Vive l'amour!

My Scottish adventure this weekend was a triumph of love over heartache, longing and defying the romantic odds, and I for one am still punching the air with the joy of it all. One of our dearest friends has finally found the girl of his dreams and we were there to celebrate with them and to affirm the long held belief that your soulmate does exist and is out there, waiting for you, if you just know where to look and can hang on long enough to find them.

Photo: Pinterest

 
Call me a romantic - I was a teenager in the 80's - but hey, who didn't want their best friend to shout "Way to go Paula!" as the Richard Gere of their dreams burst through the factory door and carried them off for a life of everlasting travel love? Whilst I didn't particularly want to marry myself an 'avia-tor', I firmly believed in 'the one' and spent a hell of a long time looking for him, and he finally showed up, in my fourth year at university, unassuming but gorgeous, funny and quirky (the first time I met him properly he had a folded sock in his jacket pocket having been unable to find a clean handkerchief - that sock has a lot to answer for...) and for some inexplicable reason he was interested in me. We made it as a couple beyond graduation and down to London, and the rest as they say, is history.

Photo: Rex Features

Now, after many years together and with the pitter patter of tiny feet an often deafening noise as their feet grow ever larger, it is easy to forget that first flush of love when we realized that our life had taken on new meaning, we were no longer on our own and we had indeed made it in the happiness stakes.  The minutiae of everyday life takes over whether we like it or not - we are now undeniably grown up - the 'sandwich generation' with young children and elderly parents to look after and we are having to juggle more with every passing year. True love and how it once felt gets to take a back seat, which is a sorry indictment of our priorities and how much time we have to ourselves these days - it's been a long time since we had a slow dance in the kitchen.

Photo: Pinterest

Whilst everyone has their own way of dealing with this - be it date nights, weekends away, anniversary surprises, post-it notes that say 'I love you' or just an unexpected kiss 'hello' or 'goodbye', it is good to be reminded that we were once so giddy with love we could hardly breathe and we didn't know how we would survive until we saw each other again.

Seeing someone you are close to finally find 'the one', and remembering that when it comes down to it, this is what truly matters, is a life and love affirming emotion that has made me stop and take stock of what English Gent and I have and what we are still capable of, so long as we make time for ourselves and remember where it all began and why.  To slightly misquote my other favourite 80's movie: nothing and 'nobody puts Baby (and Johnny) in a corner' and if we just stop and think about it, we are still dancing in the kitchen and having the time of our lives. 

Paperman

Last Saturday night saw the handing out of the Annie awards in Hollywood - the International Animated Film Society's annual gongs for the best in animation and Disney's Oscar nominated short film "Paperman" deservedly won Best Animated Short.

If you want a brilliant, short, sharp hit of romance, this is it. Director John Kahr has used both traditional old style hand drawing and state of the art computer animation to fashion a joyous seven minute silent love story, in black and white (with just a touch of red), set in mid-century New York. It's exquisite story telling and a near perfect blend of old and new techniques, and the best thing? Disney have generously made it available on the internet for all to see and enjoy. I saw it with my boys when we went to see "Wreck It Ralph" (which picked up 5 Annies on Saturday night) but it's just as wonderful to watch on the small screen. Grab a coffee, sit back and see for yourself. Enjoy. And if it doesn't win the Oscar come February 24th, I'll eat my lipstick...