About a Boy

It was Melbert's birthday today, and I intended to post his picture as today's Project 365 entry. But it's funny how today ended up not quite being all about him. Instead, it became all about his youngest brother, nine-year-old Martin.

If Mel had his way, we would've eaten dinner in Dampa, the one in Ortigas. We would've had tempura and all sorts of freshly-cooked seafood. But as Mel's mom protested that Martin might not like the food there, we ended up eating in Savory Chicken in SM Hypermart-- incidentally Martin's favorite restaurant.

Then, after dinner, Martin wanted to play in the arcade with older brother Patrick, so Mel and I accompanied the two boys and shot some arcade hoops as well. Even when we got back to Mel's place, Martin still ruled-- we played cards, then he told jokes where explanations substituted for punchlines. He gave me a massage, which was pretty good, considering he has tiny hands. Then he made me watch a YouTube video, and it seemed like he was never gonna let me go home. I was telling Melbert that it's probably because, in a house with three older brothers, it was probably Martin's first time to have someone who laughed at all of his jokes and indulged him instead of picking on him. :p

It was 1:00AM by the time I made my way home, and even if Martin seemed to hijack Melbert's birthday, it was still a very fun night. It's been a long time since I hung out with someone more than three times younger than me (yes, I did the math and it depressed me a little), and it kinda made me miss hanging out with Trina, my ten-year-old niece who is just as precocious as Martin. Being with children reminds me not to take life too seriously, to just let my hair down a bit and laugh at the smallest things.

So Melbert may have turned one year older today, but thanks to Martin, we felt much younger, even for just a few hours. ☺

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An update on 101 Things in 1,001 Days: Since we ate in Savory Chicken in SM Hypermart and I'd never eaten there, I think that counts as my new restaurant for January! The chicken was really good-- actually, everything we had was really good! Mel says their only branch used to be all the way in Manila, so I'm glad that they're now more accessible in SM Hypermart.

And I dated this post January 2 just so that I'd have one entry per day. Hahaha! ☺