Celebrating--Our Style

Since Sexy Guy and I were first married,
there were Valentine Days with candle lit meals (which were
very hard to pull off since his work is always so unpredictable). There were surprise birthday parties, birthdays spent watching The Phantom in London, holidays in foreign countries...
but somehow we rarely get our anniversary right.
We did fine the first year and the third year when we were home and were able to eat in our favourite fine-dining place, but it's gone downhill from there.

We were married just four days after Christmas-- which is great for a young couple in love, but not so much so for a couple of tired people having just pulled off impossible Christmases for a house full of kids.

Last year we decided to use our one and only babysitting opportunity of the year to go out and see a movie together in Norwich. Unfortunately, no one called to tell the cinema of our plans and when we got there, we realized their website was incorrect and they weren't showing that movie that day. We went to Pizza Hut, had a dinner that could only be eaten in a family pizza place. Our babysitters were stunned to see us home so early.


This year we wanted to see Sherlock Holmes. It wasn't playing near us, so again we'd be driving into Norwich. We booked our babysitters for 6 pm, but then found out the movie started at 6 and we had a 30+ minute drive to get there.
I HATE walking into a movie late.
Hate it. Won't do it.

Remember Time Traveler's Wife? I escaped childless one evening and drove frantically into town only to have trouble parking the car which was going to put me walking into the cinema 15 minutes into the movie. I turned around and came home, discouraged and depressed. My husband can't understand it. I insisted that you don't enter a time traveling movie after it's started regardless if you've read the book.

Tuesday I was taking the kids to The Chipmunks and myself to Avatar and again had fifteen minutes of parking issues. When I went to pay the lady said, "The movies have already started"

"No previews? No adverts?"

"No."

Insane. Whenever we have Miss Ky, with her very limited attention span, there's at least 15-20 minutes of car advertisements, TV show plugs, mobile phone warnings and upcoming movie previews. NOT when I'm running late though.

SO,

Last night, in celebration of our happily wedded bliss, we were going to see Sherlock Holmes. The hubby convinced the babysitters to come earlier. We had difficulty getting out of the house because of demands of a certain toddler girl, but we got out with plenty of time left.

We drove efficiently.
We got to Norwich with ten minutes to spare.


We got stuck behind some buses. The clock ticked.

My husband's little car whipped quickly into the Mall's car park. We walked at only a pace a couple without children can walk... the ticket window?
They had combined it with the refreshment counter.
There was a queue! One minute until the movie (or previews) started.

Luckily, the queue moved quickly.

We paid for our show, rushed through corridors getting to our theater, #4. There was a queue waiting outside for #3 and I wondered which movie that might be since a lot of people were eagerly waiting to see it-- never mind, straight into Sherlock Holmes!

We entered and our eyes screamed for the ability to see.

Have you ever stood in a completely light-less room? I used to develop film and believe me your eyes never stop desperately trying to make sense of things. It's like trying to breathe quietly by limiting your breath-- suddenly your lungs require more oxygen and won't have it any other way.

The movie had started. I was disappointed to see Robert Downey Jr.'s face as big as my car when I had hoped it would be a preview playing.

There were no seats... we scanned the cinema for two seats together.

Sexy Guy finally plunged into the crowd, so I followed hoping he was leading us somewhere we'd be sitting where we could at least see each other.
We pushed through an aisle--"Excuse me. Sorry. Sorry. thank you. Excuse me." Poor people , it happened to be during an action scene.
We plopped into our seats after the guy I'd be next to moved his coat and drink out of my seat.

Oh my holy cow. We are sitting in the second row.

My head is craned back in a very uncomfortable position. The image is too big and moving too quickly for me to focus on anything. Fists are swinging, guns are popping, men are jumping and rolling and my stomach begins to roll in the feeling of vertigo.

I wanted to cry.
We've entered a movie late. I am too close to the screen to keep my eyes open without vomiting.
For the hubby, I soldier on.

Eventually, my head adjusts for the closeness and I focus on the screen the way you focus on something in your blind spot-- looking but not really looking. The way you find hidden images in those eye-teasing posters.

As the movie romped on (impressive in the way this movie starts immediately in action and makes you try to piece together the connections between characters without all that silly "catch up" intro some have), I had one thing niggling at me.

Why did some people speak with American accents?
This isn't going to be like Robyn Hood all over again, is it?

Within an hour, Sherlock already began expounding on the different clues that had carried him to his conclusions. References were made to the scenes... we had missed.

A lot of scenes we had missed.

Sherlock even referenced the American Ambassador.
"Oh! Of course he would have an American accent..."

I whispered, "Wow, we must've missed quite a bit".

The credits began rolling.
AN hour and a half before we expected this 2 hour 8 minute movie to end!
Wha...?

I tell the hubby to check the tickets. He was the one who insisted we were in theater 4, "Check the tickets!".

You guessed it. Our movie was in #3.

Our anniversary date record remains intact.

You silly people that go out to dine by candle light or are swept off on a plane to New York City to catch a Broadway show, or frolic on a tropical beach while drinking colourful drinks wielding equally colourful paper umbrellas-- you haven't lived until you watch a movie starting at the end. Anyone can keep up with all of the facts presented nicely to begin, but it takes a real couple to piece everything together backwards.

Happy Anniversary, Husband. What do you want to not see next year?