Rachelle’s 31st
My wife Rachelle turned 31 last Tuesday, December 6. To celebrate her birthday, I took her out for a dinner.
We agreed to meet at Bugis Junction. As always, I never told her the details of my plan. I just told her where she has to go and from there my surprises will one by one be revealed. I decided for us to have dinner at NYDC (New York Dessert Cafe), a favorite chill out place here where friends and family share a meal, celebrate over a slice of cake or just simply catch up over a cup of coffee. They are well known for their cakes and pastries, but they also serve a variety of mouth-watering dishes (as we always see on their menu whenever Rachelle and I passes by). I made sure I arrived at the restaurant before her so I could set-up. With the help of the restaurant staff I was able to prepare my surprise.
My Wedding SDE Video
Dennis and Rachelle from Bob Nicolas on Vimeo.
It’s been what, almost 6 months? But I still can’t get enough of this… Just wanna share!
Our First Month
Our first month together went by like a breeze! Maybe it’s really like that when you’re happy, you don’t even notice how time flies. It was just like yesterday when Rachelle and I got together “officially” that I still remember everything so clearly in my mind. This first month is so special for us that I planned to do something different.
I thought of us eating in a posh restaurant (so common), go out of the country (so far) and take a hot air balloon ride (so expensive). But none of those I thought of were viable in the time frame I have. I was already alarmed and in deep thought when I remembered one of those talks that we had about some of the things that we still haven’t done here in Dubai. She at one time mentioned about she and her friends’ plan to go on a Dhow Cruise but they were not able to do so. That gave me the idea to take her to a Dhow Cruise by surprise.

A week before our “first monthsary“, I devised a plan on how to go about my little surprise. The “hopeless romantic” in me kicked in and with that, this plan materialized: I gave her three roses, but not all at the same time. I gave her the first rose in the eve of our “monthsary”. When the clock ticked at 12 am, together with a card, I gave her a long stemmed red rose and we greeted each other a happy 1st monthsary. I told her that we’ll just go out tomorrow and eat out to further celebrate our first month together. What she didn’t know was I already talked to a friend of hers, Freia, and asked her to give Rachelle the second rose in the morning with a card. Inside the card, there are instructions on where we would meet in the evening and what clothes we should wear (I still didn’t mention anything about the Dhow Cruise). I asked her to wear the clothes that we wore when we had out first date. That moment was so memorable for us that I want it to be a part of our celebration. I also asked her to meet me at Al Ghurair Mall in Deira. It was already close by the Dhow Cruise area and I want her to think that we would just eat our dinner in one of the restaurants at Al Ghurair.
When we met in the evening, she played her part well and she wore the clothes that I asked her to wear. At this moment, I gave her the third rose and another card. But unlike the other two fresh roses that I gave her, this one is an artificial rose. Of course, she asked me why. So, I told her that those roses will represent the love I have for her, that as long as one of those roses is alive, my love for her will always remain (I would no longer go into detail on the dramatics that followed that moment, I’ll just let you all play with your imagination…).

After that, we took a taxi ride towards the Dubai Creek where the Dhow Cruise I earlier booked was at bay. She was still clueless as to where we are going. She keeps on guessing on what restaurant in Deira we are going to eat. Not until we reached Dubai Creek that she realized what we were doing there. I saw the glimmer of happiness in her eyes when she learned of my plan and that was more than enough for me, my efforts paid off, I’m sure I made her happy.
We dined at the Falcon Oasis Floating Restaurant which serves a mix of Arabic and Oriental food. While we were eating the boat is cruising the length of the Dubai Creek, which gave us a good view of the creek and Dubai at night.
It was truly another night to remember for the both of us and we are looking forward for many more to come…
Feels Like Home
I can never thank Chantal Kreviazuk enough for singing this song…
I will never see the 15th day of March as ordinarily as before. Today marks the beginning of my new life with my girlfriend (and future wife!) Rachelle. Finally, after a month of courting her, she decided to give me her sweeetest “YES” that made us officially “together”. But it’s not as usual as it sounds, she didn’t give me her answer the traditional way (as in I asked her and she said “Yes”).
When I visited her at her place earlier, she had me listen to a song on her phone, telling me that she heard a song and wants to share it with me. She also said that surely I will like it. As it turned out, the song was “Feels Like Home” sang by Chantal Kreviazuk. True to her word, I did like the song, with its soft melody plus the enchanting voice of Chantal made the song very appealing to my ears. As I listened to the song, I was surprised to find that I can relate to its lyrics. It just purely conveys my feelings for Rachelle: how I feel when I’m with her, how my heart beats when I see her again, how lonely my life was before I met her and how it became happy again when she came. As I was in reverie over the song, I suddenly realized that it was her that wanted me to hear the song, not the other way around. So I quickly gave her a quizzical look! And I found her staring back at me with anticipation. Not hearing the song, she asked me what part of the song was already playing. Before I could utter an answer, the last part of the second stanza was already playing with these lyrics:
If you knew how much this moment means to me, and how long I’ve waited for your touch. If you knew how happy you are making me, I never thought that I’D LOVE ANYONE SO MUCH…
Honestly, I was caught off handed. She must have seen my reaction over the song that I saw her smiling back at me when I looked at her again after the song. I asked her if that was the answer I was waiting for and she nodded…
At that exact moment I was engulfed by unexplained bliss that I just hugged her instinctively. Oblivious to the rest of the world, I took her hand and gave it a light kiss. I thanked her for trusting and believing me and for loving me back. Today instantly became one of the happiest days of my life!
I have to give it to her, she has style. I never would have suspected that she’d do it like this. And I am very thankful it happened this way, for if not, it would not have been this special…
With Rachelle in my life, I truly feels like home…
Feels Like Home- Chantal Kreviazuk
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