This is all I hear when my husband talks to me these days. 

What diet.  What exercise.  What calories.  What BMI.  These are all alien buzz words which sound BZZZ BZZZ BZZZ to me.   

That man is so into controlling his weight problem that he is getting OBSESSED.  I know losing weight is good for his health, helps his back problem, makes him look better, blah blah blah.  But surely not to the extent of sacrificing our common interest in eating?  What used to be “you want supper?” has been replaced by “supper is bad for my weight.”  If this is not tragic, I don’t know what is.

I love to eat!  I love junk food!  I love chocolates!  I hate exercises!  I don’t know anything about calories!  I don’t care about BMI!  DIET to me means to DIE with a T!  WHAT, IS THE MEANING OF LIFE WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO ENJOY FOOD?

Anyway, I sense that his weighty obsession will create serious problems for us.  As it is, it has brought out the GOOD, the BAD and the UGLY.

The GOOD thing is I now have a valid excuse when I eat his share of the tidbits.  “Oooh, that’s bad for your weight.  I eat!”  “Wow, those calories will be difficult to burn. I eat!”  “No no, that’ll ruin all your exercises. I eat!”

So the BAD thing is I’ve really put on some weight and I now have more fat flaps around my tummy than before. 

As for the UGLY…erm…it’ll rear its head after my man reads this entry bitching about his BZZZ.

Gavin will have to go back to school next week and I’m kind of worried.  He has just recovered from his recent bout of flu and his immunity is probably still weak.  But I can’t possibly keep him at home all the time, can I?   

HAVING A CHILD = LIFELONG WORRYING

Everyday, we’ll exchange some notes about the boy.  About something funny he said.  Or something cheeky he did.  Or maybe some strange behaviour we noticed.  When he does something irritating, we’ll insist that he has inherited that negative trait from the OTHER parent.  Which would sound something like that:

Me: See what you son did?  YOUR son ah!

He: What?  He’s 100% like you!  Mini perfectionist!

Then we sort of came to a compromise just the other day.

He:  You know, his behaviour is actually a reflection of us.

Me: Uh huh…

He: Geez, doesn’t that mean we’re pretty SCARY ourselves?

Me: *rolls eyes*

Lately I’ve been playing aunt agony to my MOTHER-IN-LAW.  Those who have read my old entries would probably be surprised as you’ll know I don’t exactly have a relationship with my MIL.  But being *ahem* the Good Samaritan I am, I decided to lend her my pair of listening ears.

I have said before my MIL isn’t exactly an easy person to get along with.  She’s neither nasty or rude.  In fact, she is usually quite nice.  The biggest problem for her is that she doesn’t have respect for personal space and that has been threatening her relationship with her children.  She laments that her children do not communicate well with her but she doesn’t realise that it’s also because she hasn’t made an attempt to understand them.  She continues to irritate them when they’ve already made it clear to her what annoys them.

Anyway, she’s been on some sort of tranquillizers and she looks like she’s on the verge of going berserk.  She tells me that she’s very depressed and she has no mood to do anything.   She has consulted the doctor who tells her that it isn’t depression.  More like she’s over worrying.  My FIL, while supportive, is at his wit’s end about how to help her.  Her children, the source of her worry, is not doing much to lift up her spirits.   So since she shared her problem with me, I tried my best to listen to her and give her appropriate advice. 

I kind of pity her.  While she does have some weird idiosyncracies, I think her major trouble is A LACK OF SELF IDENTITY.  She has centred her whole life around her family and hasn’t had the opportunity to develop her own interests outside that life.  Now that her children are all grown up and have their own lives, she doesn’t quite know what to do with hers.  The best way for her, according to her, is to meddle with their lives but she doesn’t understand that it irritates them to the core.

This is one of the reasons why I constantly tell myself and my friends that we should all develop our own identities outside our family.  We cannot go on thinking that our children will remain children and be always at our side.  They will soon grow up to have their own minds and lead their own lives.  We have to accept this and move on with ours. That is, if we have our own lives to speak of then. 

My husband who is avoiding my MIL like plague, thinks I’m courting trouble by being friendly to her.  He is right to an extent and I am very wary that one of these days, she’ll cross the line with me again and create another collision.  Even though I draw the line clearly and points out to her, she’ll still cross it as she has done many other times. But then, I just can’t turn my back against her when she comes knocking at my door can I?

Well, I’ll just have to play by ear and keep my fingers crossed for the time being.  Hopefully, her depression will blow over quickly.

Like partners in crime, we sneaked out and went gallivanting around town yesterday without the boy. After shopping a bit in Novena Square and Suntec, we came back to our usual tea place at Tanjong Pagar for some snacks.

This place serves many types of Chinese tea and we used to come here frequently to brew and drink tea when we had more time. This is because the whole works of appreciating Chinese tea from boiling water, rinsing the tea pot, rinsing the tea leaves, to drinking the tea take a bit of time. However, the entire process is very interesting and relaxing.

These days, we come here mostly for their refreshing bubble tea and snacks. They serve quite a variety of dishes and their quality is well worth the money spent. So even though there is a nosey-parker who is almost like a furniture in the shop, we don’t mind this place.

Except for a low EQ, this nosey-parker is actually quite harmless. She likes to go around chatting with the customers and with us, she will always ask very personal questions and volunteer all sorts of advices towards our lifestyle. Yesterday, she left us more or less alone because there was another couple whom she kept herself busy with. *WHEW*

After our tea, we walked along this stretch, a place we used to hang out quite a bit before Gavin was born. Apart from the numerous eateries, restaurants and pubs, there are also quite a handful of bridal shops and massage palours here.

And this is the farcade of The Fifties, a karaoke lounge which brought back a lot of fond memories for us.

Hmmmm…we seem to be revisiting some of our old favourite haunts together these days. Maybe to rekindle some lost romance? WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….

We’ve been homebound these past weekends because Gavin has not been well.   Even though he appears to be better now, we thought it safer to stay indoors due to the cranky weather.  Besides playing with his toys, watching tele and reading, we’ve also started a new activity.  DANCING to Chinese hip hop and R&B numbers!

Gavin was so thrilled!  We basically just let our bodies sway to the beat.  He was happy to wiggle along and he seems to have a decent sense of rhythm.  I whirled my hands and he followed.  His dad wriggled his legs and he followed.  I twirled him around in rock and roll style and he loved it!  When he got tired and sat down, he insisted we continue dancing while he tried to jiggle his hands to the music.  Ha!  It was so fun and we ended up giggling and laughing so much!   Actually more than during our regular outings.

I guess we don’t always have to go out every weekend.  We can still stay at home, find something interesting to do together and have our family time.  Heh! We’ll definitely be dancing together a lot more from now.