Advice from a Former Long Distance Couple

During the current situation, I realise that some couples may not be isolating together and have found themselves temporarily in a long distance relationship. Therefore, I thought I'd share some tips as Stephen and I spent almost the first 2 years of our relationship as a long distance couple.

• Watch a TV show or film together over Skype: there's now an app which helps with this called Netflix Party, but we were a bit more old school and went for the '3, 2, 1, play' method when we attempted this. We got through the entire 7 seasons of Parks and Rec over the course of us being long distance. It's super cute to see your partner's reactions to what they're watching, and you have can have an immediate discussion about what happens. This could also be made even cuter if you make the same meal/snack prior to the video call (or during!) so that it feels like you're in a cinema/at home together.

• Send each other videos: this will be especially handy for those of you with a partner that is a key worker and may not be able to Skype every day. Sometimes, we used to send each other 30 second videos where we just filmed ourselves saying 'good morning' and wishing the other person a good day. If your partner often wakes up after you do, this can be really nice because you can be sure that they will start the day off with a smile on their face after watching your video!

• Do online quizzes together: we spoke via video call almost every day to catch each other up on our lives, which at this point in time, could get a little boring since none of us are doing anything magnificently interesting right now. To combat this, try to schedule video calls which have a purpose, e.g. to watch a film as above, play a game, or to discuss results to a quiz. I highly recommend doing the Love Languages quiz (even if you aren't in a long distance relationship) as it's so important to understand how your partner both expresses and best receives love. Hannah Witton has an incredible video on it here:

There are a number of other fun quizzes you can do, including the New York Times '36 Questions to Fall in Love' experiment, MBTI personality quizzes, online Mr & Mrs, as well as silly ones like 'Which Brooklyn Nine Nine character are you?'. PS. We're Amy and Jake.

• Share playlists of your favourite music: I'm not sure that this is something we did, it was more that we sent each other the odd YouTube video of one of our favourite songs here and there. However, now that we're in the age of Spotify, why not make a playlist of your favourite songs and share them with each other? They say you can learn a lot about a person from their taste in music, and we have nothing but time to do so right now. If you've been together for a while and you have 'songs' together that remind you of each other, add those to a playlist and listen to it while you're apart. Music can take you back to so many memories which will cheer you up.

• Send each other memes: we tagged each other in memes on Tumblr (is that still a thing?), which we knew the other person would love, but you could also share tweets or Tik Toks, or anything really. Anything to let the other person know that you're missing them, and thinking about them.

And finally, to remind you to have hope because this will eventually end:

• Make a 'post-lockdown' list: at the very start of our relationship, one of my best friends (who is now my Matron of Honour, so make of that what you will!) introduced us to an app named Couple. The free app allows you to have a shared calendar, so that you can add events/dates which you're looking forward to for when this is all over. There is also a list feature which you can use to your hearts content! List all of the restaurants you miss and will run to when we can, a list of the friends you want to see/double date with etc. The possibilities are endless. You can also sketch on to it and send each other your masterpieces/love notes, but one of the best features is 'thumb kiss' which is a screen where if you both press down in the same place, the screen vibrates signifying a moment of (perhaps cringey, but cute very cute!) connection. Magic.

PS. If either of you have a birthday coming up, then be sure to check out my last blog post on how I surprised Stephen for his isolation birthday, too! xo