Everlasting Road Trip - Steven & Ching Pre-Wedding in Hulu Langat
It goes a loooooong way back. We both come from Brunei and were raised in a small town which is predominantly occupied by the oil-and-gas industry. In such a small community, it could be said that everyone knows or is somehow associated to someone or the other. We went to the same kindergarten but did not know each other yet. We then went on to the same primary school and finally were placed in the same class in Primary four. At the time, Steven liked Ching's best friend so Ching always hears about him from her best friend's never ending love stories and had a share of helping to write love notes. That was short-lived, though. When we got to secondary school, we were in different classes again until we reached Secondary four because we both selected to be in Science stream. During English Week, our class was supposed to perform in a play. Steven was not very cooperative due to him being shy on stage. Ching, who was the assistant director for the play at the time got into a small argument with him but all was good after that. That was when they first took notice of each other. The following year, in one particular Maths class, Steven shifted his seat and sat behind Ching. They started chatting casually and Steven felt that they clicked and started sending her texts and old school emoticons, the ones with cute bears and cartoons made of symbols and punctuations in the old school Nokia phones. Ching fell into the trap and they got together!
At first it was like forbidden love, as Ching's parents were very strict. She eventually went to Brisbane, Australia for university and they had to be in a grueling long distance relationship for three and a half years when finally Stevencould not bear being apart from the love of his life any longer =P and went to Australia to join her. Steven finished the second half of his degree in Australia while Ching carries on to work there. As Steven was partially funded by the government, he had to return to Brunei immediately after the two and a half years of studies in Australia. They were thrown in a long distance relationship once more as Ching does not want to leave her job yet. After one year, Chingfinally decides to head back home to help in her family business so they were once again re-united!
After the long-winded story, Steven finally decides to propose on their tenth year together as he was on the deck of an oil rig in Saudi Arabia because he realised how much he could not live without her =D lol. Okay, not really, because he finally realised that it was time and he wanted to settle down and start a family. With the help of her closest friends, he managed to plan a proposal for the day he arrived from Saudi Arabia. After a big bouquet of champagne roses, a sweet video, a long speech (which she barely remembers omg), and a ring made of grass (which she said she wanted in her childhood, what a silly girl) she said yes!
Presently, they share the dream of owning a soft ice cream shop and are in the process of making that dream come true while working on their own careers at the same time.
Their future dream is to be able to (in no particular order) retire early with passive income; move to Australia; basically live a life that is as carefree as possible.
Of course, there had been ups and downs and everything is not always as smooth-sailing as it seems on the surface, but they do, and always will, have each other's backs.