Happy Mother's Day

Hello,

Happy Mother's Day! Is it Mother's Day where you live? If it isn't, you'll live. If you'd like to know when Mother's Day is celebrated around the world, here's a link.

Just so you know, Mother's Day is celebrated on May 13 this year in 78 countries including Singapore. I expect most restaurants are crowded today. Good thing we took care of our Mother's Day obligations earlier.

On Tuesday I took me mom for a lunch. I haven't seen her since Chinese New Year. We keep in touch through the phone. She's not on facebook or twitter. She doesn't even own a handphone. And yes, she still keeps her money clutched in a hanky. One good thing about my relationship with my mother is she'll telephone me if she thinks it has been too long since we last spoke. I mean, she doesn't sulk or brood. She just picks up the phone and starts the conversation with "long time no call" in English. She is kinda cute.

I don't remember the last time I took her out to eat. It's usually a family thing and my youngest brother takes care of the food. So it's no surprise that the first dish I had ordered almost killed her. She went into a coughing fit due to the chilli. I forgot she doesn't take chilli. Despite that, she did not blame me. Instead she blamed the cook. I mean, what kind of cook puts such spicy chilli in vegetables? Other than the coughing incident, we had a nice time. Even though she's quite a soft spoken woman, she talked my ear off.

Hubs on the other hand has a volatile relationship with his mom over the phone. Face to face, they're okay but every phone conversation between the two is like a potential world war 3. They scream and shout at each other at the top of their voices. Very frightening to witness. My girl has advised him to text his mother instead of speaking to her. Unfortunately, hubs doesn't text in Chinese. Maybe they should invest in owls. Yes, I've been reading Harry Potter. Do you think owls sending messages is pretty much today's facebook/twitter?

I took a few pics of the Chinese banquet dinner we had on Friday with my MIL.

If you've dined at Chinese restaurants before, you'll notice the wet towel and peanuts they serve. When I was with my mother, she said to send them back! So I did and we didn't have to pay for them. They're not cheap! But for my MIL's dinner, I did not want to embarrass her so I did not send them back.

When it's hubs doing the ordering of food at Chinese restaurants, he always goes for the set menus because he sucks at ordering food. So do I.

This is the first dish - sharks fin soup. Yep, this restaurant still serves sharks fin. But don't worry. I doubt it's real sharks fin. I think it's just crab meat and some jello.

Hubs got sucked into ordering this very expensive $18 seafood fried rice. Yes, it was a young Chinese waitress who talked him into it. The trouble with hubs is anytime he's in a Chinese restaurant, he starts to flirt with the waitresses. He denies it of course. I don't want you to get the impression hubs is a flirty kind of person because he isn't. There's just something about Chinese waitresses in a Chinese restaurant and middle-aged aunties who bring out the flirty side of him.

Guess what this is. Battered prawns. The prawns tasted like they came from the freezer. Rubbery.

These are dim sum. Guess what's inside? Prawns. These prawns also tasted like they came from the freezer. And you would think the restaurant cooks knew better than to give us so much prawns. Maybe the frozen prawns had reached the expiry date.

This is the obligatory vegetables which surprise, surprise has some kind of abalone or mushrooms. Who can tell the difference?

This is roast chicken and I liked this best. It was a little too salty and had tons of MSG.

I forgot to take a pic of the dessert so you have to visualize it. It was a bowl of white milky liquid with small cut fruits and sago. Even though it was milk, I ate it because I knew with all that MSG in me, I was getting a big fat headache. The headache turned out bigger than expected and dragged the whole day so I was a little regretful.

Last night I asked my kids if they were planning any Mother's Day surprise for me. (I knew they weren't). My girl grunted. (She was watching Castle) My son gallantly offered me a Mother's Day hug. This morning my girl surprised me by volunteering to make me breakfast. It's a good thing my breakfast is easy - buttered toast and sweet lipton tea.

Breakfast came with a note and 1 round chocolate. You understand I had no choice but to eat the chocolate.

Son had Chinese tuition and so was in absolutely no mood for any Mother's Day gestures. I boasted to him his sis was making me breakfast and what was he giving me? He grunted. Then I reminded him of the hug he had gallantly offered me the night before. And so he did hug me. It lasted 1 second.

I had a wonderful few hours alone at home as hubs took the kids to see a movie. And how was your Mother's Day?