Monthly Archive for November, 2007

One day I looked down and this was what I saw.

Or didn’t.

“Jay,” I scream. “I can’t see the bits I used to be able to see!”

“Welcome to the world of being a man,” Jay replies.

Suddenly, wearing socks is a monumental achievement, and putting on pants is a Monty Python skit.

And did I mention how bending over is a figment of my imagination? Rather, what I end up doing is a combination side-lunge-squat.

What I really need is a 2-foot-high Oompa Loompa to help my feet through the pantlegs and tie my shoelaces.

I’d like to think of him as my crazily dressed butler with an incredible singing voice and a wicked sense of humor.

Mr Wonka, spare a Loompa?

One of the first things people ask when they know that you know that you have a little DotandJaylet in the making is “Have you thought of names yet?”

Sort of.

We have a working list, mostly of names we happen to hear that we like. You don’t want to know how many Law & Order episodes I’ve watched and suddenly shouted, “Isn’t Haley is cool name?”

Although I promise right here I won’t name my kid Detective Briscoe.

Jay prefers to keep our list a secret, so people won’t give well-meaning advice on what they want your kid to be named.

Me?

I thought of the perfect name today.

Hello.

Jay has had jackfruit.

Jay has had stingray.

Heck, Jay has even had durian.

So we know he isn’t easily put off by strange-looking (by American standards) foods.

When I casually ask him to help me peel the hardboiled quail’s eggs for dinner—the first time I’d actually bought some, I must add—he clean freaked out.

We’ve been with each other so long that it’s funny how we automatically assume something’s not that new to the other person anymore.

I remember what freaked me out when I first discovered new “ways of eating” here like cold soup (whaaa?), cold meats (interesting…), or cold dips (I hate chips).

What is it with the cold foods?

With the exception of salad and sashimi, which I have come to accept MUST BE COLD and sometimes served WITHOUT MEAT, I tolerate very few cold meals.

Jay knows this. He also knows it takes a very hungry Dot (or sheer politeness to the host) to succumb to a cold sandwich or a cold anything.

It’s the Singaporean in me that demands a hot meal. Every time.

In my home, the refrain “Quickly eat before your food gets cold!” was taken seriously.

It is a far, far better thing that I burn my tongue on heat, than I have ever done;
it is a far, far worse thing that I suffer a cold burn, than I have ever known.