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I almost spoiled another surprise. Almost.

I was thinking of spending the whole afternoon until early evening in Bonifacio High Street or Serendra with him. Ayain ko sana sya mag-try ulit ng new resto, new food, new coffee blend. I was eyeing Kape Isla. But he insisted on us meeting at the Mall of Asia, even earlier than the time that I had set. I let him win. No biggie. =)

After a short walk, we made a stopover at The Coffee Experience, where we had our first coffee (though in a different branch).

Then, the tricky part.

I really didn't know what to do next after the coffee break. What I had in mind was to see what was on Imax or to buy him anything that he might have forgotten to bring for his Boracay trip tomorrow. After that, I'd probably ask him to go home and just have movie marathon.

But he kept on walking, leading us outside the mall, fronting Manila Bay. Then, more paces toward a spacious, bare parking lot on the left side of the mall.

Halfway, he asked where the dock for the cruise ferry could possibly be. Still clueless, I said it was in Roxas Boulevard (I was thinking of the Tennessee Walker). As we crossed the street, he said "Anong time kaya nung sa tin?". I was stunned. "Aaay-- dapat surprise yon. Nasabi ko na tuloy," he recoiled. I was smiling. Surprise yun no.

So yun pala yon. The reason why he had been nudging me about this whole MOA thing since yesterday. The reason why he had been so anxious about the weather.



It wasn't a perfect cruise. The weather was a bit teasing and unpredictable. The sea was not very calm. So instead of following the usual cruise around the bay, we took a straight path.



Lam ko na-strain ka ng onte kakaisip na dapat maging romantic date yun.

But it turned out fine. For me, it really was. And the fact that you researched and planned about it was already sentimental. The one hour we spent at the top deck of that ferry was enough to take away stress from day's work. We didn't have an intense talk. And it was all right. We savored the time observing everything around us-- the father and son bonding at the stern, the group of women in their 60's probably relishing their pension benefits, the father treating his kids from Davao (we overheard, and we assumed they're well-off), two buddies who were just sitting at the corner, taking pictures of themselves (and we made a story that they would be meeting some friends in MOA later to watch a movie or maybe they just decided to meet and talk about serious matter, which we didn't know). But that made the cruise perfectly ok. =)

Since DSLR yung dala namin at wala kaming tripod at nahihiya kaming magpakuha sa iba, we just took this shot of us while sitting at the aft, in front of the deck's red woodclad French door. Pwde na yan..=)

After we bought tickets for the cruise and before the ferry embarked, we visited the Shrine of Jesus , The Way, The Truth, and The Life, which is just beside the Metrostar Ferry Terminal.

We were a bit starving after the cruise. We thought of Cafe Mediterranean. Kaya lang na-realize namin na nagtitipid pala kami, so Mann Hann na lang ulit. Suki, hehe. Sulit naman kase. But for today, we ordered asparagus wrapped in beef, taosi clam, and garlic rice. Yummers.

*****
For the little and big suprises and for all the other attempt surprises, salamat, buddy ko. Mi luv yah. *kugos*