It’s so easy to get swept away by the daily routines of work, school lunches, kids activities, TV, grocery shopping, cleaning and washing clothes … and, I’m sure I forgot a long list of other duties that comes with being an adult.
Sometimes the days and weeks just fly by, and you don’t really get a chance to be romantic or spend some quality time with your partner. At least that’s how it has been with us for a while.
Not that we don’t spend time together or that we are unhappy, it’s just these daily routines that take over and we forget to do something as simple as hold hands.
Well, times have changed now. We’ve found a brilliant baby sitter, one who loves the kids and one that the kids love – sort of. The tiniest midget is not too keen on being minded by this house invader and does her silent protest as a start shaped item on the floor.
In fact, she will stay in this position for at least 8 minutes or longer, just to illustrate her point that no-one understands her needs. Either that or she simply does it to get further attention.
So, the lovely missus and I have started to date again. A few weeks ago I planned a surprise date, which lasted a number of hours. The purpose was to try something new instead of always going to the same BBQ smokehouse or Thai place, so I booked a table in a Indian restaurant.
My South American flower loves Indian food and this place came highly recommend by some Indian friends we have.
It was a lovely dinner with no screaming kids, no interruptions, no toilet visits every 6 minutes and no dropped food on shirts. I do admit, I did spill some Tikka Masala down my shirt!
After an hour of slow eating and chatting, we headed off to the next event I had planned. Again, something we haven’t done together and something she had never tried – bowling.
Her initial reaction was a little apprehensive, but after watching people bowl for almost 45 minutes while waiting for a lane to free up, she relaxed and was looking forward to it.
I’m no shark at bowling, far from it, but do know a little about the technique. That doesn’t mean that I can get a strike or spare either, and if you had seen us play you would’ve realised that we were shite. BUT, we had fun.
It was also when we bowled that I had a chance to check out the missus. As she was standing there taking aim, I was reminded of how great she looks (from any angle) and I smiled proudly at the guys playing on the neighbouring lane.
We played over an hour and completed 5 games. Thankfully we had managed to get a few strikes, but we did get some funny looks from other players due to our constant visit to the left or right gutters. Each time we hit these foul inventions a loud smack, making the fellow bowlers look up. We had many laughs and I could tell that she had had a great time too.
True gentleman as I am, I of course let her win.
As we walked towards the car it became clear that we had used muscles and postures we weren’t aware existed, so we were limping towards the car. It was one of those times where I wish we didn’t own a large SUV which requires a step up.
The muscles in my legs were aching and pulling myself into the driver’s seat was not an easy task. As I peeked over at my wife, I almost burst out laughing. She had managed to pull herself half up onto the seat, still lying down, while frantically trying to push herself the rest of the way with whatever strength was left in her legs.
A few hours after leaving the kids with the baby sitter, we pulled into the driveway. The kids were in bed, probably since we pulled in, and we paid the girl for her endurance.
We finished off the evening with a couple of tequila’s on the sofa, strongly followed by nodding off while drooling and snoring; all while the TV was flickering – typical parent behaviour!
It was a brilliant date and I’m looking forward to the next date night.