Two Years - 18/04/2026

My partner, Charlie, and I's anniversary is on the 20th of April, but as I would be working on the Monday, we decided to celebrate it on the 18th, as it was more convenient for us both. We planned to get the 12:29 train to Ely, so I headed off at around 11:45 and waited on the bench for my partner to arrive. As I was waiting, I had my veil down, so to passers by, I looked like a shrouded figure. An elderly man came up to me and we had a nice chat, he was a bit puzzled as he came up to me, I lifted up my veil so he could see my face (and so I would be a bit less unsettling) and said "There is a person under here, don't worry!", which made him chuckle. He asked if I was married, to which I said no, but I was waiting for my partner to arrive, and he responded with "I hope you both live a long and happy life! Once you reach my age, everyday is a good day!". My heart melted, that was very sweet of him to say! 

Shortly after that interaction, Charlie appeared and we headed over to the train station. We had a few people (mainly kids) yell stuff at us, some of them were on bikes and one of their friends was seemingly trying to steer his friends on the other bike away from us? Either that or he was trying to stop his friends from tipping over on the other bike (there were two of them on one bike). By the time we arrived, our train was due in a couple of minutes, but when we looked at the board and the Trainline app, it said our 12:29 train was delayed. It did not say how much it was delayed by, but we bought our tickets for the 12:29 anyway. We waited on the platform for a couple of minutes before looking at the app again, and to our dismay, our train had been delayed by an hour! The next train to Ely was at 13:30, so our train had basically been cancelled. Unfortunately, that time really costed us, but we weren't to know that until later. We seated ourselves down in the waiting room, nattering away. A man entered the waiting room and spoke to us for a bit, he was nice enough, asked if we were heading to an event, but no, we just dress like this. 

Eventually, the train arrived and we boarded swiftly. Not much happened on the train, we were standing, but luckily it was only a short ride. When we arrived though, no one seemed to know that you needed to push a button to open the door, so we were just stood behind a load of people, slightly panicked. Charlie pushed through and pressed the button and we were able to get off the train, I think the people in front of us might've been tourists, so they didn't know they needed to push the button to open the door.

At the station, we took a selfie in the (very dirty and smudgy) mirror in the underpass, then carried on towards the river. We walked along the river, past the many pubs that were already crowded with patrons. The sunlight was shimmering on the water and there were lots of long house barges docked up, some with flowerpots and almost like miniature gardens, some with elaborate paintings of swirly names and filigree looking things. We came across an old-fashioned ice cream truck, it looked like it was from the 1920's, with the big curves over the wheels and the flat roof, we wanted to go get ice cream, but we hadn't got the time for that, at that moment. It was something we wanted to come back to later.  

We arrived at the Ely Turkish Restaurant and Meze Bar, my parents recommended the place as they had been there before, and Charlie and I seem to have almost built a tradition of eating at or finding a Turkish restaurant every time we go to a new place. I ordered (I don't remember what the dishes were called) chicken and lamb shish, lamb kofta with couscous and rice, and Charlie ordered chicken and lamb shish with yoghurt, couscous and rice. We also had a side of chips and salad but I don't think we needed the chips, we had so much food! Charlie had J20 and I had pineapple juice, which was very refreshing. Again, we had a lot of food, we didn't finish either of our plates, the waiter offered us some takeaway tins but we declined, as neither of us really wanted to carry the food and we had no way of storing it safely for eating it later. 

I'm not sure on the exact time we arrived in Ely, but we left the Turkish at around 4 o'clock. We had been there for quite some time! We then headed to the market, but unfortunately, it had already begun to close, most of the vendors had already packed up. That hour really costed us. Had we gotten the train we were meant to catch, we would've gotten round to the market in time as well as having more time to wander round the shops and get ice cream. We managed to check out a spiritual/ witchcraft shop called Positively Magickal, which had a lot of incense, crystals, sage and queer themed goodies! This was also the shop that my dad got a little witch statue from when we went to Ely a few years earlier, I was applying for a job at a haberdashers opposite the spiritual shop. The staff there were very friendly, we also got some free "Trans people have always existed" stickers, which was lovely! I bought a few pin badges and a pumpkin necklace as well.

We carried on round the streets, another annoying kid and their buddies asked if they could try on Charlie's hat, but we sped off, cutting through a little covered alleyway to get to the cathedral. As we came out from under the archway, the side of the cathedral rose up above us, the architecture was very lovely, I wish people still knew how to build like this. We walked round to the front of the cathedral, only to find the doors closed and some people waiting on some benches outside the door. We could hear a lot of voices coming from within the cathedral, I think they were possibly singing hymns, I'm not sure. Regardless, we decided not to go in just yet, as we didn't want to disturb anything. Again, we had planned to go inside the cathedral and go up on the roof (I believe you have to pay, but we would've been happy paying the fee), but I think this will be something we do next time we visit Ely. We had our little photoshoot on the green before the cathedral and it was splendid! I'm not a very good model, but Charlie did a very good job at making me look like I actually knew what I was doing XD My partner is very talented. 

He took some pictures of me, some just with his camera, and some with the camera mounted on a tripod. I wish I had brought some props with us, like some flowers or my umbrella, or maybe even my lace parasol, I think that would've accentuated some of the pictures and given me some more poses to do. For some reason, when someone is behind the camera, I seem to just not know how to pose! I also helped take some pictures of Charlie too! He looked very lovely! We also took some photos together, with the help of a timer. Though out the photoshoot, we had people coming up to us, one of whom asked if we were dressed as we were for any particular reason, what music we listened to and also offered us some weed?? They said they were a freestyle rapper, which is cool. Another person asked if we were performance artists, as they were very popular in the 80s, they said we looked very nice! Turns out they were also in the Turkish restaurant too! 

We finished the photoshoot, by this point it was almost 6 o'clock, and sat on a bench and talked for a while, before heading back to the railway station, as we felt spots of rain. Not a whole lot happened on our journey back, we spent a lot of it chatting and cuddling up to one another. Overall, I think we both had a lovely day out! Despite the late train, we got to finally do a photoshoot together and explore a bit of Ely too, as well as having some delicious food! I have already posted most of the pictures from the photoshoot on my Instagram, so feel free to check them out! I will leave a link here: 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DXXoWObAvtu/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

This post has most of the pictures, there are some more, but I think I shall keep them for just me and my partner and the people we know in our lives. I also intend to make a post containing my outfit details, for anyone who is interested, so stay tuned for that! 

And to my dearest, Charlie, it has been a wonderful two years, we have gotten through both the highs and the lows together, and I hope to go through many more with you! Happy two year anniversary, Charlie, here's to many more <3