Five years


Today, I realized at four this afternoon, was the fifth anniversary of my wife and I starting to date. Fortuitously, I’d already booked dinner at a nice restaurant, even if the reason for that had been because I could afford it, rather than because I’d remembered what date today signified. I have to thank the machinations of my subconscious.

We had orbited around one another for a few months, exchanging books and not being able to guess the other’s motives. I had done spectacularly well in providing her with off-putting reading material (The Good Soldier Svejk isn’t a romantic choice, it turns out) but she’d proven entranced by my impenetrable accent. I remember hugging her that day at the tram stop in Happy Valley, showing her a huge painting of my face on the wall of the apartment … and now here we are five years later, with a child and some groaning bookshelves. The painting is wrapped up in brown paper right now, as though it’s a Dorian Grey style enchanted artifact. Or perhaps my wife doesn’t like pop art renditions of a man with a huge moustache and mirror shades.

We went to one of our favourite restaurants in Singapore; my wife had beef, and I had pasta, which couldn’t compare to the lovely, bloody meat she had on her plate. Then again, I had a crema catalana (a creme brulee by any other name, but seeded with chocolate drops) and that was better than anything else I’ve eaten this week, so I don’t feel I was too far behind.

As we strolled slowly back home, I kept on sneezing. The air quality in Singapore has got worse recently, probably in part because of the lack of rain for the past two months. I find myself in the strange situation (for an Englishman) of wishing for heavy rains to come. I doubt many people in England feel that way right now.

I wonder where we’ll be in another five years.


3 responses to “Five years”

  1. congrats. btw jef i took that hong kong role. moving out at the end of april. hopefully be able to hook up with you and the family as i will have to periodically head to singapore. cheers dM/

    • Nice one! Hope to see you soon in one part of Asia or another (there’s a bed in our spare room that’s always available…)

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