Valentine's Baby

None other than the spectacular Chris Freeman is a Valentine's Day baby. Ok, there probably are some other people that have the same birthday, but how many that you know? I tried to keep it low-key the other night since it was a work night, but we still wanted to do something out of the usual. Since it's Chris' birthday, I like to do the planning for this holiday, but he was sweet enough to pick up something I've grown to love- dried fruits.

First, we went to a piano recital that was held at one of the local library/concert halls. We left with what I thought was enough time to get there, but I didn't take into account the extra traffic for Kuwait's National Day month-long visitors. (In general, traffic during the entire month of February is awful, especially around dinnertime.) The concert started at 7pm, but we didn't arrive until 7:25pm, which is a major no-no for a musician. Chris didn't seem to be terribly affected by it though, so we had a really enjoyable hour listening to some amazing, young Kuwaiti performers who have been preparing for international competition. I found out about the free recital on a website that I follow called The Grapevine Kuwait, which gives notice for a lot of local social events.

After the recital, we drove over to a restaurant called Rangoli, which is at one of the seaside hotels. It usually serves Indian cuisine, but they had a variety of menus for Valentine's Day. We ate. A lot.

There was live music and funny little "love" decorations were worked into the appetizer display, making it a unique evening.

The restaurant is situated under a dry-docked boat, which actually houses another restaurant. Here's one of two Arabic bread ovens that are located near the entrance of the restaurants, serving both. The smell of "khubz" is near heavenly.

"underneath" the boat

We had a really great time on Tuesday evening, but it's nice that having a date isn't out of the ordinary for us. We try to have a "date night" every week, a habit we started early in our marriage at the encouragement of others. It has really allowed us a lot of face-to-face time over the years and respite in the middle of each busy week. We don't always do something formal; sometimes we just go for a walk along the seaside, but Chris has been really good at leading us to block out this time just for each other.

 Happy Birthday, Christopher,

my beloved, my friend.