forty six (1)

today, i officially am twice the age of many of the bloggers out there who are 23! haha... well, it was an uneventful day. as usual. but the things that happened were no less meaningful. for a start, my mum bought me dinner last evening. not any special dinner. she had insisted on paying for so many things over the last 2 months that i finally told her, ok, you can buy me dinner to celebrate my birthday... and she happily agreed. and as usual dinner with mothers are always that informal and always that uneventful. what happened was, 

mother:  what do you want to eat? you just drive there and we eat lor

me: i am easy on food, what do you want to eat?

mother: why you ask me instead? today is your birthday and you should eat what you want to eat.

me: ok ok... let's go for some simple zichar dinner ok?

mother: do you want to eat satay? 

me (knowing mum likes to eat satay): ok! sounds good.

mother: ok, you buy mutton for yourself, and i eat chicken.

me: no need la, we mother and son should eat the same. i buy chicken and we share.

mother: ok, do you want to eat hokkien mee?

me (knowing mum also likes hokkien mee): ok, sounds good.

mother: ok, you go buy 2 plates. one for you and one for me.

....

yup, that was so simple. we got to eat what she wanted to eat. and she was happy to know that i ate what she thought i wanted to eat (for that matter, i was really easy on food). and it was a simple dinner at the hawker center. but i can tell you this, to a 80 year old person who is not working and dependent on another in almost everything, it must have felt very good and very empowering to be able to buy a treat for another person... and when that person is your son, it also becomes very meaningful.

happy birthday to myself!