mrsbrowninspain的八卦，PTT和Yahoo名人娛樂都在討論

Partner. Best Friend. Co-Driver. These are words that I am reminded of when I travel with the Wife.
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I travel a fair bit alone. Sometimes for work. Sometimes for leisure. Sometimes for both. But there is something about returning to traveling one-on-one with the Missus, something we restarted with the kids now older.
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Most of the time, she is happy to let me lead the way. But she jumps in to help when I ask. Sometimes she instinctively knows when to cover my blind spots.
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Driving more than 2,500km with her on this Spain trip, going from Seville in the south, to Girona in the north, and back again, reminded me of how much we lean on each other.
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I drive. She navigates.
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I approach the toll booths of highways, she hands me the ticket and cash, and takes care of the receipts.
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I try to not get ourselves killed in the crazy streets of Madrid, she acts as the second voice of the GPS, giving me a heads up ahead of turns.
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I tell jokes, she laughs at them, so I don’t feel so sleepy on the long journeys.
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I play my NPR podcasts, and we discuss politics and current affairs while going 120km/h on the Spanish highways.
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I try to enter a super narrow, and steep car park entrance in Seville, she helps me check that her side of the car is clear.
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She tries not to fart in the car. I let her sleep when she enters her post-lunch sleepiness.
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I order the wine at lunch at the rest stop, she drinks it for the two of us, because I’m still driving.
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It isn’t always smooth, of course. Sometimes she misses a turn. Sometimes I make a mistake. Sometimes we get annoyed at each other. But we always remember to ease off the blame game and focus on getting to where we are going to, safely and in one peace, and in good spirits.
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A sense of humour helps. And a willingness to let love cover a multitude of mistakes. Above all, throughout our two weeks on the road, we depend most on God’s grace and providence.
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The Wife and I are both also on a road trip together for life. We have aging parents to care for, young children to raise, and a special needs firstborn who is now entering adulthood. We know that even though we have driven many miles together for the last two decades, we know we have miles to go before we sleep.
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And we are thankful for friends and family who help us in all sorts of ways. Nobody does this alone.
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There may be Google Maps and Apple Maps now. And apps that help you book a hotel or tell you where to eat. But nothing can take the place of a companion, a friend, and partner-in-crime.
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I cannot think of anyone else I’d rather be on the road with, than my Wife.
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#travel
#mrbrowntravels
#mrbrowninSpain
#mrsbrowninSpain
#thebrownsinSpain

This is the face of a woman who has been hankering after paella for the last few days.
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“Where’s my paella?” she asks, with her “Where’s my paella?” face.
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“It will arrive. It takes about 30 minutes to make. If you go to a not-so-good restaurant, they use cold cooked rice to make it instead of cooking it from scratch,” I explained.
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I can’t say I blame her, I was also hungry after a full day of walking, museuming and cathedralling In Sevilla. And we missed lunch. So this 5pm meal was a very late lunch.
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The seafood paella finally came and it was really good and tasty. It had generous portions of fish, prawns, and squid, and even two small lobsters.
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It had better be good. It cost me €34 for the pan for two. It was going to be one of our last meals in Spain so I didn’t want to let the wife eat something less than good.
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Not every meal needs to be expensive, of course. We’ve been eating in some pretty low-cost places and enjoying the food there too. Spanish food rocks so hard. Simple ingredients, fresh produce, great taste.
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Did you know, for example, that most of the olive oil in the world is from Spain? Yes, even the ones you buy in Italy. And Spain makes great olive oil. I’m not even an olive oil person but in Spain, I’m dipping my bread in that stuff all the time. So so good.
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#travel
#mrbrowntravels
#mrbrowninSpain
#mrsbrowninSpain
#thebrownsinSpain
@ Seville, Spain

Wife, who is very good at Chinese, typing a message to a colleague in Chinese: “Hmm, what is the Chinese word for ‘professional’? I blanked out for the moment…”
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Me: “专业.”
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Wife: “Wah, that’s right! Since when your Chinese so good?”
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Me: “Secret training.”
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Never stop surprising your spouse. It’s one of the secrets of a lasting marriage.
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Also, never underestimate the power of a glass of good Spanish wine to unlock the deep recesses of your mind.
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#travel
#mrbrowntravels
#mrbrowninSpain
#mrsbrowninSpain
#thebrownsinSpain