Last
Monday was our fourth anniversary, which also happened to be the anniversary of
our engagement. Our original plan is to celebrate it in Japan as we have our
short vacation, but due to some uncontrollable events, the trip was pushed to
February. That left us with an ordinary weekday anniversary.
And so with
the trip waiting the following month, we wanted to be frugal on the day itself. We gunned for a simple dinner at Shi Lin, our favourite place to devour those
soupy dumplings called Xiao Long Bao. It's their Alabang Town Center branch that we headed to this time to have those steaming goodness.
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| Our simple dinner |
After
eating to our heart’s content, we window shopped a bit before finally going to the movie house to see Life of Pi. We were enticed to watch because
of raves for its digital effects, but after the movie, we walked out also captured by the witty
and interesting lines. We even found ourselves dissecting the script on the
ride home. Haha.
With
the car already parked in front of our house, Adrin suddenly leaped out announcing
that he has a gift for me. Clutching a guitar, he returned to the driver’s
seat. Unfortunately the limited space made it hard for him to play the guitar so we moved to the back seat. As we comfortably took our places, he started
strumming. I didn’t know what song it is at first until he sang the first line.
It was Grow Old With You! At that point, I lightly laughed and told him “Sumu-Zoren
ka ah!” and continued listening to his singing. What’s most touching is the
fact that I know how huge an effort it was for him dish such act. You see, Adrin
considers himself musically challenged and believes that he eternally could not
carry a tune. Him singing in karaoke would be a once in a blue moon occurrence.
With
the last strum of his fingers, I hugged and kissed him with tears in my eyes. I
just can’t help being emotional realizing the lengths he’d go just to surprise
me. I again kidded him of doing a Zoren but he countered that he didn’t know
that the actor also sang that song in his grand surprise for Carmina. He told
me that he learned the chords two weeks before and was so nervous that I’d see
the guitar in his car.
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| His surprises for me |
We
eventually went inside the house where I hurriedly recovered my gift for him. I
actually had it with me since November and was fighting the excitement to
hand it to him prematurely. It was a story photobook of our 4-year journey together. He started
leafing through it and would stop at some pages longer than usual, retrieving
those instances from his memory bank perhaps. =)
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| My gift to him |
Here are some of my favorite pages from our photo storybook (some pages are soft copies).
He rendered a repeat performance after reading our story book. And yes, I was his lone audience still. =)
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| The repeat performance |
Oh
what a good night it was - far different from our past 3 anniversaries, but
nonetheless cheesy. Again, Happy Anniversary Sweetie! I’m excited to spend the
rest of my life with you! =)
Cheers!
