I just had to get out of the house yesterday. You know how some people are lucky to clock out at 5 pm and forget about the office. My job, on one hand, requires me to be online almost the whole time of my waking hours, and a major part of my sleeptime. On the other, I have a house to maintain in considerable, livable order while it is being continually messed up while I am actually cleaning up. In other words, my job does not leave me nor can I leave it. All that just so that I have a little dough to put aside for rainy days and shopping days. Ok, ok, it's more for shopping than the rain okay?
So I badly needed a break after a few back to back, back-breaking assignments, while trying to keep my faculties in check what with Aishah interchangably slipping into some kind of toddler nightmarish frenzy one moment and an absolute angel the next.
I decided against a soupy noodle dish called Mee Thye Mak which I thought might soothe my mental fatigue for Iftar and opted for Swensen's to lick the Yummy Raisin (with fake rum) off its cup clean.
Twas still early so the restaurant was not jam-packed yet. It's funny how a lot of mid-scale restaurants for our blue-collared budget here arrange their tables so close to each other that a mere pop of a tiny fart can be audible two tables away from you.
I chose a corner with a high partition that cordones off most part of the restaurant, you know, for little privacy. Apart from a lil din in the atmosphere it was rather cosy until a party of mother and daughter found the table immediately next to us.
I was intent on having a relaxing dinner but my plan fell flat on the floor as Aishah decided to play, let's-toss-the-salad-in-the-air game and whining obnoxiously, endlessly. She gets like that when she is self-conscious. That lady sitting next to our table kept staring at me and Aishah back and forth exchanging comments with her daughter. CA and I were already feeling hot in the head, supressing the urge to snap and throw a sarcastic remark. I even role-played in my head how I was going to poke that lady's nose with my own and then throw her against the glass wall- a scene from a retro Jackie Chan movie. I got so edgy, that the monster in me prompted me to straighten my back, drop my cutlery and stared back at the lady. I think it worked as she lifted the menu book and hid behind it. The whole time after that she cowered down behind the menu while the daughter spied on us on her behalf. Eh, tak reti-reti lagi tu...I stared back at the daughter and later she too hid behind the menu book. In the end, I managed to finish my Salmon Teriyaki without any more drama.
Sheesh, nasib baik I tak tukar jadi Incredible Hulk or Suria Perkasa Hitam. Eh, jadi Space Cop Gaban pun cool eh? Just don't mess with this frazzled, hungry, dog-tired, chocolate-deprived Mom of a toddler. Thank you very much.
