Sunday 23 September 2012

Seventeen






On our wedding day in 1995






So, that man of mine and I have been married seventeen years today. Time just flies! My lovely mother offered to have the children for the night so that we could have some time together alone and a wonderful time we had too.

A country drive whilst listening to Neil Young with the sunshine pouring in on us and a quiet road ahead, fresh air circling. A familiar walk by the canals whilst chatting away about life and reflecting on our seventeen years. A pit stop at one of our favourite pubs for a coffee, a standard filter coffee tasting all the better for the calm of it being just us two adults and the intoxicatingly cosy scent of wood burning on a real fire. Then it was onto a pretty and old town where we ambled along, window shopping and searching for some good food. On days like these, that hubby of mine is always on the look out for an all day breakfast and a 'good' coffee, so we started with a cheap and cheerful breakfast in a cafe with the loveliest staff. The lady who served us actually listened to my request for my fried egg to be 'well done' and for hubby's request of an extra sausage instead of the bacon and she smiled charmingly at our harry met sally moment! She also melted my heart as I watched her serving several elderly men who were clearly regulars, helping one to get his coat and rucksack on before heading off, subserviently attending to anothers random call outs for extra butter, sweeteners, more milk, a paper! I was humbled by her attentiveness.

Next, we went for something a little more continental and found a stunning little french cafe where hubby finally found that 'good' cafe au lait and I found my hot chocolate and we shared the prettiest pastel coloured macaroons. Believe it or not, the bubblegum flavour was outstanding and may well have overtaken my two usual favourites, pistachio and vanilla. Hubby said the blueberry was a pretty good contender too!

We then headed home swinging by the shops to pick up a couple of bottles of pinot and ingredients to recreate the incredible pizza that we ate when we finally reached our hotel on our wedding night after barely eating at the do. It was pure nostalgic bliss! Then, we watched a film whilst indulging in decadent mouthfuls of pralines and cream ice cream, it feeling all the more crazy since it's an unusual treat as that eldest boy of ours has a nut allergy and so lovely, lovely nuts are off the menu at home! 

I'd bought my film of choice earlier in the week and I wanted my hubby to watch to see if he would enjoy it as much as I had. Not so much because it was the greatest film but because of the broader thoughts it provoked about how relationships grow and change and both thrive and suffer as time passes. After seventeen years in a marriage of ups and downs, heartache and happiness, buzzing elation and not being quite in synch but always, always believing in forever and ever, we really enjoyed looking back on all these years together and what it meant along the way and what it means now. In the film we watched, we were kind of amused by the fact that the characters that were our peers were not the couple we particularly identified with but the much older couple, the one's more our parents age ... that's what comes of marrying when you're twenty and twenty-one!

So we had a great discussion after the films close, hubby did enjoy it and it was interesting to get a male perspective on some of the relationship issues discussed in the film. After that we moved onto a documentary on the Ramones because ... well everybody wants to know how they can be more like a Ramone! We talked about how Dee Dee should be a example of why you shouldn't do drugs ... but he just still looked so cool!! Right up until that last piece of footage was shot of him - the day before he overdosed on heroin! Say no to drugs people, just have a quiet night in with some pralines and cream, unless of course you have a nut allergy!!

Happy seventeenth anniversary 'cool guy'!  





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