Little Pixy Boots on Love: A Fairytale Story... or so I Think

Sometimes I wonder if my life is already predestined, right before my birth. I ride a Delorean time machine in my dreams to the future. Yes, I’m the weird girl who has dreamt about people and places she will meet and go in the years to come. Back to the Future, anyone?

I remember telling my classmates that I dreamt of people I didn’t know but I knew they were my friends. I suffered sudden spells of deja vu when I got hit in real life with a scene from a past dream. My friends treated me with awe and tentativeness every time I told them that, as if I was on the brink of going to Woodbridge, Singapore's best known mental hospital.

Somehow the dreams in my childhood must have fed my imagination. Norway had subconsciously become a setting for fairytales when I was young.

As a kid I loved drawing (I still do!) and I was raised in a very Chinese-orientated family, meaning we didn’t watch Western movies or have English newspapers. My mum’s radio blasted 95.8FM 城市频道 24/7 and I could memorize their DJs' names at the age of six.

So when my mum told me one day that some people have blue eyes and blond hair, my imagination went into overdrive and started producing red-blue-purple eyes and blond hair with pink streaks on my girly sketches. My head was buried in many Enid Blyton books and fairytale picture books to know more about the multi-coloured-haired-and-eyed-people and their lives. I developed a fetish for falling snow (something you can't get in tropical Singapore). I had a lust to see pine trees, little huts with sloping roofs, trolls and snow-capped mountains. I drew them on Christmas cards for friends, despite not celebrating Christmas in my family.

And voilà! I have now come to the one place on earth that I’ve been drawing and dreaming about -- Norway! See the resemblance between what I've drawn and the actual landscape in Kongsberg, Norway?

Compare and contrast :)

When I first arrived in Norway, everything screamed "fairytale" to me. My senses were bombarded by fresh air, colourful wooden huts, and my first taste of the Eurovision Song Contest where Norway won with its entry of “Fairytale” by Alexander Rybak, whom I consequently hugged and from whom I got an autograph. Yes, I know -- you don’t have to tell me I’m too old for this.

But I’m still a little girl inside who believes in fairytales. A practical girl at that. I know how to make my dreams into reality, literally.

Alexander Rybak in Eurovision 2009

Foto: Sara Johannessen / SCANPIX

By the way, for those of you who are not in the know, here are some facts about Norway. Of course, I understand that Norway is not a famous country but Norway is:

1. The country that brought the world the Nobel Peace Prize
2. The country with Northern Lights only in the north
3. The country which gave birth to a-ha (in the 80s), Edvard Grieg (composer, 1843-1907) and Edvard Munch (Expressionist artist (1863-1944) who painted The Scream)
4. The second largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia
5. The country that invented the cheese slicer, and some say the paper clip

A Norwegian cheese slicer

Photo: Jonas Bergsten/Wikimedia Commons

Not forgetting that back in Singapore, my friends and I used to salivate over the Norwegian salmon, which is reputed to be the best salmon in the world.

Right this moment as I type, the cats are creating little paw sounds on the roof above me. They love running after the magpies in the trees.

Wait, I'm digressing. Back to the tale.

So after many months of Skype calls and travelling back and forth the UK, Norway and Singapore, Viking Man conceived of a plan to end all long-distance calls forever after I mentioned I was going back to a new job in Singapore. I didn't foresee any sneaky ideas until he sprang me with a surprise.

It was autumn 2009. Viking Man wanted to take me mountain-climbing on our six-month anniversary of dating. For a Singaporean city girl like me, driving three hours before dawn and toughing it out on a mountain slope isn't exactly my idea of a romantic holiday. Then again, only a Norwegian could think of climbing great heights for his love! Viking descendants sure have great sporty DNA in their blood.

Taken on Hardangervidda plataeu in Geilo, Norway

Climbing the steep eastern slope of the 1,100 m (3,500 ft) Hardangervidda mountain plataeu in Geilo with heavy boots, wasn't exactly a piece of kake ("kah-keh" or cake in Norwegian) for an ex-volleyball player like me *emphasis on "EX-"*. But VM made sure I was prepared with his new presents for me - winter sports jacket, thick thermal underwear and new white mountain/winter boots.

I was about to give up mid-slope but got distracted from my pain by munchable wild blueberries and the beautiful colours of fall (høst in Norwegian). Like any starry-eyed urban tourist who has never seen the wild vegetation of Scandinavia, I was snapping away at the gorgeous colourful trees and shrubs.

While I was caught up in the autumn spell of nature, Viking Man had other plans in his head when we were on top of the mountain:

Viking Man: Come here! (gesturing to the edge of the mountain, with the view of a waterfall)

Pixy: Wait! I’m busy taking pictures of the berries and shrubs!

Viking Man (impatient): Come on!

Pixy (snapping pictures while edging towards the edge): Ok, what’s up?

Viking Man knelt down on the edge of the 1,100m high cliff.

Pixy (shocked and afraid for VM’s life): WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

Viking Man: Will you marry me?

Pixy: (still in shock) Are you sure?

VM: Yes.

Pixy takes a deep breath and looks at the water plunging to its depths in the waterfall behind VM.

Pixy: Ok, you jump, I jump.

VM: Huh?

Pixy: Er... I mean .... yes.

Note: Words in bold were not paraphrased. It did take more than a few minutes for his life-changing proposal on a potentially fatal location, to sink into my head.

That was September last year, and one year later we tied the knot on the same day!

So I finally married the blond-haired and blue-eyed man of my dreams. Will we live happily ever after in this fairytale country? I don’t know. All I know is that I am living happily in the present, and that is all that matters. Hopefully this would be the one and only long-distance relationship we both will ever have.

Till next time from the cold north,

Little Pixy Boots