Shopping with the daughter

SHOPPING is not exactly my thing. I love to buy stuff; but to shop ie. walk in and out of stores, sampling, comparing prices and tempting my heart-purse-strings is not really for me or my feet (and today my head joined in the protest when it quivered after only 2 hours).

But, the nearly twelve needs some clothes and hey, a mommy-daughter bonding time...come on...!

We went to really, the nearest mall, 2 train stations away..and at first could absolutely find nothing for her size (she's a puny teen). One kind salesgirl said, "er..teen shops..don't have..go to children's and buy the bigger sizes?". This little trick worked well, even for me when I was a teen, but this time it was a no-go. Her very definite taste buds said no.

So we traipsed on some more..and finally found the rather ubiquitous Hang Ten and Bossini. O well. Last year when we were all the way in HongKong, shoppers' paradise - we ended up in Bossini (we could not find Hang Ten). So you know where my imagination borders.

A hundred dollars poorer --yes and this is because it's HT and B not Mango or Abercombie [hey i do know some stuff]...we realised we were done in already! Our feet were protesting and our heads seemed to lag behind our bodies..

We stumbled into a bookstore where we both grinned at the sight of a book with a nice Burmese kitty on the cover and a tagline that went: cats and daughters are alike: they dont come when called. Touche! I felt a secret triumph as my girl squeezed my arm tight and we exchange a warm hug...and agreed that shopping - except for books - isn't really our thing.

The icing on the cake came when she said, "i dont understand why some people must have so much clothes!" Bless her heart; may she hold true to this thought forever..and long live affordable stores!

a view of the Mall - and the shop i had vouchers for but she found nothing she favoured!

love nearly fade

How fragile our love and loving is - when it's about warm, welcoming feelings of closeness, comfort and cosy-mosy fuzzies...imagine this, i almost, yes, lost love for my precious daughter for whom i have invented a dozen words of endearment!

She was so obstinate, so full of contradicting (me), so whiny...i was after her for hair pins, homework, music practice, meals...and all this after spending so much time as a stay-home-mom! something wilted within me. In fact we were trying to grow this plant which tested our faith to the limit by staying wilty - not alive, not quite dead...just a few minutiae of leaves at the end of its skinny two stalks - a perfect picture of how i felt.

O gosh, whenw e were in the car and the familiar whine went off, i just shut up. Cajoling was out. Threats were too tiring. But as i kept quiet, i could lmost feel the hum of the engine of my heart slowing down too! Like an early frost. Thankfully that sent shivers - and i shook myself and awakened to the realities that no doubt all good responsible parents face: the real possibility of relationships souring.

i hunkered down, wiped my tears and said my prayers. Then i got up and shook off my silly needy self and rose up afresh - a grown up, responsible for reining in my feelings and cultivating creative avenues for transformation. i opened the deep chest of memories and pulled out a few favourites and stared at them a long time until the warmth forced the frost to beat a retreat.

Then I stepped out again. We will grow through this - together.