Ze Proposal : Part 2: This is it.

2nd Night, Dinner

Ok, so remember Vanessa? We met with her on our second day, and she wanted to go to dinner. Tim was dressed up fancy schmancy for dinner and I went out looking like a normal person. We didn't realize that it had gone late already, since she came over to the hotel at 4pm-ish already. Her: omygosh the stairs killed me! We talked for a while and we went out at about 7 or 8 pm.

Before we went to dinner, we walked around the city, going in different shops and everything, Marks and Spencers, Cotton On, Uniqlo, etc. We were finally hungry by 10 pm, and Van was insisting on dinner.

The M&S in Central was huge! Photo taken from Britannica

I conceded. I didn't want to go to dinner because I knew our budget was tight, and we were walking through Lan Kwai Fong, Hongkong's nightlife street. Van wanted a very nice restaurant to go to because it's "our birthday" dinner- which made sense, so we looked at every nice looking restaurant, and they were already- weirdly, for a supposedly nightlife active area- closed for the day.

I was eyeing this pizza place (Tim likes nay, loves pizza) However, for some weird reason Tim was quiet and would not budge. I thought, something is wrong, Tim doesn't want pizza. But I guess he respects that Van wants a nice going away dinner too.

We finally went to a place called Café Siam, which is at the very end of the street, and they were open, and it was a resto-bar so yay we can eat dinner! We ordered and Tim and Van went out to talk.

Ok, it was a little bit suspicious, but Tim was feeling a little bit sad, maybe because he was sleepy and he didn't want to go out for the evening anymore (he has a thing about travelling. read: aversion or read: I spent too much), so I thought they just walked out for a little bit of pep talk. Van is amazing at pep talks. She had done it to me a million times already when I feel like doubting myself.

Suspicion at that time number 2: Ooooh I wonder if they bought me cake. I would love some cake. there's no cakeshops here in the area though, maybe Van knows a place and it's far-ish so it's taking them a while. Ugh they better not come in here with balloons and flowers and all that, I wouldn't know what to do with them. ugh. not bouquets, how am I going to take that home to the Philippines. Why would Tim want to do that?

They came back bearing nothing. Tim was a little bit happier. Ok, I relax, no awkward bouquets to carry. Must be suspicion 1 then. Tim's smiling while eating Thai food (rare occurrence, so mesmerized I didn't take a picture) , so Van did a good job perking him up.

It was getting very late, and we had an early flight the day after, so we decided to get the check. It was midnight, officially my birthday. Yay!! Tim goes to the counter, and returns, with a guy holding a cake in tow. I was elated.

This was similar to the cake he gave me.

I regret not taking a picture of mine.

I look at Tim and Van, and they were smiling very proudly. They both know me and they both know I like cake. blah. I look at it and it's Haagen Dazs, impressive. Better eat it before it melts then. I kiss Tim, I say thank you, and I start focusing on the cake.

I like cake.

Tim, on my left, says, "give Vanessa some of it," and I feed her. I take another bite, "it's strawberry ice cream!" I say, turning to him.

And there he was, kneeling (we had argued about this, I said there was no way he was kneeling. He showed me the video, he wins.), with a ring in a box. I started giggling, because, what else will I do? I'm a nervous giggler. I was buzzed, Van made me drink some alcoholic drink called Nothing, (which was very hard to order btw).

He gave me ample time to recover, and very calmly asked, "Will you marry me?" *I'm rolling my eyes while i'm typing this, it's all very corny but much appreciated but oh gawd I'm not used to this*

I, of course, who rolls my eyes at sappiness, made a noise that sounded like "ugh", but eventually said yeah. The restaurant, very nice of them, played romantic music afterwards.

His Recap

Whenever he surprises me, he likes telling me how he did it afterwards.

Him all nicely dressed and me, and my backpack

For this one, he says he had the ring delivered a few weeks before at my mom's house, so my family has kept it from me, plus he's been carrying the ring around with him for a while already, waiting for the perfect moment. That was the reason why he was dressed up the whole time when we were in Hong Kong. (He just told me he always wants to look pretty when he's travelling, I just conceded, he DOES like dressing up)

He said he also talked to Van, and told her his plan. She came up with the cake idea though, so that was a nice touch. He also thought about putting the ring inside my cake, but then he didn't want ice cream and sugar and all that to be stuck inside the stones.

I wouldn't want that as well, lest I end up on one of the what went wrong segments on the news.