Foreign fourth...

How do you celebrate 4 whole years of wonderment in marriage, in a far away country, on a budget?
You ask the Parkys for ideas!!

Originally having planned to head to Bangkok for a 3 day city break for our wedding anniversary, things changed and we stayed in our cute apartment in Siem Reap instead over the special day. To begin with I was a little at a loss as to what we should do... I've visited a beautiful 5* hotel and seen the private massage suites for couples (with waterfalls indoors, private gardens, his and hers bath tubs) and sighed longingly... but we've been making other things priority, so I knew this year wasn't going to be the all out luxury celebration...

So I got creative. Did you know that 4 years married means gifts of flowers and or fruit? Google's top results tells me this is the case, so I started the day by dashing (I say dashing - it was an incredibly leisurely affair!) to the local market and picking up a watermelon and a pineapple for 50c each - that's right, 34p each (and yes, they taste even better when that's the price without even haggling!).
Having got home, I banned Mr P from entering the kitchen, which, as he pointed out, is easier said than done given that we live in an open plan apartment and therefore limited him to sitting in the bathroom, the cupboard or outside! The creative juices (get it?) then flowed, with the result below! Good job I carved the melon, not the pineapple, not sure the message would have come across so well otherwise!

'Happy fruity 4th'

What next? Well, I had pancake batter ready for breakfast time already, and had been mulling over the fact that we hadn't followed through with our plans to go to Bangkok and whilst there go to the zoo (including taking a paddle boat out onto the lake there, which is a must... so that's a postponed plan rather than a cancelled one!). So, we couldn't go to the zoo, but the zoo came to us!

 

As you may or may not be able to tell we have (starting top left) Giraffe, elephant and zebra, followed by fat monkey and lioness, duck/parrot and gecko and last but not least octopus (the only way I really enjoy seafood is to have it made out of batter instead!). Such fun to make, and I even had an outfit on to match. For those who know it, my white dress/top with silhouettes of animals on... perfect!

What to do next? Well, we'd been thinking about getting mugs for the house, as the ones we have are made of glass, and a little frightening to pour boiling water into - and a little off-putting when you can see the weird brown colour of your tea or coffee! People here don't use mugs though... Tea is often served over ice in a beaker or glass, and cups without handles are the norm... so... off we trotted to 'treat ' ourselves to some normal mugs. Having surveyed some particularly horrific ones with gilded pheasant/peacock mongrels on them, we found some simple white ones that came with coasters... perfect! So we duly popped back home (first buying that other romantic essential... floorcleaner) and put the kettle on. And it's true - the cup makes all the difference, the teabag has more room to move around, we can use just boiled water and not be worried the cup will smash, and the white colour gives a better surface indication of brewing time/taste etc. The tea just tastes so much better!! Two very happy bunnies, I then decided, given that they were identical, to make them unique... in case of rinsing out and making another brew, we now have his and hers labels, fashioned (bizarrely) from a flannel/dishcloth and lengths of ribbon.

'His and hers' mugs

Having made, and drunk beautiful cups of tea, we then went out to an early dinner we'd booked at a recommended local restaurant, Haven. I can't recommend this place highly enough! Impeccable service, big portions, relaxing atmosphere and gorgeous food!! And, 'fully booked' when we popped in earlier today to look at the menu, they squeezed us in for an early sitting. So very helpful, and an absolutely gorgeous meal where we chatted, laughed, pulled faces at each other, sang along to Queen songs in the background, and ate a lot of food!

Given it was an early tea, what next? We'd also looked earlier in the day for some fitness tops for me to wear to classes, given that I've been wearing 'normal' tops and want to make sure my wardrobe lasts as long as possible... Along to the Adidas shop we went, knowing it would be pricier than the markets, but not expecting the $30 price tag on most t-shirts - if not more. And the really cute little double-layered top - just $70. Needless to say we refrained from running around waving our arms screaming when we saw the prices, but calmly and politely looked around for a few more minutes, offered each other some particularly silly items (Phil didn't seem too interested in the grey and red speedos I found for him.. shame, they were stunning), and then retreated. So a new mission for the evening was to go to the Night Market, find a t-shirt or two for me, some for Phil, (given he has an even smaller selection of clothes than me), and some new headphones for me - given my extraordinary knack or breaking mine very quickly - at least 2, if not 3 pairs in a row now only work in one ear... 

So to the Night Market we went, paid a bit too much at the first place, but not ridiculously, and got a 'free' Cambodian scarf thrown in (proof we paid too much), then found a t-shirt for Phil, but not in the right colour - found some VERY genuine 'beatz' headphones for me, haggled a bit for those too, and then found a lovely lady who asked $2.5/t-shirt instead of the special price of $4 each! We found perfect colourways for Phil and came home, showed off to our neighbours/bezzie mates/co-conspirators Tashia and Sandor, who very politely showed interest far longer than they probably needed too, and then headed home, (it was a long walk of about 10m! Metres... not miles) for another brew and bed. 

And that was our day... relaxed, food-filled and a heap load of fun.

 It's the simple things that make a big difference on special days, playing with your food, spending time with people you love and making the perfect brew. On days like today, I feel incredibly blessed. 

And for my very final thought (on this blog entry - not forever - well... maybe for tonight too) I'd like to say a huge thank you to both sets of our parents, Philip and Sharon, and Don and Angie... Philip and Sharon celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary yesterday, and mum usually tries to avoid the question when I ask when theirs is, but I think it's later this month too... You guys have not only shown us how to stick it out in marriage, but also how to work on it, nurture it and grow through it. Thank you for your influence, your love and your support. We wouldn't be here without you guys. Like. Literally!

Happy Thursday everyone!