For those keeping track, the LLDD-Hyphen-L and I's First Wedding Anniversary just came up. Ah, glorious wedded bliss. To paraphrase the squeaky voice from that De Beers commercial* shown in the Philippines sometime during the early-nineties, "Doesn't seem like one year". This is very true, in part because the LLDD-Hyphen-L and I spent some months apart right after the wedding, in part because we pretty much feel like we're still on our honeymoon (in London!), and in part because - seriously - we only now got around to paying for and getting our wedding album.
Our love-in-pictures was good, but the photographers needed cash.
So where do a beautiful fairy princess and...ahem...her prince charming stay a year after they're married? Why, at a royal palace of course! OK, it was actually just a day-tour bus stop at Windsor Castle, but still.
And since photographs are strictly forbidden inside Windsor, you can't NOT prove that we were actually overnight guests of the Queen! Can't you!
Windsor was all well and good, of course, but an anniversary still needs some extra-oopmh. It needs something powerful, a strong image and symbol of the best parts of marriage. It needs . . . large rock columns that make a man feel insecure and inadequate!
The LLDD-Hyphen-L seemed a little too pleased at this "attraction"
Kidding aside, Stonehenge was not at all the disappointing tourist trap that some have made it out to be (at least, if it's not the only place you're visiting on a day-tour). The vast surrounding countryside, the eerie winds, and the sheer size of the stones combined for a cool, mysterious feel to the place. Staring at it all, you can't help but join in the debate over who built Stonehenge, how, and why? Was it constructed as a burial ground or to serve as a calendar? A temple for ancient rituals and ceremonies perhaps? Did, as legend had it, Merlin magically teleport it to England (to avoid having to pay VAT maybe)? Or - as I am personally inclined to believe - was the whole thing put in place by giant aliens?
Because there is a surprising amount of visual evidence of this
But I really do think there's some mojo going on at Stonehenge, because right after our visit, our day-tour took a turn for the worse when a massive traffic jam suddenly appeared on the highway and brought our bus to a crawl. The result: we were told we could only stay thirty minutes at our final stop, Oxford. Thus, our tour guide (the dude in the shades below) literally just plopped our group down on a street corner, walked us around the block and - what a coincidence! - finished off the tour next to a gift shop. We were then given five minutes to get back to the bus. Awesome.
No Christchurch!?! No Harry-Potter dining hall?!? By the power of Merlin, I swear you shall be avenged, LLDD-Hyphen-L!!! Animo Cambridge!!!!
But love still conquers all, of course, so no lame tour of Oxford could ruin our anniversary. Besides, the LLDD-Hyphen-L and I still had time that weekend to take advantage of London's great theatre scene and watch the most romantic of Shakespeare's plays...The Lion King.
Hakuneth Matathou!
No, it doesn't feel like it's been a year at all. If anything, it feels like the LLDD-Hyphen-L and I have been together since the time of Stonehenge, with our love growing each day that passed since then.
But then the LLDD-Hyphen-L sees Edward/Cedric right behind the Embassy, and it all gets shot right back to square one.
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