Finally, a birthday celebration outside.
When the pandemic went full swing in 2020, the nationwide lockdown was about 3 days before Mon’s birthday. We had planned an eat-all-you-can dinner that time, but for obvious reasons. It was cancelled. Even the succeeding days before it, we were thinking how to get the refund for the pre-payment we made. When the prolonged lockdowns eventually reared its ugly head, it was obvious that it has ravaged more livelihood and employment. Our worries were severely paltry and negligible.
Since around mid-February 2022, things were looking up. Numbers-wise, since the end of the Omicron wave around January, there were less cases (and deaths, which frankly should be zero — a death is a death, even one). Vaccination rates are high. Or it might just be really the election period upon us that led to the relaxing of the restrictions.
The fire extinguisher — people will probably think it’s a Jeff Koons. (Yes. that’s an SATC reference)
So for today, we finally decided to have dinner at Greenbelt and (supposedly) watch a movie. Nothing out of ordinary.
It was a humid summer’s evening, but it did not prevent me from wearing my usual uniform: a black shirt. I decided to be dressier than usual and put on jeans instead of shorts. =) Nevertheless, my flip flops were intact. Imagine me walking around these around this new area where the LV store was transferred to, together with other designer stores. I did not care about it, to be honest, as I just really wanted to be inside an air-conditioned place.
Happy birthday! (And some Chinese lanterns)
Mon has been always wanting to try Din Tai Fung (which I, by the way, often confuse with Tim Ho Wan). My lack of culture and palate refinement can’t even tell their difference with North Park to be honest.
I could not even remember what we ordered, except for a bunch of leaves, a bunch of dimsum, and a xiao long bao, which for me is just siomai in a cuter outfit. Still, I would sound ungrateful for this because it was Mon’s treat, so thanks for that!
Birthday dinner at Din Tai Fung
We knew we were to watch a movie after dinner. The cinema is just very near the restaurant, so we immediately went there to buy tickets as soon as we finished eating at a little over 7:00 pm. There were only a handful of new movies, and we ended up getting seats for the 9:00 pm screening of ‘The Batman‘ starring Robert Pattinson.
So what do we do next?
There was nothing much to do, to be honest. I am very familiar with this, having worked at a nearby business school for 2 years. It may be just because it was a weekday, or there really were not too many people out and about, or these adjacent malls were not where most people choose to be. It was relatively quiet.
We went inside stores, window-shopped, sat down on benches impatiently waiting for the 9:00 pm showing at 7:45 pm.
Eventually, we finally decided to not watch the movie altogether.
We were not too sure of the process to cancel the ticket. I was looking at my newly-alive Sureseats account for some rules, as we were too lazy to trek upstairs again from the garden seats in front of where Cafe Havana and Seattle’s Best used to be. With no information online, we begrudgingly went upstairs to the ticket counter.
Honestly, we were already at the point of foregoing the inquiry. The movie industry was badly hit by the pandemic. Even here in the Philippines, there were not to many moviegoers even when the severe restrictions were lifted. When we first entered the movie house around December 2021 to watch ‘Eternals‘, there was a two-seat gap between moviegoers. When we booked ‘The Batman‘, this gap was no longer in place, yet there were only about 4 people who booked except from us.
The refund was straightforward: we handed back the tickets, and we were given back our money. I still felt really guilty having to cancel it. I just could not bear having to sit down three (?!!?!!!) hours until past 12 midnight on a movie I was not too keen to watch. Sorry, Robert and Zoe.
The usual culprit for my insomnia: night coffee
But it is what it is. We needed coffee and we have three cats waiting for us.
I am honestly thinking if my birthday next month, I would be lucky not to have any lockdowns. Likely, yes. I don’t think there won’t be anymore lockdowns at least in the next two months. Let’s see how the elections will pan out in May.
