What an unusual 14 April 2020 it has been. This must have been one of mum's quietest birthdays by far as we had breakfast, lunch and dinner at home.
For breakfast, we had toasts, hard boiled eggs and coffee with milk. Lunch was soup noodles with baby abalones. Dinner was Popeyes fried chicken with mashed potatoes, fried garlic rice, some fries and a biscuit (American styled - which tasted more muffin like) with strawberry jam.
Morning, I had a zoom meeting with KW to sort out some work matters. Worked through a PowerPoint presentation in the afternoon. After I decided I had done enough work for the day, I took mum out for super-marketing as her birthday treat, before her birthday dinner.
In the morning, mum had Whatsapp voice greetings from her precious grandson J, her eldest daughter, her precious daughter-in-law. She missed out hearing from her son who was grumpily helping out her grandson with his home-based learning, as shown in a pic by B. Somehow, from that pic, one can gather the dynamics of their family - the wife seemed to be domineering, My question is why is she taking a pic of my brother sitting next to my nephew, instead of she herself helping J? Is she less capable of helping my nephew? Perhaps she is being "more manipulative"? In any case, that is my brother's lot since it was his choice of life partner? Also, during 8pm Zoom party which we held in the evening, brother's family missed out as sis-in-law had to deal with work stuff.
I do wonder if my mum feels somewhat disappointed with my brother - no voice greetings from him, no happy birthday greetings, no Zoom appearance. What happened, really? I guess mum took comfort in that they had already visited in person over the weekend. But this year, on her actual birthday, my brother has been quite a disappointment, at least IMHO. Even if mum did not mind at all. Even over Zoom, we had eldest cousin, P&P, Mf & TYY, YH's family and my sis showing up. Mum commented that Aunty J did not call. That is quite true but then again, mum seldom called Aunty J on her birthday too. Haha!
Upon reflection, I ought to cut bro and sis-in-law some slack like mum does. :P If mum does not mind, then I should not mind too. After all, love covers all wrongs.
