Browsing Tag

mcdonalds

motherhood

Man dates, chick dates and mom dates

chick dates

chick dates

I finally managed to catch a thoroughly enjoyable show after a series of flops. At first, I didn’t have much expectation for “I Love You, Man”, the not-so-romantic comedy by Paul Rudd and Jason Segel (better known as Marshall Eriksen on HIMYM). Ok, I actually thought it was a gay show, but since IMDB rated it 7.8, we decided to give it a shot. Which turned out to be pretty awesome. I haven’t laughed out loud like that at a movie in a long time. IMDB rocks.

So I’ve gotta talk about the concept of a man date. It sounds so wrong on so many levels unless you’re into that kinda thing, then it’s probably great. My take is this. Men don’t have BFFs and they don’t go on alone dates, not for drinks or movies or hunting. It’s too awkward. Anything more than 2 is fine, and it becomes a man group-date. They can do their masculine thing and play poker and grunt at each other.

But 2 dudes hanging out all the time, man, that’s just so gay. What do they do? Like braid each other’s (armpit) hair?

Which is why I’m thankful the husband doesn’t do man dates. From time to time he needs his guy time and goes out to hang with the guys (notice the plural form) to play soccer or computer games. I’m cool with that. But I’d be seriously uncomfortable if he was out with like his BFF all the time doing god-knows-what till all hours of the night.

Now chick dates are different though. Girls can hang out 1-on-1 or in a group and its perfectly fine. We get to go shopping, massages, manicures or just sit down and talk about all the above stuff. Well actually, we talk about guys and contraceptives and sexploits, but that’s what BFFs do. And I love my chick dates cos it’s nice to do girly stuff and giggle from time to time.

Although all that has been out the window since I became a stay-home mom. Nobody wants to go on a chick date with a pregnant woman lugging around a stroller and a restless toddler. It’s an ordeal getting a space at a nice cafe and 5 minutes into the conversation, the kid is screaming and I’m picking food out from my friend’s hair. Don’t ask.

So now it’s all down to mom dates. Only other moms with equally crazy kids can put up with the madness and mayhem. I’ve long since kissed my lattés goodbye and the only places available are McDonalds or each other’s homes so the kids can cause all the destruction they want without the disapproving stares and tsk-tsks from single chicks.

love bites

A beautiful disaster

worst day of my life

It’s the dichotomies in life that make it exciting. I suppose life would be awfully boring if everything went smoothly all the time and it’s the stench of poop that makes roses smell sweeter. So here’s the story of how we got a nice, giant whiff of crap yesterday.

It was meant to be a delayed birthday celebration and we had made plans to take a day off without the kid. To recapture the old days, as it were. The plan was to leave Tru at my mom’s place (grandmas are lifesavers) and head out for a show, a nice dinner and maybe a relaxing walk.

The day started pretty good. For lack of a better option, we ended up watching Star Trek, a total geeky, fanboy kinda show. 10 minutes in, I was totally lost as they went on and on about the transponders and other whatnot gizmos, so I spent the next 2 hours ogling at Chris Pine.

It looked set to be another usual, humdrum outing as we headed back to the car. That’s when the fun started. To our horror, we realized that we had lost the car key, and it was the last set we had. It’s one of those moments where time slows to a halt and a string of expletives made its way to the top of my mind as the gravity of the situation sank in. It could have been lost anywhere along Orchard Road and it’s practically worse than looking for a needle in a haystack.

I decided to sit my pregnant ass down like a vagrant by the side of the road while the husband sprinted down Orchard Road looking for the lost key. I was so depressed that I thought of whipping out my trusty little tin can to make some spare cash while waiting, but even the can was in the car and all I had was my mobile phone. Bummer.

After spending 20 mins checking all the possible places, the key was still nowhere to be found, and our last hope was the cinema, which was screening another show till 11.05 pm. With 90 mins to burn and all the shops closed, we were all dejected as we trudged down to Mackers for a mango smoothie. You know how they say music is food for the soul? Of all the songs in the world, they had to play Ironic by Alanis Morisette to capture the plight that we were in. So there we were, feeling sorry for ourselves and wandering aimlessly like a bunch of delinquents.

Long story short, the cinema managed to retrieve the key and we almost hugged the nice lady at the ticket booth (whose name was Jelly, I’m serious). I’ve never been this happy to see a car key. Mraz has a classic line that says “it takes a loss before you found it”.

The relief at finding something you almost gave up all hope on is a huge rush. It was 11.15 and we had missed our dinner but hey, we did get our walk, (just like the old days) multiple times up and down Orchard Road peering at people’s feet.

And that kinda makes today seem extra nice and beautiful.

kids inc

Labor Day

Was out with a couple of couply-parent friends over the long easter weekend and it has made me realize how life has changed with kids in the picture. I was hoping to challenge the cliche that life as we know it is over when kids arrive, and once in a while, it seems like there’s a glimmer of hope, but then it vanishes faster than a mirage in the Nevada desert.

It was the first time we’ve had an outing in months, and the original plan was to chill out at a decent cafe for a shot of coffee and some tiramisu like we used to back in the day. But now, instead of six young, hot singles, we were a party of six not-so-young, somewhat-frazzled parents with four (and a half) kids, three strollers, 2 diaper bags and a baby seat.

After standing in queue for 15 minutes, we thought we could squeeze into a 6-seater table tucked away at the back, but upon closer inspection, we decided there was no way we could have lasted five minutes in that cramped little space without being thrown out on our asses. So we decided to relocate (I’m sure I heard a sigh of relief from the nice lady at the cafe) to surprise, surprise, the Golden Arches.

Mackers was right down our alley, and we settled down comfortably, this time at a table actually meant for 10. The kids were certainly thrilled at the prospect of having french fries and chicken nuggets instead, and the distant call of Tiramisu was swiftly drowned out by the sound of screaming kids.
Straw-eating competition

Life is certainly different these days. But it’s not all bad. We used to pay $50 for an outing at a cafe, but at McDonalds, we even got paid for eating our fries and nuggets.

The kids got right to work cleaning the walls while we ate. I mean, they’ve got to learn to work for their supper in dire times like these. Besides, Chinese children are known for child labor. It’s our heritage, you see. We’ll send them to Nike by the time they turn 3.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98B-T955iE8

Ok, pardon the appalling quality of the vid, but to make up for it a little, there’s a running commentary from Superdad.