So we have successfully completed five enduring years of togetherness. That statement itself should bring in a wave of sympathy for A because I have spent most of these five years metamorphosing into an unbelievably quarrelsome, OCD-ed, flaw-finding shrew. But what the heck!
Anyway, the fact of the matter is, we needed to celebrate. So after much research and bitterly mourning over a Sisyphus-esque work schedule and a shrinking bank balance, we decided, England’s Lake District it was going to be. Not that it costs any less; quite on the contrary actually. But since A had created a considerable amount of unnecessary hype around his five years with me, having to dish out those extra bucks didn’t seem such a shocking deal. So off we were, on our way to Windermere, Cumbria, one of the most romantic places in the Lake District, to reflect on five eventful years.
The evening before the big travel is always one that’s bursting with frenzied activity. Ran to the grocery store to get cute travel-sized essentials. Was reasonably impressed with my immaculate planning before I got off the train without the shopping bag. Head’s among the clouds, woman! Some lucky bastard was going to have fun. A bad start to a hopefully good vacation…and did I say that over these five years I have also developed a sailor’s mouth? Hope my folks aren’t anywhere close to reading this piece. I hate to give them sudden heartbreaks.
The next morning, our journey didn’t start all that well either. A had forgotten to set the alarm, so we invariably woke up a couple of hours later than planned. With the clock ticking away, we drove off, my mood desperately upbeat, considering I had completed washing, combing, dressing and most other required 'ing' verb forms in less than an hour. But as luck would have it, our satellite navigator kicked the bucket, bang in the middle of the countryside. Here we were, stranded in a car, caught in an annoying drizzle late in the afternoon, with a conked navigator. Very exciting, indeed!
‘Try the GPS on the phone’ I quipped. ‘Yeah right, with a fast dwindling battery charge, we’re going to be marooned before we know it!’ A has picked up this negative sharpness from me. The downside of staying with a true-blue pessimist!
All there was left to do now was to find the next big ‘Services’ in the motorway, and get a new navigator. Through gritted teeth A paid for a new system at the next store. 120 freaking GBP, gone with the wind. Back in the parking lot, and would you believe it? A 40 GBP parking ticket!!! My head spun like a mad planet, and we thought we were going insane. ‘I hope I am in the middle of a really bad nightmare’, was all I heard A saying. ‘Nightmares are of a single kind…bad’ I corrected him, my flaw-finding self suddenly kicking back to life.
Live with it. Just because it’s the beginning of a special holiday for you, doesn’t mean the big bad world is going to make it sweeter. We did make it to Cumbria within the next four hours, without major hiccups. And Cumbria, believe you me, is unimaginably pristine. But that’s another story.
Anyway, the fact of the matter is, we needed to celebrate. So after much research and bitterly mourning over a Sisyphus-esque work schedule and a shrinking bank balance, we decided, England’s Lake District it was going to be. Not that it costs any less; quite on the contrary actually. But since A had created a considerable amount of unnecessary hype around his five years with me, having to dish out those extra bucks didn’t seem such a shocking deal. So off we were, on our way to Windermere, Cumbria, one of the most romantic places in the Lake District, to reflect on five eventful years.
The evening before the big travel is always one that’s bursting with frenzied activity. Ran to the grocery store to get cute travel-sized essentials. Was reasonably impressed with my immaculate planning before I got off the train without the shopping bag. Head’s among the clouds, woman! Some lucky bastard was going to have fun. A bad start to a hopefully good vacation…and did I say that over these five years I have also developed a sailor’s mouth? Hope my folks aren’t anywhere close to reading this piece. I hate to give them sudden heartbreaks.
The next morning, our journey didn’t start all that well either. A had forgotten to set the alarm, so we invariably woke up a couple of hours later than planned. With the clock ticking away, we drove off, my mood desperately upbeat, considering I had completed washing, combing, dressing and most other required 'ing' verb forms in less than an hour. But as luck would have it, our satellite navigator kicked the bucket, bang in the middle of the countryside. Here we were, stranded in a car, caught in an annoying drizzle late in the afternoon, with a conked navigator. Very exciting, indeed!
‘Try the GPS on the phone’ I quipped. ‘Yeah right, with a fast dwindling battery charge, we’re going to be marooned before we know it!’ A has picked up this negative sharpness from me. The downside of staying with a true-blue pessimist!
All there was left to do now was to find the next big ‘Services’ in the motorway, and get a new navigator. Through gritted teeth A paid for a new system at the next store. 120 freaking GBP, gone with the wind. Back in the parking lot, and would you believe it? A 40 GBP parking ticket!!! My head spun like a mad planet, and we thought we were going insane. ‘I hope I am in the middle of a really bad nightmare’, was all I heard A saying. ‘Nightmares are of a single kind…bad’ I corrected him, my flaw-finding self suddenly kicking back to life.
Live with it. Just because it’s the beginning of a special holiday for you, doesn’t mean the big bad world is going to make it sweeter. We did make it to Cumbria within the next four hours, without major hiccups. And Cumbria, believe you me, is unimaginably pristine. But that’s another story.
4 comments:
You sound so much like me..."true-blue pessimist", "OCD" etc. Your luck is slightly better than mine,though.
If this was my story, we would have had a flat tyre in the middle of nowehere, and realised sometime soon that we had forgotten our wallets home. So chill...you've had it easy, by my standards :)
Happy anniversary, btw
omg! i am ROTFL marriage does this to us, doesn't it, i cringe when i see sugary OTT pda indulging couples who are no longer newly married... amy i cynical? perhaps!.. 5 years has done that to me.
i love this piece and seriously the negative works with me too but then that is another story
Cheer up, I'm sure the beauty of the Lake District was enough to compensate for all the negativity !!!
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