Phase 2... coming up

When my parents got married in 1969, my mother continued to work until my younger brother (LB) was born. I was 4 years old at that time. In the old days, one did not hire foreign maids. One hired local servants. The servant whom my parents hired did not want to take care of an additional child (when LB was born) and as such, my mother left the workforce in 1976 and became a full-time homemaker.

I have fond memories of coming home from school to a hot lunch. In the afternoons, my mother would take my younger brothers (LB and LG) and me to Jodhi Bookstore at Marine Terrace where she would borrow romance novels and the rest of us would browse the shelves for books to borrow. In the evenings, after a lazy afternoon of watching television with my brothers and me or listening to oldies on the radio, my mother would jump up from the sofa when she realised that my daddy was on his way home and she would rush to the kitchen and start looking busy, preparing for dinner. Naturally, when it came to fridays, she went on strike because she had been slaving at the stove top the entire week, so it was only right that we ate out during the weekends. *grin*

My brothers and I did not have any hired tutor to tutor us as we were growing up (other than tutoring in Mandarin). Our mother was our tutor and what a wonderful tutor she was. She made the subjects come alive. I remember pestering her for the meaning of words that I did not understand and her standard reply was, "What's the dictionary for?".

When my daddy passed away unexpectedly at the age of 47 in 1992, my mother went back to the workforce. There were 3 mouths to feed, not including her own. After 17 years in the workforce, my mother reached retirement age this year. After setting off her unused annual leave, today was her last day at work.

Da and I had our breakfast at the Haig Road hawker centre this morning. I had originally wanted to eat at Qi Ji at Raffles Link but we were running a little late, so we made a quick detour to Haig Road hawker centre instead for breakfast. We ordered a plate of thosai and a plate of roti prata and we shared the two items.

The curry gravy for the roti prata was not spicy and I enjoyed eating the prata with the curry poured liberally over the roti prata.

After a busy day at work, I proceeded to my mother's home first. Da would pop by later. However, when I arrived, the house was all quiet. The only sound that could be heard was the Academy Award winning performance by Boy-Boy who milked it for all he could with his "how could you leave me alone in the house for so many hours" routine.

I guessed that my mother may have been held back at work, saying her farewells to her colleagues.

As I was hungry, I used the sandwich maker and made a luncheon meat sandwich. If you do not own a sandwich maker, I would encourage you to buy one. It is very useful!

Boy-Boy placed his paw on my lap and asked to share my dinner. However, as I had added chopped garlic to the sandwich, I decided not to let him have part of my dinner as I was not sure whether he could eat garlic. Besides, he has a habit of breathing into our faces when we are close to him and I did not fancy smelling his garlic breath. Miffed, he turned his head away in protest when I tried to take his photograph.

My mother came home with my brother (LG). He had picked her up from work and the two of them had gone to the food court at the basement of Katong Shopping Centre for dinner. Goodness me! She came back with so many goodies. It seems that her customers had found out that it was her last day at work and they had showered her with boxes of chocolates, fruits, etc.

When Da arrived, I made him some luncheon meat sandwiches as well but without the inclusion of the chopped garlic as he does not like the taste of garlic (except when it is garlic bread).

Thank you, Ma, for being you. We love you a lot and we are very grateful to you for your years of unconditional love, care and guidance. We know that you are raring to get back into the workforce, perhaps on a part-time basis. Enjoy this little break of yours before you start sending out your job applications!