The course of true love never runs smooth..

Ok, Ok, so maybe I'm being somewhat melodramatic here, but I do like to quote Will at every opportunity that I get.. (see here) after all, he is only the best writer in all of English history. ;) So what spurs this sudden burst of err, drama? Well, I've just arrived back home after spending the weekend with WS.. Bet you can guess what's this going to be about!

And so the story begins... (again, I apologise for the dramatics.. teehee!)

WS and I have been dating for quite a long time now.. Unfortunately, the greatest bane of our relationship has always been that of distance. Of the time we've been together, I believe that we've only spent 1/3 of our time being physically together. And that to me, (and him, of course) really really stinks.

We've actually coped very well with the distance over the past years. I'm probably confident enough to say that we've pretty much mastered the art of keeping our long-distance relationship going. But after all this time, I'm beginning to get really really tired of this. And I mean, really really tired. It's getting very frustrating, expensive, tiresome and frankly, quite ridiculous. I mean, how can you expect our relationship to move forward if we're not even living in the same region? (Ok, granted, this has improved vastly from when I was in the UK and he was still at home, but still, being apart is being apart, full stop. We don't get to see each other whenever we want to, as we wish, or enjoy being part of each other's day-to-day, mundane lives..)

At our age, everyone around us is beginning to talk about marriage and spending the rest of their lives together. Not that I want to, but WS and I can't even begin to discuss that, simply because we've never even tried near-distance dating before. How can we even think about living together or getting married? It's just not going to be a very fruitful discussion.. Well, at least that's what I think. WS's a little more optimistic than I am, and am sure that he wants to marry me! (Bless him, my sweetie-pie..)

Anyway, as I was saying, as our relationship grows stronger, it's getting tougher and tougher to be apart. Nowadays, everytime we have to say goodbye after we see each other (which is currently about once a fortnight), at the risk of sounding overdramatic, it feels as if someone's ripped my heart out of my chest and can't stop stabbing it furiously. I have probably shed enough tears to fill the Pacific in the past few months! It really is silent torture - tormenting us bit by bit as every day passes..

Sometimes I wonder.. that if we were not together in the first place, maybe it won't hurt so much, maybe I won't be so sad and just maybe, I won't have to ride the emotional roller coaster everytime I spend some time with him.. It seems like such an easy solution to our pain, doesn't it? Unfortunately, (or should I say fortunately?) WS doesn't agree with me.. he doesn't believe in just giving up what we have and can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. In a way, I'm really glad that he and I don't see eye-to-eye on this one, as I'm counting on him to remind me that our perseverence will be worth it. That we will be together properly, sooner or later.. (I'd rather it be sooner, of course!)

I guess then, and only then, can we start thinking of whether we're going to have that future together, or whether we are completely unsuited for each other when we're actually in close proximity. I guess we're one of the 'funny' couples where the ultimate test of our relationship will be whether we can be together physically as opposed to whether we can be apart and still maintain a relationship. (I always knew that I was unique, special and not normal.. ;) )

So I guess good ol' Will was right after all.. this path truly does not run smoothly..

We do look quite happy, don't we?

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True love? You decide..

Fun in the sun!

Having been here for about 4 years now, I think the British mentality is slowly creeping its way into my highly absorbable and gullible head. It's August now, and unfortunately, that only means one thing - summer is ending. *sniff sniff* (See what I mean by British mentality?) Anyway, never being one to give up any opportunity to have fun, I suggested to WS that we headed to Alton Towers, one of the biggest theme parks in the UK, for a day of fun in the sun! (Corny, huh?) It worked out well, cos' this is only the beginning of my final year, so I'm ok to slack off (says me, of course!) and WS was having his 4-week summer holiday. (which incidentally, was super precious since it would be the last holiday he'll ever have of that length. I mean, you can't take 4 weeks off work for no reason at all, can you?)

I digress. (And I ramble too.. ;) ) So, after much planning, we decided to go. We went with our old friends, JL and CY, and another old friend, NT with his gf, KF. It was super-super fun and as exhausting as it was, I'm so glad that we went! (We did run into a lot of trouble with booking and stuff, but I'll rant about that in a bit..) This makes my third time, and WS's second, since we went together with my Nottingham friends some time ago. But J, CY, NT and KF hadn't been before, so there was still much enthusiasm and excitement! (And no, not just from me.. :P)

So here are the pics of us throughout the day.. But first, allow me to show you the official Alton Towers photos which we bought.. all very nice and of high quality/calibre! Hehe..

At the river rapids: don't we all look so perfectly poised? heehee.. :)

One of my favourite rides: The Flume. We made JL sit in the front, so he was soaked through! Hehe.. also, I was so brave to open my eyes all the way, so bravo to me too! (I didn't actually buy this photo so a big thank you to CY for letting me copy it!)

The Oblivion (Yes, the one with the 90 degree vertical drop!): This was definitely my absolute favourite ride of all! Granted, I wasn't brave enough to open my eyes, but the adrenaline rush was absolutely fantastic! Though I don't think WS enjoyed it too much.. I managed to drag JL and NT up too, and I hope they had a good time! (CY and KF were too scared to go) If you look carefully, the bit on top is a photo of us too, can you spot me?

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Ok, now back to the photos we took:

All geared up and ready to go!

This was our first ride of the day - I was soaked through!!!

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This is 'Air', the one where you're suspended like Superman.. It was so cool!

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This is the 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' ride.. we even got to ride the ever-so-famous glass elevator and I was very impressed!

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Unfortunately, as you'd expect with British weather, it started raining while we were queieng..

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Inside, on the ride.. nice and dry!

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This is just a picture of a pretty cottage, pretty flowers, and of course, pretty us!

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With KF and NT

With JL and CY




Horsing around..

No, I'm not feeling her up.. we're just really close! hehe..

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More horsing around..

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We always have an extra head in the pic when JL is around..

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Group pic!

And lastly.. WS and I took a similar pic together in Genting Highlands some 4 years ago. Didn't realise that it was the same pose until I came back.. It's my favourite photo of the day and yes, my eyes are closed!!

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All in all, this was truly a great day for all of us.. We had so much fun, but more importantly, it was the first time in a long long time, that we all got to hang out and do something together. So despite all the problems, I'm still glad that we went and can't wait for our next outing!

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Footnote: What problems, you say? I'll tell you!!! I booked tickets with Alton Towers before we got there, but they basically f***ed it up and I couldn't get them, even after being bounced around and queing for almost an hour. When I finally got them, again, they had f***ed up again and had to redirect me to another queue.. Grr.. Worse still? When I reached home, I found that they had charged me twice, so now, after making like a million phone calls to them and my bank, I had to go in to my bank, request a statement and then send it in to them. Could this get any worse???!!! I hope this will be the end of it, otherwise, I'll scream!!!!!!!