spending quality time together, running 1000’s of birds in, in the absolute pissing rain , with an unfortunate shed fire to add on top. As you can imagine the mood luckily for you is a little different.
Despite being with Tom for over two years now I still listen to his fantastic weather forecast skills, if it says it won’t rain then it most certainly will. Que fight over who gets the waterproof, as always, I win , just so I can’t complain later, what a gentleman.
The perks of being a gamekeepers girlfriend:
More people to help make fun of Tom.
Being the youngest on the shoot, Tom is the teams favourite to be made fun of, he doesn’t help himself out, therefore it’s not bullying right? Me and Tom take the piss out of each other a lot so with everyone on my side it’s definitely one of the perks of the job.
All of the dogs.
Gamekeepers are known for having four legged companions. Out most recent member of the family is the stunning young Labrador Bernard. His cute face and adventures are normally plastered all over Instagram so I am sure you have previously 'met' him.
Free clothes.
Why buy a Schoffel, Harkila trousers and a paramo coat when your boyfriend already has one for you to wear? The best part is when your photo in his clothes gets more likes than his, and the company shares it (therefore he believes your famous). The art of tagging and social media is not his strong point, he thinks im some kind of Instagram hacker I swear.
The perfect holiday destination.
Think beautiful hills, rivers, woodland , sheep and cattle on your doorstep and only an hours drive from stunning beaches and you have Toms ‘garden’. Me and Tom met at home in Yorkshire, I went to study paramedic science in Northampton and a few month later Tom moved to Scotland to be a gamekeeper and here we are a year or so later. I now have all my days off, holidays and basically spare time ‘holidaying’ in Scotland. 3 month between uni finishing and starting as a Paramedic much closer to Tom means I may have to stop calling it a holiday though.
Spending all of your time outside.
Having spent most of this year when studying either in a classroom, an ambulance, A and E department or with my head in a book I have learnt to appreciate the outdoors so much more! You can’t beat going to work with Tom to feed or build pens as a de-stress technique. It also means I get to take lots of photos of pretty places normally people aren’t able to access.
The chicks.
All babies animals are cute but there’s something about 1 day old pheasant chicks which melts my heart. The little noise they make when they run about is adorable and I could watch them all day. Unfortunately, as soon as they’re a bit older they’re annoying and try their very best to not go in the night shelters on evening.
As much as I love the perks there are some downsides to being a gamekeepers girlfriend. If you are looking for a relationship where you can go off holidaying, out for the day, plan things or even see your boyfriend more than a few hours a day then maybe a gamekeeper is not for you. You need to get used to the constant pheasant smell, shavings everywhere, cancelling plans last minute, birthdays missed, and only the occasional day off. Hopefully we will get a holiday in next year but seen as though Tom can only book a week or so off in February are places are quite limited!
Id just like to add Im not complaining, sometimes for the jobs we love we have to make sacrifices and if that means missing holidays then that’s completely fine. We will miss each others birthdays, family events and the usual boyfriend girlfriend stuff but it just makes the rare time we have off together special.
Speak soon,
Meg xx
