The year is coming to a close again. Time is travelling so fast that I’m amazed at how much had changed and happened in a year’s time. I want to write about how our life in Singapore had been, our routines, our friends, being married, and everything in between. This way, a few years from now we can go back to this page and reminisce how it was and have a drink or two to the year that was.

• Being married to the love of my life and living overseas together changed a lot of my perspective about being miles away from home. I used to be lonely and alone. During weekends, I’d stay in my room all day, standing up only when I’m hungry to buy food. I’d spent a lot of time talking to my family and to habs on the phone (who was working back then in Pinas), and that’s the only time that  I have someone to talk to. I just have my laptop for company. It’s so different now. With everything that I do, I have someone for company. We go to the groceries, walk to the nearest fast food, go to church, go to the malls always together, always holding hands. Every little thing that comes to my mind, I have someone whom I could talk with, even the most trivial. It’s really a nice feeling to fall asleep with someone beside you and not just several pillows in the bed.

• Since we are far from our family and friends, we had learned to survive and rely with each other. We take care of each others needs. I tend to be clumsy and careless, he makes sure that I’m okay. He doesn’t know how to cook or to iron his clothes, I do that for him while he takes care of the laundry. We hang our clothes together… and go on shopping and dining sprees together. It’s the best feeling in the world. Whatever  problem comes our way, we conquer it together. As the saying goes, joys are doubled, sorrows are halved when you get married.

• Of course we have our share of bickering. We sometimes argue with each other…. not in a bad murahan way but in a cute little way where we engage in word wars and try to prove the other one is right or wrong. we have 5 or 10 minutes debate, usually capped with “ang kulit mo” or “ang cute mo” and then we forget about it. After a while a new issue will provoke another debate, we exhaust ourselves with defending our stands then we’ll say “o cge, erase…erase” and then we forget about it. We know each other’s weakness : I don’t know how to sweep the floor properly, he spends a lot of hours playing his xbox games which would cause some nagging from me. But we also know when to stop and when to give way to the other. I guess you could say that after years of being together, we know each other so well and could anticipate what the other one is thinking. And at the end of the day, the thing is … we still love each other. Flaws and all that…

• We spend weekends with our friends, celebrating birthdays, special occasions, eating and cooking and drinking together. These are a few cherished people who accepts us for who we are. After a few years here, I realized that there are lot of friends from the past : from LICS (high school), from UP (college), from previous work, from my hometown and from other circles. I know they’re here through facebook and mobile communications. We sometimes meet up with a few of them. But the real friends who stick around is a small group who became our family here. They were the ones who knew our going ons, who we travel with if there are opportunities, and who share our joys and pains, and who genuinely cares like brothers and sisters as we all traverse this journey away from our homes. To them, we are thankful for the feeling of familiarity and belonging.

• Every work day, we go to work and try to earn money. For 8 hours we stare and glare at our computer monitors and try to accomplish our tasks for the day. I will call him every now and then to ask how his day is going, he will do the same. In the afternoon, we go back home tired.

• I always cook our dinner except on Fridays when we usually dine out. I learned how to cook from the early days when my mom was abroad and I had to take care of my siblings. I used to feel obligated to do it, but now I enjoy cooking. I always cook Filipino food and I want to think that what I can summon from the kitchen are passable enough. Habs always says it taste good and I’d feel good about that. Nowadays, I am trying new dishes every now and then, always pinoy food. Always those that I miss the most.

• We shop for our supplies on the grocery near our block. We usually bring a cart and buy 1 week’s worth of groceries. It’s one of my favorite time, fooling around the big grocery store looking for something to eat, something for the kitchen and some toiletries for the bath room. It makes me feel good that we get to do these things together.

• I spend a lot of time on the internet, reading my twitter and facebook feeds, getting updates for my favorite movies and shows.

• He spends a lot of his free time playing his games: Battle Field 3, Magic Cards, Street Fighter. Sometimes I will nag about his game time, feeling that it’s too long especially during days when we both have to wake up early for work. But I don’t really mind, he has his xbox time, I have my facebook time. We’re even.

• During weekends, we sometimes go out to malls strolling around. But most of the time, we spend it at home, doing some household chores and refilling the grocery supplies. I usually cook breakfast and lunch and we just rest the whole day.

• Relatively, we are not a high maintenance couple. We do not splurge on expensive perfumes, clothes and bags. We do have our weakness and that maybe our gadgets which we continuously make an effort to upgrade when necessary. But we know our limits. I could say that probably, our only vice is traveling.

• We love traveling together and discovering new cities. I love to create travel plans, he loves to navigate in unfamiliar territories. We are always in awe that we are able to get out of the country quite regularly but at the same time manage to have some savings account at the bank. We feel truly blessed. This year, we had traveled to Paris, Italy and Bangkok. Next year, there will be more destinations to conquer. We are very excited about the possibilities.

• A lot of people, especially our relatives and friends ask us if we are planning to get on the baby way. I’d always smile and say “dadating tayo dyan”. In reality, we feel that we are not ready yet. I always have a fear of things happening for the first time and this is one of them. But we do have plans, we will definitely try to conceive in the future. And hopefully, God will bless us with a bundle for joy. As of now, we are enjoying what we have and we’re making the most of our time together and the early stage of our marriage. I think in God’s time, our little child will come. For now, we’re taking our time preparing ourselves to be good parents by learning how to take care and love each other first.