Happy Pre 1st Anniversary!

Got a nice card yesterday that read "Happy 1st Anniversary" from mum and dad, all the way from Paris (or was it Dieppe?). It came early, but it made me smile none the less. xoxo.

SO! Our 1st Anniversary is coming up in about, oh, 4 more days (Yay!)!!! It's funny cos we both feel like we've been together longer. And that's not a bad thing. We're settling into married life pretty well! I am so proud of us both!

Looking back on the past year, there are some incidents that kinda stuck with me - some things you probably didn't know about us.

Whatever Makes Him Happy, Makes Me Happy.
Sure, we do fight once in a while like any other normal couple - Life would be too boring if we agreed all the time. Like how I would get annoyed when he would come home, rush through dinner and then sit in front of his computer for the next 5 hours for a flight simulation. At this point, you can tell him anything. ANYTHING. I even once told him he was fat and he just went "that's great sweetheart". The wonderful magic about time, is that it allows all of us to adjust through different phases in our lives. Slowly but surely. I pretty much left him on his own after a while, since I enjoy flight simulator as much as Julien enjoys shopping. Just yesterday though, he wanted to do a half hour flight, and I found myself coming round to refill his drink (an excuse to watch him play), and was curious enough to sit through the landing. I like to observe people in general, and it never occured to me how funny Julien can be during a flight simulation. He gushes and coos, shuffles his feet, and bobs up and down in his chair like a little boy who got what he wanted for Christmas! But I look up and the landscape on the screen never changed for the past 20mins! What is it about a screen that seems to perpetually hang, that can excite this man so much?!?! Heck, dangle a playboy magazine in front of him while he's "on flight", and you know what - nothing happens. But ask him to let you sit through a flight as though you're his passenger and he becomes 10 again. It's wonderful! And then I realised, when he's happy, I find myself smiling with him too.

Listen, Listen, Listen, Talk, Talk, Talk.
People tend to have this misconception about us - that we're living the life and everything is perfect. For my friends, they think the fact that I get to travel to Paris yearly is such an exotic affair. For Julien, I don't know, maybe being able to get up and leave for an Island anytime we want is considered living the life? But what they don't see, is that it really takes a lot of mutual understanding and communication to keep it together. Language wise, you all know it's already pretty tough for me. I am taking lessons now and I'm still lost! So as Papa Michel would probably be able to understand, sometimes, being lost all the time at dinner conversations is not the best thing in the world. No one likes to be left out. Not me anyway, since I'm usually very chatty by nature. As with Julien when some of my friends or older relatives start to speak in a dialect or Mandarin, which he cannot understand. This goes the same for other things in our upbringing. Like how Julien cannot understand why I give money to my parents. Ask any asian, they do it. It's in our blood. We share what we have. Sure my parents don't need it. But is it that tough to part with some money knowing that they've given so much more just to bring me up? What I'm trying to say is there are just some things that we both do due to our different culture and upbringing that we both may never be able to grasp. But all that doesn't really matter when we make that choice to keep it together, and that takes a lot of talking, listening and less judging.

Before Marriage Open Both Eyes, After Marriage Close One Eye.
Or both eyes even on some occasions - That's what Pastor Matthews, our officiating pastor at our wedding told us during a pre marital counselling session. Fully agreed. What Julien didn't know, is that he'd have to practice this soon after with my undying love for DURIANS. Julien is someone who lives by his nose. If it stinks, he ain't putting it in his mouth. And Durian smells of vomit to him. But it's a heavenly sweet smell to me. Don't cringe. Each time he'd walk past a durian stall, he would literally pinch his nose or cover up half his face with his t-shirt. It's rude & funny at the same time, but I guess I'd rather he do that than vomit in front of the stall. What he doesn't know, is that ever since we got married, I've been starving myself of durian (something I used to enjoy once a week) since I know he doesn't like the smell of it. But, as with all cravings, it just explodes after a while, so when that happened, I came home early one day with a box of durians and had them all by myself - one of the most satisfying days of my life! Obviously he smelt it right away when he came home. And he's been telling me I'm not getting any kisses from him if I ate durians since I've started to drop him hints with my growing depraved appetite. So obviously he told me no kisses for the day. Night came, and I thought, okay, no good night kiss and I started to feel disappointed. But what do you know, he kissed me goodnight anyway, wreaking of durian and all, with one eye closed!

Surprise is good for the soul.
These memories truly bring a huge smile on my face. Some people think it's his French side, I say it's just how Julien is as a person. I love surprises, and up until now, Julien never fails to stop surprising me. Just little things that put a smile on my face. Even better when there's no occasion for it!

Surprise 1:
I was out for appointments all day once and I received 3 calls from 3 different colleagues asking me to come back to the office because I received a parcel, but no one wanted to tell me what it was. So I rushed back thinking it was something really important. Maybe from the government or something. I came to my desk and my "parcel" turned out to be a bouquet of flowers from Julien. The best part being, there was no occasion for it. I love it!

Surprise 2:
Julien went out to the bike workshop but came back with a plastic stalk of rose, of which now graces the top of our bedroom mirror.

Surprise 3:
I was trying to juggle cooking dinners at home and my work appointments at one point when we started our married life, and it was starting to be a little challenging for me. Of course I never told him, but he came home one evening for dinner with a bouquet of multi coloured fresh chrysanthemums, and that made it all worth the while!

Surprise 4:
Had a disagreement with Julien once, and was feeling pretty down. He came home and handed me a piece of paper all rolled up without saying much. I unrolled to reveal a certificate he made for me as "world's most sexy wifey" that I have proudly framed and displayed in our living room.

Surprise 5:
All the countless silly surprise messages on our blackboard that never fail to crack me up.

Life is good
When you're happily married to the right person. =) Oh joy to the world!

Thank you Yeti for all these great moments that are so much a part of my life now.

Tinker.