48 months later

Hard to believe that it's been exactly four years since Alison and I decided to give it a "go". If I were the sort of person that resorted to nauseating cliche I'd profess that it seemed just like yesterday when Alison and I took our first tentative steps together on what we secretly hoped would be a life long journey of love and adventure.

Thankfully I'm not quite that sappy so I'll just list off a succinct highlight reel (in no particular order)

• Sharim crashing into Alison's life
• Alison graduating
• Sharim becomes an Australian Driver
• Alison's first visit to Malaysia
• 24 months together
• Sharim popping the question
• Alison and Sharim buy their first home
  
• Sharim finally becomes a real Chua
• 36 months together
• Alison and Sharim tie the knot
  

Well alright, maybe not succinct.

This year we returned to the beach and took up residence at the Hillhaven Apartments on the edge of Burleigh Heads. I thought I put up a very brave face accompanying Alison to the surf given my well disclosed aversion to all things sandy and sea-ey. I don't understand what's to like about the beach in truth... I mean the sand gets EVERYWHERE! Argh!



We'd arrived a little too early and could not check in to our rooms so Alison and I broke out the travel Scrabble board. It turned out to be a short lived game as Alsie soon cowered before my lexical superiority. That's after she tried to get away with playing a bogus Bingo word ("SPRINGERS" incase anyone's interested).




The following day was mostly spent lying on the sand and soaking up the rays. Well... Alison was at least. I had to nurse my sensitive complexion by hiding underneath the dubious protection of a ten dollar beach umbrella we picked up at the IGA.



And there we have it, photographic evidence that I made minimum contact with the sand. You can almost detect the start of a snarl in the upper lip as I struggle against the compulsion to run back indoors in whooping hysteria. The things we do for people we love.

On Sunday evening we made our way to Oskars for a lovely dinner. John and Sheena had given me an Oskars voucher for my birthday this year so I've been looking forward to trying their food for quite a while. Glad to say we weren't disappointed. I was especially impressed with the pork steak with roasted pear and creamy spinach (yes I ordered pork at a seafood restaurant... it looked good... so what the hey). Alison was a little more traditional and went for the barramundi and cauliflower puree which was oh so tasty.



We had today off so we could take our time moseying back to Brisbane. Not before having a nice breakfast of course at Bluff Cafe. First time I've had their Louisiana omelet with Creole sauce and I can safely say it's not going to be the last.

Not the most action packed weekend for a big milestone but it was a lovely time to spend with each other. Here's to many more trips to come. *clink*