On this day in 1960…

… my parents got married.

It certainly was ’till death do us part’ and it is an eternal love still felt, even 62 years on. ❤️

Preoccupations of late

It feels like I have posted so little of late but when I look at what I posted this past January, I’ve not been as quiet as I thought I’d been. With so many things that cross my path (or my screen) I so often find myself thinking, “ooh, I could blog about this”! Recently, however, it has felt like I’ve been considering blogging less and less and I’m not sure why. It’s not like I’m more busy than usual, I’m not in one of my binge-phases and I’m not even feeling more low than usual (which does tend to happen to me in winter). I just have little to say of late, it seems.

This afternoon it came to me that I had not written anything new on my blog in close to two weeks (the two last posts were celebration posts I had written in advance and had scheduled for publication) and that feels long ago. So, today, to get back into the swing of things, here are a few things that have been preoccupying me of late:

• Last weekend Mr E and I went away to a hotel in the woods in the east near the German border (and we also visited the town of Kleve in Germany) to celebrate our 30 years of being together. There were of course Covid restrictions to adhere to and we kept our distance everywhere, so it was all good. Even though it wasn’t far, it was lovely to be away for a few days, just the two of us.

• I am getting to that age where the first friends of my generation are becoming grandmothers! My good friend’s daughter, in her early 20s, just gave birth to a baby daughter the other day. I’m really stoked and will go shopping for a little gift to send to the USA tomorrow morning.

• Only two more weeks to go and then I can start in my new job! It’ll be 50% in the new job / 50% in my old job for the first few weeks but I’m so looking forward to that! I have just about zero motivation left in my current job and am happy that I can slowly let go of things and say “count me out for that!”

• Mini me has started entry exams for two applied sciences universities. She has a very specific area of study that she wants to do and there aren’t many spots open in the field but she’s giving it a shot. If she doesn’t get in, she can always do a longer route to get where she wants to end up but of course we’re hoping for the shorter and specific route. Fingers crossed!

• My main actor squeeze Richard Armitage has more new voice work coming up. Yeah, I won’t be hearing that as audiobooks and I just don’t go together well. One of the new projects is apparently also his voicing of the baddie in a game called Warhammer. I’d never heard of that game before and when I asked Junior he said he knew of the game but had never played it. As I was walking through a shop in Germany this past weekend, I saw this. Apparently that game is a pretty big deal!
  

• I am avoiding the news a lot recently. Boris Johnson, Covid nonsense, the scariness of the Russia – Ukraine situation are so frustrating and there is nothing I can do about that. So, I choose to switch off the news and just stick to reading a digest now and again to stay in the loop a bit.

• I’m reading a book on my e-reader right now called What Makes a Marriage Last : 40 Celebrated Couples Share with Us the Secrets to a Happy Life by Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue (I’ve heard of them before but they are no big names over here). I’m reading the book because some of the couples they interviewed really intrigued me and, being in a long-term relationship myself, the subject also intrigued me.
  
  I could do with a little less of Marlo and Phil inserting themselves and their situations in the interviews and sometimes I wish for a little more elaboration when something that I feel is important is skipped over. Still, it really is quite an interesting read. Each interview is about 10-15 pages long, so I can read a few at a time and then let it go for a while (I still have about 1/3 of the book to go).
  
  There are many differences in how married life is shaped for these couples but the common ground does seem to be to stay connected and interested in the other, in allowing the other to be themselves and in communicating and actually liking the other. I can attest to all of that. I keep on thinking about how my own marriage would be portrayed in such a book. Maybe I should write my own chapter sometime.

• Last but not least, on another personal note: I had a huge post sitting in my drafts for over a month on how annoying my mother can be, illustrated by some examples over Christmas. I finally deleted that post today and decided to celebrate her instead because, despite any annoyances (and I know that I sometimes annoy her too), she really is awesome and I’m glad she’s still around to get annoyed at!

So, yeah, I have been preoccupied with some things. Maybe now I can find my way back to actually wanting to blog about them more.

Forever

Thirty years ago today Mr Esther and I kissed for the first time and we have been together ever since.

Thirty years sounds way longer than it feels. At the time when we got together at ages 21 (me) and 20 (him) I already felt quite grown up but in hindsight we were so young! From day one it just felt right to be together and when we got married 7.5 years later it felt right as well; there were no wedding jitters whatsoever, there was just joy. New love has grown into a strong, steady and very meaningful love and yes, I fully realise how lucky I am to have such a smart, handsome, sexy, funny, tolerant, thoughtful partner and father to our children. It’s a lifetime together and I’m glad I get to share it with him. What Mr E and I have is forever and I very much look forward to our next thirty years. ❤️

Sirius Black

Just a quick post as I’ve been engrossed in Harry Potter movies the past few days. I decided to watch the 20th anniversary reunion show and that made me realize I’d forgotten a lot about these movies as it’s been ages since I’ve seen them. So, after watching that show, which I found quite touching despite me not being a hardcore fan, I decided to dive into the movies again. I wanted to refresh my memory on the plot but also for the cast, especially Alan Rickman who was so brilliant as Professor Snape. His entrance just after 1 minute 10 in this really fun party scene from the sixth movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince gives a teeny glimpse into his magnetic and sometimes very amusing performance as Snape.

I also remember really liking Gary Oldman in Harry Potter…

Seeing (parts of) the movies again, I was reminded how wonderful Gary actually was as Sirius Black and I’m in love all over again. My heart really beats faster for those little winks alone (ask Mr Esther, I adore winks)…

… but also for his wisdom…

… and for so much more…

I so wish he’d been around much more and much longer in the books and movies. Now all that’s left is to daydream about him, so I will go and do that now…

Romance and success

Yes, it is exciting to see new Richard Armitage interviews appearing as Stay Close marketing starts to kick into gear. There was this video interview in a Hello article that I really liked and Guytly has just unearthed a second Richard interview for Stay Close. I was going to blog about that this evening and take screenshots to share and all but then real life excitement happened and overshadowed it all.

First off, Mr Esther dropped off mini me at school today and I thought it took unusually long for him to return. There were some traffic issues but he had also stopped by a florist on his way home to get me this…

The reason? His card said that he and I had moved in together 25 years, 4 months and 18 days ago and that means that as of now he has been very happily living with me for more than half his life! How absolutely loving and romantic is that? Mr E is not one for sentimentality and overt romantic gestures, his love is usually expressed more subtly, but then he does something completely surprising like this and my heart melts. I really hit the jackpot finding this man as my life partner so many years ago.

Then, at the end of the afternoon, after I had picked up mini me from school and we walked into the house, Junior met us with great news. We already knew that he had passed all his final vocational education exams that he resat in October and now his final assignments he had handed in more than a month ago have finally been approved as well. This means that he has now earned his diploma that he may pick up tomorrow! Junior can now wholly concentrate on his gap year and the choices he still wants to make for his future. We are very proud and happy parents today.

So, yes, fandom news is lovely but nothing beats personal romance and your child’s success.