Déjà huit, trop vite...Eight already, so fast?

S* makes a "special appearance" on this blog, and describes our relationship in his unique style and with all honesty? ;) ....

i'm not a "romantic" in the traditional parlance of the word and my darling wife would vouch for that. however:

1. …i do remember the day i met her (some 3000+ days back) as if it were this morning…
2. …i do remember the quick smile as we were introduced (from across the room)…
3. …i do remember the ambling walk to the beach and the wide-ranging chatter (mostly on her part, as would be obvious to our common friends)…
4. …i do remember THE DECISION itself (not quite a movie-style climactic crescendo, i like to believe that by the time we came to that point, all that was left was the “formal” question and answer – that we had each individually already decided)…
5. …i do remember that we’ve lived in 5 different houses (only some of them count as “homes”) in 3 different cities in 2 different countries…
6. …i do remember that we’ve visited 11 countries (not counting the two we’ve lived in)…
7. …i do remember that today is our 8^th anniversary (i can almost hear the cliché shattering)…
8. …i do remember we’ve spent each of our anniversaries in a different place (by choice, its one of our customary annual vacations)…

that’s a whole lot of numbers that would not really mean much if not for what we’ve learnt from each other:

1. …how to let another person totally, completely and uninhibitedly into your life…
2. …how to recognize each other’s alter-egos and not to think you’re dealing with a different person…
3. …how to argue, debate, fight, nag, hassle, pester and badger each other without getting annoyed or irritated…
4. …how to stand up for each other without realizing it or acknowledge that you’re doing it…
5. …how to understand each other without speaking a word…
6. …how to completely misunderstand each other and laugh about it later…
7. …how to feel totally at ease doing things that you would otherwise never do…
8. …how to spend a majority of your waking hours with another person and never feel bored…

none of this would be possible without the things we have in common:

1. …love of travel, seeing new places and people (see above!)…
2. …the conviction to take things as they come (trust in God but lock your door at night)…
3. …sloth (our common favourite pastime is to curl up on a comfy sofa with a book)…
4. …F.R.I.E.N.D.S. (we have the entire series on DVD and have watched it a zillion times)…

to name only a few.

…or the ways in which we are totally different:

5. …she can’t stand my Formula 1 obsession and i loathe her fashion/ shopping fetish…
6. …she jabbers incessantly and i enjoy the sounds of silence…
7. …she loves the sea and i can’t get enough of mountains…
8. …she has tons of friends and i’m a “closet introvert”…

again, to name only a few.

what does this all mean? 8 fruitful years and a truckload of good times for starters…and 8 more years for you to wait for my next post…

see you same place, same time in 2019!

* S refers to the wonderful man I am married to! ( if you didn't already know!)