irony

the hub and i attended a mutual friend karen's wedding dinner this evening at pan pacific hotel. we'd known her since our NUS days and were expecting to meet up with a few of our ex-hostel mates. today the kids didn't come along - they'd been invited of course, but we decided to leave them at home so that we could peacefully enjoy savouring the dishes without having to take turns entertaining them and gobbling up cold food.

it was supposed to be one of our rare night-outs without the children.

as it turned out, i actually MISSED their presence.

seated at our table were 3 other young children - all girls. 2 belonging to Jimmy and Eileen, the other, SH's. if we had brought monsterina and rascalrella along, it would have been a riot! as i watched the kids playing (and occasionally giving their respective parents grief) i grew rather bored and my mind started wondering about what troubles my offspring were getting into at home...

after pleasantries were exchanged, i wasn't much in the mood to start a conversation with fellow guests at the table (although we've known each other for over a decade, they were more of hub's friends and i'd nothing much in common with them). within the first ten minutes, i regretted not bringing the girls along. in fact, i was enjoying myself as much as the banquet waitress who had trouble getting our drink orders correct - she even whisked away the hub's unfinished glass of red wine when he walked over to chat with more old friends at the next table.

if nothing else, i think i'd even have more fun being frustrated with xian for not eating her vegetables (she doesn't eat anything green) and being annoyed with wen for kicking off her shoes and running around the ballroom barefooted - as she did at the last wedding dinner.

unfortunately, my princesses weren't there to distract me from the drudgery of wedding dinners which often drag for far too long. i hadn't realised this of course, since the girls have been with us for virtually every wedding we'd been invited to since they were born. there's always a sense of achievement if we succeed in coaxing xian to eat something, even if it's half a bowl of noodles / a chicken wing / fish and 3 pieces of shredded carrots. my expectations for wen are even lower: as long as she sits quietly through the first 2 dishes AND keeps her shoes on till the end of dinner, i'm satisfied.

perhaps it's also because i'm in a different phase of life. i used to oooooohhh and aaaaaaaaahhhh at the bride's lovely gowns and immaculate make-up, professionally recorded videos and wedding photos. (karen looked ravishing of course - even in a simple t-shirt and shorts she's such a hot chick.) these days, i glance quickly at the menu to make a mental note of what's edible for the kids and look forward to the dessert.

anyway, by the time the noodles arrived (the second last dish on the menu) there were only 4 of us left at the table (the other kids, their parents plus a few others had all left). a real pity since the noodles were rather tasty. the hub and i actually contemplated asking for a doggie bag to takeaway the almost untouched noodles. we didn't of course. it would have been too embarrassing to thank the wedding couple for hosting the banquet while clutching takeaway carriers - plus all evidence would have been caught on their video/photos.

it was a well-planned dinner as there were no major glitches. but throughout dinner, i felt a little emptiness which i wasn't expecting. once the hub and i finished our second helping of mango pudding, we were only too glad to make our way back home. by the time we returned, it was 11.30pm - and the girls were still awake, evidently waiting for us.

the moment i stepped into their room, their faces lit up. wen clung on to my legs and xian hugged me. and in the split second i embraced them, i realised that i missed them much much more than i ever imagined.