... since it was hearts day yesterday. And because of that, I have a very long kwento.
I have been in so much anticipation since Mon had me guess his plan. I was restless and can hardly concentrate with what I do. Probably because I can sense that almost everyone in our office personally feels that the day is really special. We even have an officemate who celebrated his birthday. :) Belated hbd Ding!
Lunch time, I just picked up my gift (airbrushed Batman shirt) for Mon at Robinson's Place. Got excited that the colors were taken from the original one. I also dropped by handyman to buy a new steering wheel cover for Mon. Sometime this week, he had a bruise and he suspects that it is due to the worn out cover. For me, it was another gift idea. Hehehe...
Back to the office, my teammates and I went to the pantry to eat lunch. That is when I was told by my co-February celebrant that our manager requests if we could schedule our treat the same day since our 6 Chinese Alagas are going back to China to celebrate Chinese New Year. We agreed on it and our officemate arranged the ordering for us. After some time, a delivery man entered our work area carrying a box of roses and it for Gnet! :) Sweet sweet Ronnie! Hehehe... Come 430pm, our orders from Amber came - spaghetti, pancit bihon, lumpiang shanghai, pichi-pichi and barbecue! We even have double dutch ice cream as dessert. So much for diet. Hehehe..
While eating/chatting at the pantry, I noticed that Mon has been calling me (3 missed calls =). Third time I was able to answer his call, he asked me to go outside. I got out and saw him with a bouquet of pink roses! How sweet! Hehehe.. I savored the moment for a while (minsan lang to eh! hahaha) and told him I'll be out before 7pm. He just went down and waited for me.
Gnet gave me an idea of just putting the shirt that I'll give him. To add a bit of surprise, I put on my red jacket. Funny thing he was not bothered by me wearing a jacket when it was not even cold. Haha... Since I can't take wearing 3 layers of top, I asked Mon just when I was about to ride the car, "Be, pakitanggal mo naman jacket ko." The look on his face showed he found my request a bit odd. Hehehe.. When he unzipped the jacket, his face glowed. Good thing he liked the shirt!. :D
We went to Baywalk for our date! hahaha... But we had the Manila Bay Cruise and the boat (M/V Tennesee Walk) docks there. I saw the reservation ticket and my jaw dropped! It's a whooping 1990 pesos! The cruise only tickets are 250/pax while with dinner is 495/pax. Since I know that we'll have dinner, it should just be P990. Mon said I'll figure out why there's an additional 1k when we board the boat.
Anyways, it took a while for the boat to arrive so we just chatted and took pictures of ourselves. I learned that the trip is an hour and a half long and there are four trips per day. The sunset cruise which starts at around 6pm, the dinner cruise (the one that we got), the next one I forgot (starts at 9++pm) and the last is the midnight cruise (11++pm). Then finally, the boat arrived! We noticed that there are two cameramen covering the first cruise (kapuso yata) while approaching the dock area. Sayang! Hahaha... Then came our turn...
We are in the "special arrangement" area pala, guaranteed seating. Dun napunta ung 1k. Grabeng extortion ito! Haayyy... Anyways, we are near the stage and it has a more romantic mood since there's a nice table setup for two. We have to wait for another 30mins for the boat to finally sail. But that 30mins is worthwhile. First off, appreciating the view. Tingin tingin lang kami sa paligid, noticing that all who availed the special arrangement are couples. There are some who brought their kids with them but nonetheless, panay lovebirds. :) Second, more time for picture taking. And lastly, few moments of warfreak guests. A couple with their little son, occupied a reserved table. They ignored the label in the table and when the couple actually assigned to the table arrived, the waiters asked if they can be transferred to another table. The couple started to raise their voices out of anger insisting that they stay at that table. The commotion added more attention when the operators came and asked the same thing. They got so angry they left the boat. In fairness to the operators and waiters, they are polite when they informed them that they will be transferred to a different table. The other one was when the boat started moving. The table in front of us seems to be a foursome but the other one is missing. The man called someone on his celfone and shouted, "wala na, ang tagal tagal mo.. umaandar na!" and the rest is !@#$%!. Hahaha..
The food came from Barbara's. I was expecting it will be superb since they are well-known to serve best-tasting food. But I was wrong. Only the fish fillet got a thumbs up for me. The rest is just so-so. We had mushroom soup and then the main course (with the dessert). Fish fillet, Fettucine in tomato-based sauce, fried "mojos" (better yet kamote! hahaha) and blueberry cheesecake. So much for a P245 meal.
As for the ambiance, it's great! I thought cruisin' in manila bay will be stinky but it's not. It got colder when we boarded. There's a band who sang many oldies songs (parang combo sila haha!) but familiar ones naman. Some of the songs that I remembered: how can i tell her, words, pretty woman, wonderful tonight. Oh, there was a point when we are far from the seawall, and the surroundings are in pitch black. It was a bit scary at first, but we saw occassional small boats that are sailing too. We also passed by a marine boat (i think).
When the boat is coming back at baywalk, we saw a fireworks display somewhere in Buendia, probably at Hotel Philippine Plaza. Some of the displays where the bow and arrow of cupid and hearts which added more appeal to us.
We really enjoyed the night. I think it's quite expensive for that cruise considering that the food served is of a very small portion (antakaw talaga! tama na din para diet haha!) and that among the dishes, I can only recommend one -- thie fish fillet. But come to think of it, I am with my hubby, that made the cruise really awesome and special. Added factor na lang yung mood and ambiance. ;) Saya!
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