Date Night: PBA and Cafe Bola

We had to move date night to Friday, which worked out well, since Hamil was able to score courtside seats to the PBA (Philippine Basketball Association) semi-finals!

We were thisclose to the court! My barely visible outfit: purple tunic (used as a top) from Topshop, white racerback top from tiangge, necklace from Bangkok.

My husband and I are both big basketball fans. Other girlfriends/wives complain that they have to watch their significant others play, but I love watching Hamil on the court (he's pretty good at it). When I was a kid, I used to watch live games with my family (brothers and cousins)--some of us would root for Ginebra, while others were die-hard San Miguel fans. I lost interest for a few years, and became a fanatic when I hit college and started rooting for the Ateneo Blue Eagles. In fact, I joined the cheering squad not because I wanted to parade around in a teeny skirt, but because I wanted to be assured of a free ticket to every single game!

I'm not up to date when it comes to PBA, but it gets exciting when the semi-finals roll around. It would have been nice if Ginebra had made it, but they didn't. We weren't loyal to any particular team playing that day, so to make things more exciting, Hamil and I made a bet. During the second game, we each picked a team (I was for Alaska, he picked Talk N' Text). Loser had to buy the other dinner.

I was pretty confident that I would win since Alaska led for the most part, up by as many as double digits at some point. With 44 seconds to go in the last quarter, things got really interesting...

My team was still up, but by a measly one point! So yeah, Alaska led for the most part--except when it mattered! My team-for-the-night lost by one point! I couldn't frickin' believe it. I was actually squealing from my seat in the final few seconds as Alaska made several attempts, to no avail. I was too shocked to take a photo of the final score.

Great game nonetheless. It did cost me this though...

Hamil's adobo flakes with kesong puti from Cafe Bola.

I used to looove Cafe Bola. They had this kickass sour cream-paprika sauce that I ordered over Carambola (mixed balls made of beef, chicken, and seafood) and pasta, but they've sadly phased it out. My second go-to dish:

Creamy dulong pasta. Yum. Hamil's order was pretty good too. Will try to replicate it one of these days!

I lost, sure, but it was still a thrilling game. Maybe we could score tickets to the finals...


Cafe Bola is located in Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City.

Date Night

Hamil and I are both pretty busy--aside from working full time, we both have sports to keep us occupied: I have disc, and he has basketball and mixed martial arts, and each of these entails time allotted for training and tournaments. We also have fairly active social lives (meaning, we meet up with friends quite often). Plus, I always make sure I see my mom at least once a week.

"Til death do us part" doesn't mean we're joined at the hip. P.S. Check out my hair bling!

One of my bridesmaids, while giving her speech at my wedding, said that one of the best things about me and Hamil as a couple is that we're devoted to each other but we give each other space. We're still our own persons outside of being a couple. And a number of other people have also noticed it over the years--not everyone understands it, but it's a setup that totally works for us. I'm the type of girl who needs some breathing room. Besides, we have more interesting conversations because we have other things going on in our lives that we get to tell each other about.

When my husband took his masters a few years ago, we had to find a way to spend more time with each other--aside from going to class, he had projects and papers to submit, case studies to review. We felt that weekends weren't enough to nurture our relationship; we needed another regular day when we could surely see each other. He normally didn't have classes on Wednesday, so that became the default day. Even my co-workers knew that Wednesday meant I would be getting uninterrupted time with the love of my life.

We didn't do anything particularly special; he or I would come over, and we would have dinner, and just watch TV and talk all night. He finished his masters, years went by, and Wednesday remained our regular date night. To this day, even as we're living together, Wednesday is still date night--when I have to work on Wednesday night, or something really important comes up, we go over our schedules and figure out when date night would be for that week. It's cool that some of my couple friends have told me that they were inspired to have their own date nights because of us!

I highly recommend it. It doesn't have to be anything spectacular--a fancy restaurant is nice, but a weekly splurge isn't realistic. Hamil and I often do just really normal, basic stuff. Sometimes we go to a favorite restaurant, or go out for a drink, or catch a movie, or go on a run together, or do yoga together, or go on a coffee shop date where he and I both bring books, and just sit together and read and talk in (you guessed it) a coffee shop. Other times, we just stay home; I cook, we watch TV or a DVD, or stay in bed and talk and read.

It's always a treat just to spend time with my darling husband, whatever it is we're doing. If you're with someone whose company you truly enjoy, then you're bound to have fun, no matter how mundane the date seems to be.

A Timely Surprise

It was date night tonight (a weekly thing--more on that in a future post), and Hamil and I had dinner at Poco Deli. Funny how the deli's shelf had this book...

Because that's exactly what my husband did! He presented me with a little gift...

Gee, what could it be?

A sporty watch in go-with-anything white that I've been wanting for ages!

I first saw a similar watch on a friend, who happened to be endorsing it.

Photo from Meli. If you look near my shoulder, you'll see a hint of the watch on D's wrist. Sorry, it's the only pic I could find with him wearing it!

And then, Hamil and I saw The Blind Side, and my eyes zoomed in on Sandra Bullock's watch!

Image from here. There's a scene where she puts her watch on after Michael spent the night for the first time. That's when I first noticed the watch!

After that, Hamil casually asked me if I preferred silver or gold numbers on it. And then tonight, ta-dah!

Aside from the watch, I'm also wearing Hamil's small-ish undershirt in this pic. I have a thing for guys' V-neck undershirts. Maybe I got it from my dad, who normally wears it as pambahay!

I'm planning to buy an additional strap (still rubber but shaped like links), but as is, I lurve lurve lurve it. It's perfect for my trip. I'm really going to need a watch to help me keep track of the time as I navigate my packed sched!

Hamil says it's his congratulatory gift.* "You deserve it!" he told me. But what did I ever do to deserve such a wonderful husband? Watch or no watch, I lurve lurve lurve him so!

*If you found this blog through Frances's, you probably know why. I haven't really made a formal announcement or anything...