We had family dinner at club the other night. Club is the place that we used to hang out when we were small. Lots of memories there ~^^~ My parents were a bit sentimental that night and they mentioned about our childhood incidents and how they were finally able to afford the club membership so we could go for a swim, borrow books, join fun activities, order food & drinks to eat, play TV games....
It brought back many memories...Some I didn't know until today..... My parents had indeed done a lot for us... My parents said they were not making much at that time.... At first, we kids were just 'shadow members' at club. We weren't registered members but were able to tag along to go for a swim there without having to pay anything because my cousins were very well-treated there as their dad was a committee member at that time and was respected by many. i remember watching my cousins signing their names & membership number on an invoice in exchange for ice-cream, hot dogs, cold drinks, fried noodles, french fries etc..... Sometimes when we were in good terms, my cousins would share their goodies with us.. sometimes we only got to watch them enjoying their food & drinks because we just had a fight.. haha, kids.. We loved, hated and forgot very fast, just like the ever-changing weather :P
Thinking about all these, I had tears in my eyes. My parents worked so hard so they could provide all these for us! So we didn't have to 'beg' others to share with us. I remember friends who used to say to us that we are what we are now because we got to live and study overseas. Some people even think that we are rich because we look rich. Remember, never judge a book by its cover....
When we were living and studying overseas, we kids tried to reduce my parents' burden by take up part-time jobS . haha, yeah, u didn't know about this right? hehe.... People just look at what we have but do not realise the hard work we had put in... During those years, Jane and I basically worked for our own pocket money... I just couldn't imagine myself asking from my parents for their hard-earned money to buy that top in Esprit! Yeah, we are such thoughtful kids :P
During our high school and uni years, we worked as paper delivery girls. Stacks of different pamphlets were sent to our home and we had to fold sets and had them all delivered to all the designated houses before a deadline. We carried almost 15kg of pamphlets on us. It's heavier in December because there are Christmas sales everywhere. Some were as thick as a phone book! It was crazy! We had walked/cycled in the rain, under the hot sun, in the freezing weather, 5am in the morning, 11pm at night, chased by big dogs, scolded at, thanked at etc..
Then we also worked as babysitters and at the weekend, we worked in a Chinese restaurant as waitresses.. In the morning, we were dim sum 'promoters'.. We had to carry trays and trays of hot and steaming dim sum and sell them to customers... I remembered that Jane had a cart of her own because she was in charge of selling pork & century egg porridge. We laughed that she was the 2nd richest in the restaurant because she had a B&W of her own haha... At night, we served ala-carte meals... The ang mo people really take time to enjoy themselves and chit chat until closing time while the Asians come and go like a twister! haha... The good thing about working in restaurants is that we get to eat all we want after work.. Sometimes we can even bring food home! haha, it's our heaven! After work, We got to pick anything we wanted from the 'left overs'..... it was a good treat for poor students like us. And u know, because it's on the house, we ate more than we could and ended up turning into a fatso haha...
Jane and I sometimes helped in the food court too.... We took turns to help out at a Japanese eatery. Oh boy, we had to shout slogans to attract customers! And did u know, to get nicely cut sushi, u have to keep your sharp knife wet. Jane and I were also tutors. This is the best job ever because we got to lecture people and gave homework! buahahaha...
Hey, now that i mentioned all these, i think many of my friends have better lives than me! Most of my friends who went to study overseas just need to make sure they studied and graduated! haha.. well, even though I didn't have that privilege, i still feel grateful... because through this, I have experienced and learned a lot... and of course, through this, I also got to eat free dim sum every weekend and also Japanese food at week nights...haha... Am such an easily satisfied person......
I love my family!
my crazy sister who never fails to cheer us up!
