Tonight a couple of things happened that I thought were kind of revealing about where stbx is in his journey.

Still way frozen, as Snodderly would say.

On the way home from school, he gave S14 (who has no sign even of fluff on his face) a shaving kit in an expensive leather bag. Didn't offer to show him how to use it though.

When he dropped D17 off at 4.30pm, she realised that she'd left her phone on the front seat. She ran into the driveway as he was pulling out and waved and shouted but he just seemed to ignore her (maybe he can't bear to look back at the house when he is in the process of driving away??).

Anyway, she ran back inside and got another phone to call him. Although he was only 1 minute away from our house, he said he was going to football training and so would bring it back to her afterwards.
She was upset - a 17yo without her mobile phone for 1 hour!!!!

Of course, we waited and waited. By 8.30pm, she was beside herself and so she rang him again. He said he was too drunk to drive. Must have gone out with the 20yos in his team to the hotel that is their watering hole.
D17 was astonished and very let down. She now has no phone for the whole evening (disaster, in her mind) and no phone for tomorrow at school (even worse as she needs to call me to arrange pick up and going out with friends, etc).

From my POV, this is a man who was never a drinker, never went out with 'mates' to pubs at night but preferred the company of his family, someone who would always have gone out of his way to take a forgotten object back to a child.

MLC is truly the maker of opposites.

But moreso, does it not occur to him that he keeps disappointing the kids... and yet it's me, according to him, who is turning them against him.

Just wonder, quietly, how much fun he is to be around. I know I'd LOVE to have a partner who went to footy training and then sat around with his mates getting drunk mid-week. How I'd wish I was still an undergrad too.

And then again, there's the money spent on these sorts of activities (I've seen the gut that remains even though he trains three times a week). This from a guy who can't afford to pay school fees or child support and who has debt collectors chasing him.

Sounds like life as the new him is still pretty much in turmoil.
More evidence that what everyone says about MLC is true.