SimonSimple

Hi People

The other day I had lunch with my daughter at Swensen’s at Bugis Junction. Yes, you have to be there early because it is jam-packed at lunchtime. Their fabulous offer of 1 for 1 is still on!

She was telling me that she was soaked one day because her umbrella gave way because she was caught in an unsheltered stretch from the train station to her office building because of the heavy rain and strong wind. Not to settle for cheap foldable umbrellas anymore, she went to the nearly departmental store to purchase the most hardy one she could find. She went through quite a number and observed that the sales girl all but left her alone while attending to others. She was wondering why? The happy answer came when she was about to pay for her purchase. The sales girl said that all the other customers simply left the umbrellas out of the casings or had difficulty attempting to push them back in but my daughter conscientiously and meticulously managed to restore all the umbrellas she tried nicely back into their original state. The sales girl remarked that her mother must have taught her the art of neatly putting away foldable umbrellas, to which my daughter assented. The sales girl then beamed and said, “Your mother taught you well”. My daughter felt real proud - with her purchase and her mother!

This week, as always, from Mondays to Fridays, my routine is to wake up at 6.30 am to feed our pet dog and take him out for his morning walk. Then it is back at the kitchen to prepare breakfast for my 3 children. My son usually gets his streaky bacon and tomatoes or some cut fruits for his breakfast. Sometimes he just takes some water or his cold Milo. As for my daughters I am learning to be more and more creative and try to give them a choice menu that changes by the day. This is a vast improvement from when it was just a sandwich of bacon or peanut butter or french toast that tasted like it should be, to be frank, tossed out (honest feedback from my wife).

These days it’s honey laced french toast on Monday by chef Simone. (Self concocted recipe: Take 3 eggs and a table spoon of honey and beat well. Then add a cup of fresh milk and beat until it is foamy. Take 10 slices of white bread and cut them into triangles. Heat up frying pan and then add butter. Soak the bread into the egg mixture and immediately place into pan. Make sure both sides of the bread are golden brown. Verdict from my daughters - very light, very warm & delicious, very grateful to the chef).

Tuesday they had Heinz barberque sauce baked beans & streaky bacon from Cold Storage.

Wednesday they will have mushroom chicken soup from Campbell’s and chicken pie from Sunshine Bread.

Thursday it will be Betty Crocker’s pancake and streaky bacon from Cold Storage.

Friday it will be plain white Man Tou with stewed pork.

You must be wondering why I do breakfast and not my wife. She does the dreaded ‘four letter’ work - wash, iron & dust the whole day long and needs her beauty sleep.

Why do I do what I do? Because I observed what my parents did. When my father had retired from his job he was the one who prepared breakfast while my mother slept on a little longer before facing the mountain of work that laid ahead in the day. Happily my parents divided the share of work to be done. I am merely following what my parents modelled for me.

My parents taught me well. Happy parenting!