Monthsary 101

The 21st of every month is special day for honey and me. We celebrate our monthsary on this day. Although we have been together for quite a while now, the luster of this day hasn't faded, in fact it has gained more meaning and we are more excited to celebrate this day as the months passes by. This day is no exception.

Honey is not at home this weekend because he is facilitating a youth camp and since Charlie is still too small to sleep over at a camp, we decided that Charlie and i are just going to visit during the day and go home at night. So this morning, i didn't wake up with honey beside me which is always a strange feeling (that's why I never really liked it when he is on business trips). At around 7am though, he called me up on my mobile, i was a bit on the edge coz i just drifted back to sleep having fed Charlie at around 6:30. He asked me to go to the guest room to get a folder that he keeps in one of the closets there saying that he needs an information from that folder. I sleepily hauled myself out of bed and went to the next room. He asked me to open the closet and inside a bouquet of flowers was sitting in one of the shelves. And then he greeted me Happy monthsary.... I forgot I was sleepy after that. Now it made sense why it took him so long to come back to camp yesterday when he went back home to pick a couple of things that he forgot.



This gestures just make me fall in love with honey all over again. I am so blessed to have someone who showers me with love that overflows and who takes care of me to no end. When Charlie grows up and meets a man who is even a quarter of a husband honey is, then Charlie is so blessed, she will be loved and cared for and I will be at peace.

Happy 101st monthsary my honey! Love you much!

94th Mensiversary @ Ron Blaauw Restaurant

As I have mentioned time and time again, one of the things that I really love about honey is that he has this moments when he completely catches me off guard and surprises me with something that he knows I’ll really like. The way we celebrated this month’s mensiversary is a classic example.

We are one of those cheesy couples who always makes an excuse to celebrate our love for one another and mensiversaries are simply perfect for us, we always look forward to this day of the month. It can be as simple as a kiss and a hug or can be as elaborate and as fancy as the dinner we shared last week. The night before, honey already told me that he’s leaving work early, drop by the dentist and pick me up for our date. He was at the office at 5:30pm and we drove somewhere close to his office. The moment I saw this quaint shop in the middle of a charming neighbourhood, I asked him, “how on earth did you know of this place?” I even teased him and told him “maybe your taking on budget…” I cut myself midsentence when I saw the name of the restaurant. This well known place could never be a budget meal.

For this month’s mensiversary, he took me to Ron Blaauw restaurant. This renowned restaurant was awarded with two Michelin stars and serves French and International cuisine. It is located in the heart of Ouderkerk aan de Amstel. It was really a surprise for me coz honey remembered that during restaurant week here in Amsterdam, I tried to book us a reservation but they were not able to accommodate us.

The interior of the restaurant was very homey, the tamed lights were very romantic and the seats were very comfortable. But with a restaurant of this calibre, the highlight is definitely the food. We were seated at the couch to enjoy our aperitif, of course in my case it was orange juice and we were served with a wide array of appetizers that are so exquisite, the most memorable of which is the crusty bread which looked like charcoal black burnt pieces of thin bread but when I took a portion and dipped it to the butter-like accompaniment, I found it very nice, the bread was crunchy and the butter complimented it well. Honey favoured the shrimps in cone. Before we were seated on our table, we browsed through their menu and decided to have the 8 course meal, I was a bit hesitant to order that at first because it sounds a lot but the maitre’d assured us that the servings are small enough for us to enjoy all the courses. Once the dinner started, plated works of art begun parading on our table. All the courses were prepared exquisitely with the freshest ingredients one could ever imagine. The creativity of the chef and his staff was evident with each plate that arrives. The entire meal was like a well orchestrated concert where each course builds up and prepares your tongue for the crescendo of taste that is yet to come. The dessert parade was like the perfect punctuation to a well thought of dinner.

The price that we paid for the menu was definitely worth the fair that was served. This dinner definitely goes down as one of the best mensiversary dinners we’ve ever had.

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excess: the photos we have taken during our meal is trapped in my mobile phone :-( i can't seem to transfer it on my laptop.

The big 9-0

Honey and I have been together for exactly 90 months last Saturday and I must say, it keeps on getting better and better. This starts my countdown to our centennial mensiversary. All through these months, honey and I never failed to celebrate this day, I guess we’re just the type of couple who grabs any and every opportunity to celebrate our love for each other. It can be as simple as greeting each other “happy monthsary” or it can be as elaborate as having a dinner date plus gifts, bouquets of flowers and the entire shebang, no matter how simple (or enormous) it is, we just make it a point to celebrate.

One of the things I love about my husband is the fact that he likes to always surprise me. He stops at nothing to get anything that I want and he gives them to me just when I least expect it. This month’s gift is another example of this. I have mentioned time and again how hard it is to get a decent cake plate here and I’m getting more and more frustrated coz I’ve been expanding my kitchen experiments lately. And just when I’m about to get more frustrated after scouring the shopping street adjacent to our home, honey popped this baby out of a bag and told me that this is his gift to me for our 90th mensiversary. It’s perfect! I love the chocolates but more so I love the cake plate. It’s simple yet elegant, just what I was looking for. Honey hit another jackpot!



Honey, thanks for being the best, no, the perfect husband to me. You’re all I’ve ever longed for, dreamed of, prayed for, and so much more. You are the silver lining in my sky that gives me hope, happiness and courage. I want nothing more but to still be holding hands with you when we’re old and gray and wrinkled. Happy 90th mensiversary honey! I love you!

Picture Perfect

One of the best gifts that I’ve received this Christmas, which also happens to be in my wish list as well, is a Canon EOS 450D. Actually, it so happens that this item is also in honey’s wish list, so on our December mensiversary (how cheesy, we still celebrate our mensiversary... haylaveet!), after honey took me on a lunch date, we went straight to the one of the chains of electronics shop here in the Netherlands and bought this camera, we agreed that this is one of his gifts to me this Christmas and also one of my gifts for him this Christmas. We call the camera “Marty” coz we bought it from a shop called Media Markt (pronounced as Mart).

So before I confuse the heck out of anyone reading this, since I’ve used Marty, I’ve been enjoying myself a lot while exploring his properties…. Simply amazing, I’ve never taken pictures as nice as the one I’ve taken on this camera. We took Marty for a test drive (or is it test shot?!?) when we went to Paris and to Disneyland and I have to say so myself, all the pictures were marvellous. Marty gives us more room for creativity and it turns any environment, not conducive for taking pictures even, simply dramatic.

Here are some of my favourite shots from Paris and Disneyland (honey has been my favorite subject hehe).





i love the black and white shots:





I’m sure this is just a beginning of a long and sweet love affair that I’ll have with Marty.