V is for Vows

Welcome to the A to Z blogging challenge where for the month of April we post everyday except Sundays, corresponding to each letter of the alphabet. I've chosen to blog about keeping the romance alive in a relationship along with ideas for married couple dates. Each post will also have a romantic song for you to listen to whilst you read.

Today's song is from two giants of the music industry, Vince Gill and Barbra Streisand with the beautiful If You Ever Leave Me.

If you're married do you remember the words you spoke to your special person during the wedding service? Whether they were the traditional vows or you wrote your own, do you still hold them in your heart and live them every day?

We each wrote our own vows and the words are even more relevant today than they were 18 years ago. The line from my vows that I probably think every day is; I will always give thanks that in this huge world we managed to find each other.

V is also for vegetarian. In April 2016 I made the decision to give up meat for various reasons, and my beloved gave up in support of me. I didn't expect him to but I love it so much that he did.

V words that I regularly call my hunky husband are; virile, vibrant, and vivacious.

When I asked Ken what V should be he replied voluptuous.

Today's quote:

Pamela & Ken
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Previous A to Z posts:

2017 = View

2016 = Value

U is for Unconditional

Welcome to the A to Z blogging challenge where for the month of April we post everyday except Sundays, corresponding to each letter of the alphabet. I've chosen to blog about keeping the romance alive in a relationship along with ideas for married couple dates. Each post will also have a romantic song for you to listen to whilst you read.

Okay, I can't help myself but today's song is by another Australian, the wonderful Keith Urban with the beautiful Making Memories of Us.

Unconditional love is so important in a relationship. Love shouldn't be a barter system, it should just be given without thought or rationing.

A good example of this is the time I branded my beloved, and no it's not some weird fetish thing. Early in our marriage we were at a local Indian Restaurant when our food was brought out and sat on warmed up metal stands. I commented that I wondered how hot they really were whilst resting my knife on one, and then pressing the knife to Ken's forehead so that he could feel how warm they were. The look of pain gave me a little bit of an indication that they might be quite hot, and the blister that formed instantly when I removed the knife was the second hint. Thankfully we were able to laugh about it as my lovely husband is so forgiving, and now it's one of our favourite memories.

The romance of unconditional love often comes to light if one of us are unwell (usually me). Over the 18 years of our marriage I have had several falls which have incapacitated me for various lengths of time. My beloved has shaved my legs, painted my toenails, done up bras, and when I had to sleep in an armchair because my back was so painful, he slept in a chair beside me rather than being in the more comfortable bed. I really am the luckiest girl in the world to have this kind of love in my life.

Today's quote:

Pamela & Ken
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Previous A to Z posts:

2017 = Ullapool

2016 = Unique

T is for Travel

Welcome to the A to Z blogging challenge where for the month of April we post everyday except Sundays, corresponding to each letter of the alphabet. I've chosen to blog about keeping the romance alive in a relationship along with ideas for married couple dates. Each post will also have a romantic song for you to listen to whilst you read.

Today's song is Tina Arena (another Australian) with Whistle Down the Wind.

What we've discovered during our twenty years together, is that a true test of your relationship is travelling by plane for over twenty four hours to the other side of the world. We have done that nightmarish journey at least six times together - it may be more, and yet we've never fallen out. We've seen lots of other harassed people and overheard several heated arguments over the years - travel can bring out the worst and the best in people.

We love having time away together, whether it's all the way to Australia or just down the road to somewhere in this country. I think it's important to have holidays together as it's a chance to reconnect with each other without all the normal distractions around. We went to the Isle of Skye last year for a week and we didn't turn the TV on once during that time - it was so nice just to be together talking, reading, and listening to music when we weren't out enjoying the great outdoors.

Travel has it's own special kind of romance and there is joy in walking into the sea on a different continent.

Fossil Bluff Tasmania

Romance is everywhere if you just look hard enough, and the craze of leaving locks on bridges is all over the world now. We joined the movement and left a lock on this bridge in Krakow. When this tradition started it meant that you would return to that spot in the future.

Love locks in Krakow, Pol

Trying new foods is a great part of travel, and there is romance in watching my beloved try and eat messy food like shellfish - he hates using his hands to eat but because he knows I love this type of food he will still order it to share with me.

Mojacar Spain

Travel doesn't have to be by plane to a foreign land - it may be just getting in the car or on the bus or train, and going somewhere in your country that you've always wanted to explore. You can even make a game of finding things that represent romance whilst you're out and about together.

The Meeting Place, Paddington Station, London

Today's quote:

Pamela & Ken
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Previous A to Z posts:

2017 = Tomintoul, Highest Village in the Highlands

2016 = Travel and the Joy it Brings

S is for Surprises, Selfies, and Silliness

Welcome to the A to Z blogging challenge where for the month of April we post everyday except Sundays, corresponding to each letter of the alphabet. I've chosen to blog about keeping the romance alive in a relationship along with ideas for married couple dates. Each post will also have a romantic song for you to listen to whilst you read.

Today's song is by Savage Garden (fellow Australians) - I Knew I Loved You. The words are so beautiful.

There's just no rhyme or reason

only this sense of completion

and in your eyes

I see the missing pieces

I'm searching for

I think I found my way home

Surprises are a great way to keep romance alive, as they show you care enough to put a little effort into your relationship. They can be big or small things, it doesn't really matter as it's the thought that goes into it that counts.

It doesn't have to cost very much to surprise your special person, like the time I came home and found these maltesers laid out on the bed for me.

Or when I surprised my beloved with chocolate covered strawberries.

They can also be big things, like a weekend away where Ken had arranged for flowers, chocolate, and dinner to be delivered to our beautiful room - I felt very cherished.

When you're out exploring the world together it's good to have a picture of the two of you as a memory of these places, hence the reason we take selfies. Our selfies definitely aren't perfect, and they never feature the pouted lips like young people tend to do. Here's a few to show you what I mean.

Cairngorm Mountains viewpoint

Bamburgh Northumberland

The Lecht with Bramble Jelly

Sometimes the selfies include the silliness that we're so fond of. This is us dressed up for a Halloween party - I'm a witch and Ken is my puppy dog.

One of my favourite silly things is my beloved getting in children's rides to make me laugh.

Today's quote:

Pamela & Ken

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Previous A to Z posts:

2017 = Skye

2016 = statues

R is for Reality

Welcome to the A to Z blogging challenge where for the month of April we post everyday except Sundays, corresponding to each letter of the alphabet. I've chosen to blog about keeping the romance alive in a relationship along with ideas for married couple dates. Each post will also have a romantic song for you to listen to whilst you read.

Today's song is the wonderful Lionel Richie and Shania Twain - Endless Love.

R, is of course for romance and in 2016 Romance was my A to Z post, but today it's also for reality. Romance isn't something that just happens magically without any thought or planning, the reality is that it takes effort to keep it alive. The reality is also that romance isn't all hearts and roses, it can be found in the simplest of moments and gestures.

It may be sitting in a cafe, looking at your special person, and realising how lucky you are to have that person in your life.....

Or smiling every time you look at that silly little gift, like my pink kangaroo that my beloved found in a charity shop - I absolutely love it.

By thinking that romance is only in the big gestures you put too much pressure on yourself and set yourself up for disappointment. The reality is that romance happens in so many little moments throughout your life.

Pick a flower, buy a favourite chocolate bar, give a foot massage, and the list goes on.

Today's quote is from the very wise Dr Seuss:

Pamela & Ken
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Previous A to Z posts:

2017 = Random Highland Finds

2016 = Romance

Q is for Quatervois

Welcome to the A to Z blogging challenge where for the month of April we post everyday except Sundays, corresponding to each letter of the alphabet. I've chosen to blog about keeping the romance alive in a relationship along with ideas for married couple dates. Each post will also have a romantic song for you to listen to whilst you read.

Today's song is from the fabulous Queen - I was born to love you.

Q is for Quatervois, which means a decision or crossroads in ones life. Everyone has moments in their life in which they feel that they are standing at a crossroads and when I met my beloved that was definitely one of them. Go back to Australia or stay in the UK with my true love - who am I kidding, it wasn't really a crossroads, more like a one way street that led straight to Ken.

In relationships there are lots of important decisions and metaphorical crossroads, but as long as you face them together then hopefully the decisions will be easy ones. Being in love doesn't mean that you're automatically going to agree with each other, but hopefully you will listen to each other and come to a mutual agreement.

 Q is also for quality moments, and shared quiet. Treasure those small moments that feel like you're the only two people in the world, whether it's on a walk out in the countryside or curled up in dressing gowns together.

Today's quote:

Pamela & Ken
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P is for Painting and Pyjamas

Welcome to the A to Z blogging challenge where for the month of April we post everyday except Sundays, corresponding to each letter of the alphabet. I've chosen to blog about keeping the romance alive in a relationship along with ideas for married couple dates. Each post will also have a romantic song for you to listen to whilst you read.

Okay I'm back into the comfort zone of an easy letter and today's song was easy as well, as the DJ at Bay Rock in Tasmania used to quite often play this as the slow song at the end of the night back in the late 80's early 90's. I used to always wish I had someone special to dance with to it, and now I have. It's Rush Rush - Paula Abdul.

Ken's suggestions for today - Passionate and Pamela! I think next year I might have to set him up with his own blog and get him to do the A to Z as I would love to know what he would write.

A great activity to do together and a fun idea for a creative date, is to go to a paint your own pottery place. Some of these even have a cafe as part of the studio, so you can spend lots of relaxing time there. The lovely studio we go to is called Smarty Art and is based in Grantown-on-Spey.

It's incredibly relaxing to sit and paint an object that you're going to get joy out of when you get it home. You can be silent, just enjoying each others company, or you can chat about anything that comes to mind - I think there should be certain topics off limits as this is meant to be a fun and chilled out activity.

It's so amazing how different your creations look once they have been glazed. I love Ken's little vase and the other day I went upstairs to find he'd put daffodils in it and placed it on my dressing table - very sweet. My heart trinket box fits into my dressing table colour scheme perfectly.

P is also for pyjamas, and occasionally you need to snuggle up on the sofa together in your pyjamas, shutting the real world outside away from your little cocoon of two.

Today's quote:

Pamela & Ken
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Previous A to Z posts:

2017 = Plockton, the home of Hamish Macbeth

2016 = Pitlochry - a Scottish Gem