Night out with hubby!

Last two Fridays, ( December 10th) hubby asked to take me out. I knew he wasn’t joking because he seemed to be in a vey playful mood. And with him, talks like that don’t come often. I didn’t really act all excited because I’ve sort of adopted our recluse lifestyle without much complaints like I do in the past. So in his usual manner, he suggested we went to a Restaurant (this was more like a tradition for occasional family outings), I declined. If he wanted to take me out, he had to give room for my opinion or I throw that offer out of the window (I didn’t say this out loud for your info).Fortunately enough, he didn’t argue when I suggested that I’d rather go to the Movies because just eating wouldn’t make much difference for once in two years outing…don’t ask! I got a double-package instead. We had been at the office all day and were both hungry. This was a good thing as my low appetite doesn’t really sit down well with him. I end up bringing remnants of my dinner home; during family outings. So I usually tell him to avoid making hasty and impromptu decisions and to tell me ahead. You can guess how many times that happens…

We got home and we had some minutes to freshen up and off we went. First we had dinner at some Sea Food Restaurant called ‘Cape Town Fish Market’ (CTFM)…I had never heard of them until that day. We do dine at ‘Oceans Basket’ for Sea Food dishes and ‘Spur Steak ranches’ ,for what the name implies. When we want to go local and corporate, we eat out at ‘Home Baze’ (a Nigerian owned Restaurant spreading across Gauteng now, with about four to five Branches. When we want to give our guests a ‘classy’ touch of Nigeria’s local delicacy, we take them to Sandton. That’s the only branch I’ve been by the way. The reason am saying ‘classy’s simply because there is a Nigerian restaurant right next door to us, at the office. That’s just for regulars and it’s a one-man show (sorry, I meant one-woman show). The restaurant is owned by a lady and managed by her alone.

Back to my ‘night out with hubby’…So we actually stood in front of this ‘nameless’ restaurant for s few minutes, I was attracted to the aquarium (I love aquarium) that was displayed outside just before the entrance of the restaurant. A good marketing strategy for a Sea Food restaurant if you asked me. So we eventually decided to give it a try and there were no regrets. Although, the space was barely enough for customers that chose to be inside rather than in the open space just right across; but we tried to enjoy the meal and pay little attention to the limited space. We ordered starters, I had calamari with some sauce I can’t recall now. It was fried and I ordered the roasted one as my main course. There was no room for dessert. I couldn’t finish my main course and had requested that I’d be taking whatever is left of my meal home, before I even got started. I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish it. We enjoyed the meal amidst the stares and glares. Hubby didn’t mince words in emphasizing what he usually says-That the blacks in this country do not go out, eat out, dine because they cannot afford it. Now I normally disagree with him on that assumption because I happen to know more about their social lifestyle that he does. But he wouldn’t agree. We were the only black folks at this restaurant and it was very evident we were foreigners. They probably would have mistaken us for tourists. So this family of four beside our table were particularly interested in us, or should I say me because the stares were on me. And so was another family two adjacent tables to our right. I absorbed it as I get this “all the time”. Trust me, that isn’t just like repeating a common phrase…I get stares everywhere I go. And now, am kind of getting used to it to the point of amusement. I just laugh it off.

After dinner, we went to Sterkinekor-The Cinema. I had just seen the preview of Denzel Washington’s ‘Unstoppable’ before we left home that evening. I had seen it prior that too and had told myself this was a movie I’d love to see. So we perused through and it was going to be shown by 10.pm.We couldn’t wait that long, we had kids to go back home to. It was already 8.p.m and any movie we were going to see wasn’t going to be less than two hours; maybe a few minutes difference. Since we do not usually get to go out alone, I wanted something for a mature audience like Denzel’s action-packed ‘Unstoppable’. I asked hubby that we just go back home and that I didn’t feel like ‘comedy’… Jamie Lee Curtis & Sigourney Weaver’s “You Again” was on. But he says let’s just go see that anyway, we did and I loved it…end of story. That was how we spent our evening!