The Wilful Sunflower

I'm back and I don't know what to blog first. I guess I'll talk about birthday presents :)

Let's start with the parents. The rest will come in another post...

Now, I knew that when I went home, I'd be sending my car to the air-cond guy and the mechanic for servicing & maintenance. And I'd budgeted for this, but I was still a bit worried that I wouldn't have enough.

I was OK, though, till a stray stone from the road jumped up and bit my headlight, leaving a gaping hole. Arrgh!

Dad told me I'd "better get it done", and I told him frankly that I couldn't afford it. (Believe me, I didn't feel as casual about this admission as it sounds!)

First, he said, "Well, you'd better afford it!" Then, he said I could hutang (owe) the mechanic. But, at the mechanic's place, after kidding around with the guy about doing it for me on credit, Dad finally told him, "No lah, I'll pay you." Turning to me: "Consider that your birthday present - along with the cake and everything else!"

That's how I came to have a car headlamp for a birthday present.

As for Mom, when I came back I'd brought home some of my old, worn out shorts for her to repair on the sewing machine. Mom being Mom, she was of the opinion that I should go get new shorts. ("Disgraceful! You can't wear THOSE outside the house! What will people think?!")

Since Mom had been asking me what I wanted for my birthday, and I couldn't think of anything except a digital camera - to which she basically said, "You can save up and buy that for yourself!" - I opened my big mouth and said, half in jest, "Well, why not buy me shorts for my birthday?"

Very. Big. Mistake.

So there we are in the supermarket, and I'm trying on the shorts. I come out of the fitting room for her to cast her critical eye on the garment, and she FLIPS MY SHIRT UP - in public - to see the shorts from the waistband down!!!

Then she tugs the shorts here and there, makes me turn around, squat down, sit, bend over - I feel like a circus animal - while she ponders whether it's "too short" (I thought shorts were supposed to be short?), too deep, too wide, too... goodness-knows-what. She pokes my stomach (I'm SO not kidding here) and considers me from all angles...

I KNEW there was a reason that I haven't been clothes shopping with her ever since I was 15!!

I'd forgotten how Mom manages to make a production out of clothes shopping. She used to ask me, "Are you sure you like it? You're sure you'll wear it? What are you going to match it with??" This, plus incidents where she'd say loudly, "Right, now let's get your BRA," (thanks for announcing that to the whole supermarket, Mom) and others where she'd tell the sales assistants that I had big feet just coz I wear shoes one size larger than hers... I will never - ever, ever, ever! - go clothes shopping with Mom again. Never!

If I forget, can one of you just bonk me on the head? Thanks.

Nevertheless, I emerged intact from the harrowing experience and we did, in the end, manage to find two pairs of shorts which met her exact requirements. (Oh, I failed to mention that price was a factor. Mom was looking for cheap shorts.) *phew*

Janelle couldn't believe that I'd gotten shorts for my birthday. I, being used to my parents' quirks - one birthday, Mom said to me, "There's no need to give you a present because I give you things all the time and, when I die, everything will be yours anyway"; I think it was the same birthday that Dad came home with the cake, thrust the box at me, and said, "Here's your present!" - well, let's just say that, after those incidents, this did not faze me.

But, lo and behold! As I was packing my stuff in preparation to leave, Mom slipped me $100. She was worried that something might happen on the journey and I'd be stranded without money. And, just before I got into my trusty car, after Dad's "the headlamp is your birthday present" shot, she hugged me and whispered to me that I could consider the $100 my birthday present from her.

Mom's sweet... she drives me crazy sometimes, but she's very sweet :)