AT THIRTEEN WE TOOK TO THE SKIES

Whaaaat for your Thirteenth wedding anniversary you're getting on a small confined plane with no mask requirements in this wild la niña weather aren't you afraid of contagion or turbulence or the unlucky number 13 of it all? 

Ha. After thirteen years, y'all still don't know what this couple will risk for love and free welcome drinks.

Onward and upward! 

Ibang level na talaga naabot namin

 but we can still always be reached at the complementary post-flight breakfast buffet  

SECOND ANNIVERSARY NA NAMIN 'TO CHONG

For those of you keeping track, you know that the LLDD-Hyphen-L and I mark the 2nd year of our wedded bliss right about this time of the year. (actually, if you've been keeping track of that....Stop it! Stop it right NOW! IT'S CREEPY!!!) So what's the secret to enduring happiness? Well, if you get the 80s reference in this post's title, you'll get that marriage is all about compromise -- especially come anniversary time. For our own weekend celebrations, for instance, the LLDD-Hyphen-L and I....

Watched something that only the Husband could possibly have enjoyed:

more than qualifies

Did some things both the Husband and Wife thoroughly liked:

To wit, dinner at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant. . .

note: compromise doesn't include the wife sharing the Jamie Oliver dessert with you

. . . then the award winning and critically acclaimed play Clybourne Park, a squirm-in-your-seat comedy of the highest "Oh no, s/he did NOT just say THAT!" order. (particularly watch out for the devastating "How is a [certain demographic] like a [certain hygiene product]" line.

for added fun, look around you as that line is delivered and observe which groups seem deeply offended and which groups appear to be wetting their pants in laughter.

And lastly, tried something that in a MILLION years only the Wife would have thought of:

how can something so wrong feel so.....WRONG

As if to affirm the trials the LLDD-Hyphen-L went through, the BBC soon reported that playing footsie with Nemo might not be the best thing out there. Did I mention the place offers similar therapies for the whole body? Um, yeah, they do.

Needless to state, for next year's anniversary weekend, we won't be ordering the fish at Jamie's.

CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT?

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.

(*no, not this one)

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.