My boyfriend and I have been together 5 years, and have lived together for almost 1 and a half of them. A month after moving into our new home, he got a new job which meant he had to work shifts. For the first few months I found it really hard. I was never good at being home alone at night even before I left home, so this panicked me a little because I knew I could no longer avoid it. (Ok, well I suppose I could go running back to my mums everytime my OH did nights, but that would just be teeny bit silly!). After a while I got used to it, but in replace of that came the loneliness. He works every other weekend. One weekend it'll be days, whereby he'll be home for around 6.15pm, but falling asleep by 7pm. The next weekend shift it'll be nights, so I will see him for approx 10mins each day over the weekend due to him sleeping in the day. When he does overtime it is usually on a weekend, so as you can imagine, some weekends I will barely see him at all. With me working Mon-Fri 9-5, this obviously sometimes doesn't mix very well.
We've both known it for a few months now, but we began making very little effort with each other, and what effort we did make, it'd be same old, same old. We got ourselves into a little bit of a rut, and we're not ashamed to admit it. The most exciting spontaneous thing we did was either eat out (which we do a lot so it never felt special) or catch a film at the cinema. Time at home was spent with me on the laptop and him watching films. He's not very spontaneous and I felt like I was the one that was always coming up with ideas on places to go, and I began to get a little tired of it.
That was till I came across this fab little idea that will hopefully spruce up our spontaneous side and be a little more adventurous (err, no, not in that way) and just generally spend some quality time with each other.
I've named it 'Date night on a lolly' - simply because thats what it is literally, although not metaphorically, obviously.. (can yo imagine?!)
What you will need :
Some coloured lolly sticks (preferably 4 colours)
A Jar (or some form of containter)
A marker pen
Your creative brain!
1. Decide on which 2 colours you both want (they can't be the same!) (in an ideal world my sticks would have been pink and purple, but it just wasn't happening!).
2. You need to divide your colours into 2 categorys. 1 colour represents ideas that cost less than £20 (or even free), and the other £20+. (You can obviously change this amount to suit your financial needs).
3. Think of a small list of ideas for each category and write them on the lolly sticks with a black marker pen. Note: These need to be things that you would like to do that your OH would have to either do for you or participate in. (The other idea of this is getting them involved in things that they don't normally take interest in.. i.e. girly movies!)
4. Get your boyfriend/husband/girlfriend to do the same, obviously, but don't let them peek on your ideas!
5. Put them in a jar (I've covered the inside of mine with paper, just so you can't read the lolly's through the glass!
6. Decorate your jar to your hearts content... if you wish!
7. Decide on how often you are going to dip your hand into the magic jar, and how often you are going to choose the more expensive idea. (Due to my boyfriends shifts, we've decided on every 6 weeks for the £20+ and every 2 weeks for the £20 and under dates).
8. Each week, or fortnight (or whatever time you've decided on) you take it in turns and pick out your colour lolly.
9. See the magic happen! (we hope!)
Just a few ideas that I've used on my sticks to get you started:
£20 and under
A trip to the cinema (obviously your choice)
Play a board game
Cook a romantic meal (so if you had written this on your lolly stick, it would be your boyfriend that would be cooking it for you, and I mean like, candles, dim lights, the works!)
A Head Massage (these have got to be one of the most relaxing things ever after a days work..)
Watch a film at home
Go for a walk together to somewhere you've never been before
£20+
A luxury meal out (the OH to book and keep the venue a secret)
A day out (somewhere you've never been before, your preference obviously, because its your lolly!)
A night away in a hotel
A random roadtrip out of town
You get the jist....
We've done a handful of each and figured put together, theres roughly a years worth of 'dates' in the jar, so that should keep us going!
Its pretty exciting, not knowing what each other has wrote, so I'm eager to get cracking! Although I'm already bracing myself for a 'watch a batman film' 'date'!
If any of you do decide to do this, let me know, I'm intriguied to know what you put on your lollies too!
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