Our First Decade Together

Towards the 3rd week of October, I casually made a remark to Hubby when I was away in China for work that we would spend the 10th year of our customary wedding away from each other. When I arrived in Singapore on the midnight right after our 10th anniversary, Hubby informed me with zeal that he had arranged for a weekend surprise to celebrate a decade of being together!

All married couples would know that marriage is more hard work rather than the romanticized glory of walking away, hand-in-hand, looking eternally glamorous and sexy, into the dazzling sunset.

Well, it was somewhat like that in our years of courtship and the first year of being married. And then we had Big Bee. And Hubby went away for a couple of years to work in Beijing, whereas I stayed behind in Singapore with Big Bee. And then he came back and we had Little Bee. And they both turned our world utterly topsy-turvy. Our marriage was filled with much tribulations - it was not entirely an easy bed of sweet-smelling roses. We went through roller-coaster rides of exhilarating highs and depressing lows - as all marriages, I am certain.

Yet, we tried our best to nurture and strengthen the marriage like what we would do to a young sapling. And now that we had emerged into the 10th year of a tree in its young adulthood, I thought we did pretty satisfactorily - gone are the perpetual, palpitating emotions of wild, passionate love (although we do enjoy instances of that sometimes, thank goodness). Enter the slow-burning, coal-red fires of companionate love mingled with heady romance. Companionate love that is built on working around each other's polarised personality traits, compromising small aspects of each other to ensure two pieces of a jigsaw fit beautifully into a brilliant design.

And constantly stoking that coal-red fire to ensure a constant warmth with frequent (not merely occasional!) flares of adoration. Easier said than done, as most married couples know (especially with kids, who are the dousers of amorous romance!).

But we try our best to sneak little moments of quality, private time for each other. Little dates after the kids sleep. Dates comprising of midnight home movies (who said dates must be in public cinemas?), of occasional once-a-year weekend escapisms with the grandparents as babysitters, of gleeful real movie dates or suppers when my mum can babysit the Bees, even of late-night supermarket trips! Small regular quantities of these elixir are wonderful panacea for keeping the romance alive.

Not all is rosy though - for we do sometimes fight like teenagers, but that's another story altogether :)

So, for the 10th year of such hard work, Hubby mysteriously asked me to pack a weekend bag, and whisked us all to the new Fullerton Bay Hotel for one night's stay in their gorgeous room facing the Marina Bay Sands! Complete with the Bees in tow, of course!

The Bees were squealing in delight, bouncing on the hotel bed as usual. We spent the whole of the weekend chilling in the comfortable and luxurious room, and staring contentedly at the stunning scenery comprising of the Marina Bay and the entire Esplanade/Marina Bay Sands skyline. We also lingered in the near-desolate pool, jesting around, and soaked in the splendid jacuzzi with a breathtaking view of the bay.

We strolled blithely along One Fullerton, absorbing the sights, smells and sounds of the beautiful city we live in, and indulged in a decadent Japanese dinner, sitting alfresco just beside the bay. The Bees were lapping it up, and we blissfully told them the stay was in celebration of our 10th wedding anniversary. Hubby and I stood many times on the balcony during the deep night as the Bees slept, our arms around each other, admiring the splendour of the hotel as well as the eloquent silence of the city that was winding down eventually.

Before I left for my business trip in China, I remembered lamenting to Big Bee that I would not be home for Mummy's and Papa's 10th wedding anniversary. She was curious and asked what a wedding anniversary was. In return, when I was back home, she presented Hubby and me with a handmade anniversary card, which was the best outcome of our years together :)

Here's to more decades to come!