The V-day post

Happy V-day everyone! How did you spend the day? Whatever you’re relationship status, I hope you had a great time as much as I feel happy about today.

As you probably know, my boyfriend isn’t here in Manila for us to spend the V-day together. If we we’re together, we would probably have a dinner date. He’d give me flowers and chocolates which is the very usual thing to do. Erick's not here but we always find time to rekindle our romance.

He's in Singapore and I'm in Manila but thank God for YM, Facebook, Skype, snail mail, being in a LDR doesn’t seem so hard these days. But of course, there’s still a feeling that you’d wish that your loved one is just beside you. Ayt?

Well anyways, for now we’re gonna have to be satisfied with this set-up. It won’t be long anyway until we will be together again :P

Since we are exactly 1486.24 miles apart (yes I googled that), we've find ways to keep the passion alive through small ways that really means big when you're in a LDR. 

Unlimited Texting/Emails

Mundane as it may seem, regularly texting and sending funny emails to each other helps ease the loneliness caused by being apart. I love waking up in the morning and seeing that there’s 1 message received in my phone. It makes me thankful and happy that everyday I’m being reminded that I’m loved.

Skype date/YM

We regularly talk on skype every chance we get like almost everyday. It helps a lot in updating how our day went by and if we have stories to share. It’s nice to see the face of your loved one while he is telling something. I’d die for the facial expressions Erick makes like the butterfly kisses and funny faces when we’re on Skype. It’s also heartwarming to say goodnight to my love over video chat.

Sometimes, we’d eat together while video chatting. He’d show me his food and make me feel envy. I do that a lot too. I make him feel “inggit” when I’m eating home-cooked and Filipino food like chicharon, balut, and mangoes. 

Since I am such a show-off sometimes, I would show my recent purchases from a shopping spree- may it be a dress, shoes, accessories. Sometimes I would try a dress and ask him if the dress fits me right or it looks good on me.

Just recently, we tried to sing a song to each other. I asked him what’s his song for me and I let him sing it. Erick has such a soulful voice that makes me feel giddy. Hihi.

Sending gifts

We missed celebrating special occasions together like his birthday, Christmas, New Year, and V-day. It would be understandable not to send gifts anymore since it’s impractical. But believe that these small gestures make up for not being present during these important events.

On his birthday, I sent him a snail mail, an online groupcard, and a surprise cake delivered. There was no way I can bear the thought that he will be celebrating his birthday solo so I thought of these ideas.

Erick, on the other hand, sent me gifts by purchasing vouchers from groupon sites. Yey. This V day, he gifted me vouchers for a chocolate cake, a pampering deal of facial or diamond peel and massage, and a zarape. He admits that I'm the person who is quite challenging to be given a gift. I appreciate his efforts to think of something that I'd probably like because I knew he's really not used to that.
 

Helping out each other

Since he's on his own now, he is forced to cook a meal to save him money. Eating out in SG is expensive unless you stick hawker food. I know he's a bit challenged when it comes to cooking because he only volunteers to taste the food or wash the dishes afterwards when we cook at home. He asked me to give him some simple recipes to try. I insisted he cook at least one dish. So far, he's cooked adobo..uhmmm love what else?

Erick also helps me in some of my work like creating project covers (when I'm too lazy), making my blog banner, troubleshooting my laptop, phone, and camera problems. Oftentimes, he is my support system and he always motivating me to do well in just everything. He's my number 1 blog follower.

Planning out travels

We both love traveling! I think I've influenced him to appreciate traveling more.

Hongkong is on our top travel list

Although travel is not in our to-dos this year, we'd list down the countries we wanna go to in the future. I just really pray that our plans will go as planned this year so we can finally fulfill our travel fantasies real soooooon! 

Keeping the love despite the distance is challenging but I think if you want your relationship to work out, you will always strive to make it more exciting by doing these small gestures. These small things means a lot when you're keeping a LDR. 

Of birthday surprises

It was Erick's birthday last Wednesday and I thought to come up with a surprise for his birthday.  It was challenging this year to execute his birthday surprise since he's in Singapore. But I wouldn't be easily turned down by that.

A card sent via snail mail, an online birthday groupcard from his friends, and a birthday cake were the ones I thought from the start and decided that I could do all of them to make Erick's birthday special.

Birthday surprise #1

Birthday greeting card via snail mail.. This was Erick’s favorite birthday surprise.

I know I know.. sending letters via snail mail aren’t popular these days anymore in this age of Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and internet video calls. But hey, I would still love to receive old fashioned love letters and so I did to Erick! Exactly seven days before his birthday, I sent a greeting card thru our very reliable PhilPost. And I’m happy to say that they are very reliable indeed. I was told that it’d take a week before my mail gets delivered but voila it arrived in 6 days. Woot! for the fast mail service! My letter came just in time.


Birthday surprise #2

Online birthday groupcard from all of his friends

This one’s caught Erick in a big OOOOH.. thanks love! He surely enjoyed reading all the birthday messages from his family and friends as much as I enjoyed bugging/spamming his friends to sign his card :)

Here’s Erick’s birthday greeting card. 

Birthday boi ;p

I enjoyed doing this small project for him. I found this great paid greeting card service online. GroupCard provides greeting card services where you can ask your friends and families or just everyone else to sign the card for the recipient. What’s good is that everyone can chip in to a gift for the recipient. But a simple HBD greeting goes along way! Customizing the card is free but if you want it delivered to the recipient or print it you gotta upgrade for an annual membership or pay a one-time fee to be able to send/print the card. No worries, the one time fee is very minimal. GroupCard will deliver your card via email or post in the Facebook wall of the recipient. You can specify the date and time for delivery. Easy as 1-2-3.

It wasn’t easy asking all of Erick’s friends to sign in the groupcard. But with the help of his high school friends and officemates I’ve met, we were able to come up with birthday greetings from his 70 friends. Thanks so much friends!


Birthday surprise #3

Birthday cake from moi!

It's a white chocolate cake with strawberries on top

For me, a birthday is not a birthday without a cake. I remember seeing Erick’s surprised "teary-eyed" face when I surprised him with a birthday cake last year. Although I wouldn’t be able to see that this year which I was kinda looking forward to, I still wanted to give him a cake. I know he would still look like a teary-eyed birthday boy when he gets the surprise cake delivery.

This one is the most challenging birthday surprise plan. First, I had to search for all bakeshops in Singapore that provide cake delivery. I found a few but was not quite sure if they have a good delivery service.. until I found BreadTalk. They just started their delivery service and there are quite a few cakes in the selection to choose from. What’s really great is they have free delivery offered for a limited time to anywhere in Singapore. Greatness!  I ordered a cake online two days before Erick’s birthday but encountered some problem with the processing of the payment using my credit card. I had to call my credit card company to confirm if the payment went through since I didnt get a confirmation message. I posted a message for BreadTalk's Facebook wall. After a few minutes of posting it. I got the confirmation from them that they got my order. Good thing, they confirmed my order asap. It was already 12mn when I posted that message and I received a reply in a matter of minutes. Two thumbs up for the quick response!

Preparing all these surprises made me giddy all weeklong. hehe. Erick actually hinted a few days before his day that I was hiding a secret from him. Lol. I simply told him that he will know in time. I do miss him these days but somehow I was relieved from the "pangungulila" by preparing his birthday surprises. Who said that you can’t surprise your loved one when you are apart because of time, money, and distance. For sure, there are so many ways to do that but you gotta be creative and resourceful.

Happy Birthday Love! XOXO