I have owed myself this final blog post for some time now, but have been struggling to get it together enough to really write it. The main reason is that I could not settle on a topic. It’s the final say in the 10TENS Series and I want it to matter. I thought about expressing my somewhat controversial opinions on this, that and the other thing. I thought about writing about my heroes and how to change the world and religion or some irrelevant side note about #feesmustfall, or the WHO declaring that bacon gives people ass cancer and
JUST. SO. MANY. THINGS.
Finally, I decided that there is just one topic that I am quite familiar with.
So, without putting Lenny on a pedestal or in a box, I would like to express the things that make me crazy for the man who has my heart.
His sense of humour
Isn’t humour so important in this life? My family has taught me take everything with a pinch of salt - almost all things said in the Lahoud household inspire deep belly laughter - so it’s pretty important. Lenny’s sense of humour is what many would call depraved, but it matches mine.
Lenny is the type of person who laughs with his whole body and it makes funny moments that much more enjoyable. When I see something funny, I can’t wait to share it with him because I know I will find whole new areas of it funny with that laughter of his.
There is such freedom in sharing life with someone who just gets you, in that vital way, humorously.
His easy acceptance
Lenny is man of strong opinions, he thinks his ideas through and they all belong to him like little ducklings belong to their mother. However, I have never seen his own opinion crush another person’s. He has this strange ability to disagree with you, without damaging your sense of value or the value of your own opinion.
Everyone matters.
Those freckles
Lenny has the most beautiful freckles on his face, but they can’t compare to the ones which cover his back. I admittedly do have a slight obsession with skin, especially the unusual types, but I don’t think many could dispute the gorgeousness of Lenny’s freckles.
Those freckles are stunners, like staring at the stars of the night sky.
His attitude towards eating
Perhaps you’ve picked up that food is my life. I love dreaming about, shopping for and preparing feasts. Most of all I love sharing that food with the people I love.
Now, I am vegan and Lenny is not, but since I am usually at the helm of the kitchen (my creative space) we eat vegan at home. You would think that someone who isn’t vegan, but has to eat vegan every bloody day would jump out of his socks to order meat when we hit a restaurant together. Think again- Lenny is the man who orders food that I can eat so that we can share each other’s food.
My favourite holiday was the one where we planned an entire long weekend around trying every good restaurant in Battambang and spent hours talking, laughing and generally over-indulging together. Lenny has this amazing no holds barred attitude to food, similar to mine. It’s not about being healthy but it is about keeping it natural and fresh and delicious. He never talks about calories, weight or fat content or complains when I eat more than him. Which I do regularly.
His vegan pancakes and (my favourite chickpea sandwiches)
The morning after the day I declared myself vegan, I woke up to vegan pancakes. Lenny had gone out early in the morning (not his strongest time of day) and shopped for ingredients to impress me with his growing culinary abilities.
He has since invented and perfected THE BEST sandwich in the world. I love that Lenny likes cooking more and more, and he’s pretty good at it too.
His love for animals
Lenny gets more emotional about his pets than he does about people. He knows everything there is to know about fish and how they function together in their ecosystems.
He has a strong and true love for animals, and especially goat- I mean Pippa.
His nose
In high-school my friends and I created a comic book. In this bloody cool world that we created we also created our dreamiest anime characters. My main obsession was Adarkus, Gina captured his looks so well with her sketches, and I loved his face, most especially his nose.
I looked for a picture to prove to anyone that would listen that Lenny and Adarkus share a nose, but you will have to take my word for it. His nose is exactly what I imagined it would look like in real-life.
His willingness to journey
After a couple of years of struggling to figure out relationship stuff we are finally starting to get some clarity on just how to do that. The clarity looks like this: both of us being willing to be team mates and face the growing pains together -with kindness. It’s not perfect, but we are always working on it.
His companionship
All of these wonderful things rolled up and poured into one person makes for an incredible companion. He is a companion that is great for travelling the world, having adventures, eating food, loving pets, and generally enjoying it all. Lenny makes an excellent, loyal and honest friend.
I love that Lenny.
