Raine and I were off to the gym first thing. Us slackers haven’t been anywhere near that gym for a whole week now, citing various excuses not to get up early after our mostly late, late nights.

On the way home, Raine and I were complaining about how hungry we were. So as soon as I got home, I went straight into the kitchen and started cooking this.

This, my infamous salmon and shrimp linguine which will pile back 2000 calories over the 500 we just lost at the gym.

Just as we were finishing up ‘lunch’, I happened to glance up at the clock and noticed that the time was 10:30am. Without a second thought, I told Steev to change the batteries on the clock later.

But it is 10:30, Mom!

… and we’ve just finished lunch?!! Merry Christmas!

See what a blur mommy I am! What a laugh. On that note, I was presented with this very flattering Smile Award by Lisa of Mommying on the Fly. Thanks, Lisa, I know I’m late as usual .

The qualifications are:

1. Display a cheerful attitude.
2. Love one another.
3. Make mistakes.
4. Learn from others.
5. Be a positive contributor to the blog world.
6. Love life.
7. Love kids.

I’m supposed to pass this award to 5 other bloggers but there are just so many blogs that I love reading that I’ll crack my head if I had to pick just five. So instead, I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Prosperous and Happy New Year and Happy Holidays from my family to yours! Have fun. Eat, drink and don’t think. That diet can wait .

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The night of the wedding dinner of the year was a flurry of last-minute panic in our household (if you missed part 1 of the in-law overdose, you can read it here). If anyone didn’t know better, they would’ve thought me and the girls were getting married as we rushed around squeezing into little black dresses, swapping bras and accessories, and slipping on Cinderella’s shoes for size!

Steev and DH were speechless and resigned themselves to watching TV while they waited… and waited. It’s a major achievement that we even managed to get out of the house an hour early. We’re not into the local practice of showing up 1.5 hours late. We’re always early so!

At the fancy hotel ballroom, there were more long-lost relatives to meet, some of whom we’d not met at the two earlier events. One of them was my kids’ uncle who is a celebrity. Obviously with his superstar schedule, it’s rare that any of us gets to see him at all, let alone touch his toned bicep (which I did but I already washed my hand ) .

At school, my kids are used to their classmates drooling and fainting whenever our Family Celeb appears on TV. Yes, he’s quite the hunk and it’s quite incredible that Steev actually looks like him - ahem! I can handle it, my son looks like his uncle who is a hunky celeb. Wowowiwa!

Dinner was otherwise the usual circus of food and drinks, attended by people with titles to their names and diamonds in their teeth. Not to mention what a joy it is sharing a table with people who wash their chopsticks in the food, being very generous about giving others a taste of their saliva *gag*.

The highlight of the evening was when someone spilled my glass of red wine and didn’t even have the courtesy to say sorry or order me a new glass. I guess we’re just lucky the red wine didn’t splash onto my dress or Skye’s!

Let’s just say we’re people from different planets in that room that night. In-laws and outlaws aside, I wouldn’t say we didn’t have a good time though it’s always a relief to say thank you for a great evening and goodbye.

While Steev went with his Dad to the office for his first taste of working life, the girls and I stayed home. Later we went to pick up Steev from the office and decided to have dinner out. Since it was raining, DH suggested we ate at the same Korean restaurant where his colleague was buying dinner. I tell you, it was deja vue.

Years ago, when the kids were about 5 or 6, we ate there once and swore never to go back. I remember being very uncomfortable with the barbecue pit and the waiters constantly moving around us with hot plates, scissors and boiling soups. I mean, who knows, anyone could end up scalded or stabbed ! So I made the poor kids sit like statues.

Well, the food hasn’t changed from what we remember. It still sucks big time!! Little plates of ikan bilis (anchovies), Chinese cabbage, radishes, onions and cucumbers, chewy, indigestible beef and lamb, and rice cakes (didn’t look like rice cakes to me) in a blood red sauce.

See, this is when we first started:

Everything tasted rubbery and flat. The green tea was so diluted it looked and tasted like liquid moss. Half the time, we didn’t know what we were eating. See, this is when we were done. We hardly ate and the dinner cost a bomb!

With each mouthful, the kids were going like “Mom, I’m going to wreck my dentures if I keep chewing this ” or “mmm, this tastes better than my eraser”. We giggled and laughed so much people probably thought we were nuts!

The strangest part was diners were streaming in continuously, and my kids were shaking their heads and going, “you guys don’t know what you’re in for!!” Thing is some of the most-raved-about restaurants are consistently the ones that serve some of the worst food (in our books, of course).

On the way home, the kids went “Can you go to McD for dinner now please?” So that’s where we ended up. No more blowing big bucks on Korean food till we learn to appreciate it.

Me and the kids were hangin’ out at Carl’s Jr this morning, mindin’ our own business when two people walked in. We looked at them and almost simultaneously went, “is that her husband or her son?”

Thing is I couldn’t tell. Neither could my kids. Strange how, for those first few moments when they walked in, all of us had that same question running through our minds.

Steev insists it’s her husband. Raine says it’s her son. Skye says it’s her son. And I say it’s her son. There was no way her husband could look so much like a kid. On the other hand, he could well have been someone blessed with boyish looks.

We argued back and forth as they walked back and forth refilling their drinks.

Husband, son, son, son. Husband, son, son, son!

Why don’t we go ask them, Skye suggested. Kids! But there was really no way to tell. We tried not to stare. We didn’t want to be rude.

They’re about the same height. He was wearing a t-shirt and khaki shorts, and sneakers with no socks. Standard casual garb for a teenager. Yet, grown men often dress like this too.

She was wearing a t-shirt and jeans with low heels, black-rimmed glasses and barely any makeup. She did the ordering and paying. They didn’t talk much. He just followed her around quietly like a puppy dog.

We still don’t know. It was none of our business but it kept us entertained all through lunch.

McDonald’s has two new flavors of McFlurry, Mudpie and Berries. Steev was standing in line to order.

The situation was quite chaotic at the takeout counter because the two servers were temps who didn’t have a clue how to handle lines.

Finally it was our turn.

Server (signaling to Steev): Yes?

Steev (pointing to signboard): McFlurry, one of each.

Server (leaning across counter): Yes?

Steev (pointing to signboard): McFlurry, one of each.

Server: What flavor?

Steev: One of each.

By now, it’s quite obvious this very simple expression is lost on our two teenaged servers (one of the girls goes to Raine’s school)!!

Me: One Mudpie, one Berries.

That’s what they needed to hear! The exact words. No phrases, expressions or indirect references please!

And people are still fighting for less English to be used in the school curriculum!

I ran into a whole bunch of my tai-tai (aka ladies of leisure) friends while out at breakfast with my girl friend (who is not a tai-tai).

I love my tai-tai friends. They’re the ones who can tell me where to get the freshest veggies, how to brew herbal soups,  how to spy on my hubby (think I’ll wait for the book) and they can make the darnest traditional Chinese stuff like bachang (glutinous rice dumplings) and mooncakes, all from scratch.

The thing that really scares me though are their organized home invasions visits when they go through my home inch by inch, flipping every drawer and cupboard, inspecting everything that’s inside, from my crockpot to my underwear, all without a search warrant.

Back to me bumping into them at breakfast. A few of them instantly pounced on me and started interrogating me as to how I’ve managed to stay so slim even after I quit dancing (I used to be in the same dance class). As if I was ever fat before ?

But never mind that, the machine gun fire of questions has started and they’ll never let me off without answers. So I’d better start coughing some up, pronto.

So how come you’re still so slim? Um, exercise. What kind of exercise? Um, I walk. Where? Morning or evening? How many kilometers? With your kids or alone? Bang, bang, bang *shielding my head*

Gimme a break, is this the Spanish Inquisition? So many questions, so much rhetoric! *squirm* Think I should take up jogging or kungfu instead.

When I was living overseas, my nose was on its best behavior. Not a beep sneeze from me. I was strangely quiet.

Unlike when I was working here. Every morning when I walked into the office, everyone knew I’d ‘arrived’. My unstoppable series of sneezes were most effective in announcing what time I got to the office.

The temperature change from getting out of my air-conditioned car into the stifling heat of the basement parking lot and then again into the whirring air-condition of the office was enough to send my poor nose into a frenzy.

What was puzzling was that I never had such problems in all my years living overseas. My friends suggested I saw a specialist to find out if mine was a case of Acute Sinusitis.

Haha, very funny, the doc said the air quality here is bad for me, too much dust and fine particles in the air, and that I should get out of town the country. Hee ha! Thanks a lot, doc!

This announcement was paid for by Epocrates.

Steev: Mom, guess what? I’m as tall as Bill Gates.

Me: Nice, let me know when you have as many dollar bills in your bank account as Bill Gates.