That's the conclusion the hub and I resignedly came to on Saturday night.
It was an unusual Saturday night on all counts. Both MIL and FIL were at home as they didn't go over to either BIL's places for the weekend. MIL was still nursing a bad cough and didn't want to spread the bug to her other grandchildren.
So the hub suggested, after dinner, that we catch a movie since we've got help to mind the kids.
Now, watching a movie on a Saturday night may be a De facto activity for dating couples but it's a rare treat for those married with young kids. More so for boring people like the hub and I.
So why do we classify ourselves as "boring"?
Well, as far back as I can remember (since mid 1995 when we started going out) the both of us have probably watched a midnight movie together a grand total of...
*shudders embarrassingly*
...less than 5 times in 16 years!
Amazing right?
Neither did we notoriously club-hop, wantonly pump alcohol into our systems and wildly party till the wee hours of the morning. Plus, I just don't like the stale smoke smell on my hair and clothes. Our self-imposed curfew was to reach home before midnight (yes, even when we both started working) because it was just expensive to hail a cab after midnight and we were trying to scrimp and save every bit we could for the wedding/house/future.
Yes, we are geeks in our own right. The hub's a computer nerd (whether he cares to admit it or not) and used to spend hours on end playing computer games although the xbox 360 is now collecting dust because he doesn't have the luxury of time to play the long-drawn games for hours. He's now mucking around with simple games on his iPhone 4.
I'm not too cool myself either and in the precious pockets of time I can steal for myself, I prefer to plonk in front of the computer to pen my blog (a rarity these days), update my tweets (not as frequently as others) or play games in Facebook. When I used to commute via public transport, that was my chance to catch up on some reading. My all-time favourite genre? Children's Fantasy novels like the Harry Potter books, LOTR etc. I own about 300 movie-inspired toy collectibles from the LOTR trilogy, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride and The Nightmare Before Christmas. And I'm an avid film and TV buff.
Anyway, I digress.
So yes, this middle-aged geek couple decided on Saturday to do what most normal couples do: go on a movie date. It was a toss-up between Thor and Priest but the only problem was that all the tickets were selling out fast so we journeyed to AMK Hub which was about 15 minutes drive from our home. Unfortunately the earliest show we could get reasonably good seats for was midnight. We went ahead to buy the tickets to Thor anyway.
Trouble was that it was only 9.30pm and we weren't sure what to do so besides, well, our regular obligatory grocery shopping duties at NTUC supermarket.
How positively romantic. Heh. But there wasn't much of a choice as all other retail shops were drawing their shutters down.
Even after we bought our weekly supermarket supplies, we still had an hour to spare and wandered into McDonald's for a snack. The placed was packed and were both surprised that so many people milling about so late in the night. (Don't forget that we hardly ever venture out of our front gates after 10pm.) We found seats and I got a Apple Crumble, Cinnamon Melts, a Cappuccino and a Mochaccino from the McCafé section.
Surrounded by noisy chatter, it wasn't exactly an idyllic setting for cosy tête-à-tête but we made do and enjoyed our little quiet time and supper together.
And then it was movie time!
On our way back, the hub commented that we're really a very "unhappening" pair. While dating couples usually enjoy a more eventful life before marriage and kids, we only started injecting some measure of excitement into ours recently by attending concerts and performances -especially now that the girls are older and more independent.
Indeed, we're starting to spend more quality time as a hub-and-wifey team sans kids. That's something nice to look forward to every once in a while.
No comments:
Post a Comment