A Passport Tells A Lot of Stories…

Happy Groundhog Day! Much like the wily marmot monax I’ve been hibernating a little bit. It’s all good though, more on that later. One of the things on my to-do list this week was to send in my passport for renewal. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years already.

Even though I know it’s going to come back to me with a hole punched in it I am going to miss it. Lots of good trip memories in it, but the one thing it really represents for me is my life with Cheryl. I know, I know ‘aww that’s cute.’ This passport was issued the summer before we started dating and the single page shown above has three very important memories of our relationship. At least for me.

Now that I think about it, there are only 2 stamps in here which were solo trips.  A bachelor party weekend in Montreal a couple of years ago and my first ever trip to Italy back in 2007, the well faded 17-10-07 stamp right under ‘Visas.’

Even though Cheryl wasn’t with me physically she was kind of involved in the latter. I took that trip right when we first started ‘dating’ and though the trip was already planned and I was really excited for it, I was a little sad to be running off because part of me wanted to spend time and get to know this really cool person I clicked with.

Now, you’ve got to remember 10 years ago there was email and stuff but it wasn’t as pervasive (or intrusive) as today. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I checked my email from some Italian hotel business center and saw one from Cheryl. I was pretty happy about it because, well, you know how it is in the beginning.

Ok, so that’s one Cheryl memory. No. 2 is the 11-07-08 exit stamp from Malpensa (the inbound one is there underneath but it’s very faded). It’s from our first international trip together where I met her in Milan where we spent a week there and in Lake Como. I was able to get us a room in Como at a lakefront hotel (Metropole Suisse I think) with a balcony looking at the lake. Yeah, I did good on that one! I had also been taking Italian lessons so I think she was impressed with my ability to order food and how and yes, I was quite happy to show them off. She was much more of a world traveler than me so I felt I needed to impress a little.

Ok so there’s two. Finally we come to the big one; the 16-6-10 entry stamp at CDG: our honeymoon. Flew to Rome via Paris on Air France, then a week in Sardinia, couple days in Florence, then finished in Barcelona. Such a great trip and pretty sure you know why that one means a lot to me.

There are lots of other great memories in here, like our first trip to Germany, and return trips to Italy and Spain, New Year’s trip to Zurich, Brussels, Amsterdam, Newcastle (to see NUFC), Paris, Edinburgh to see family and meet her sister for the first time, trips to the Caribbean, Mexico wedding, etc. All with Cheryl. Except that Montreal trip. But then there’s a Montreal stamp from 7 months after the bachelor trip…when we went back together. Eventually I’ll fill up the new passport with good memories but it won’t have these three.

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NB – Sorry I haven’t been posting as much as I usually do. We’ve been quite busy with our jobs and working hard at building our new sausage business. Posts will probably be a little more erratic this year because of it all, but I’ll get them up when I can. Quality over quantity right? 🙂 You have no idea how many times I’ve tried to sit down and write this only to have something pop up and distract me!

For example, we had a great event last weekend promoting our sausages for the Super Bowl at our local taproom/brewery, Dovetail; I had a condo sale close this week; and we also celebrated Cheryl’s birthday in the middle of the month, which just happened to coincide with a truffle delivery from our friends in Provence, Les Pastras. Yes, she had a great birthday. Anyway, feels good to finally write what I’ve been thinking about for a month!