Not on a Slow Boat to China

My parents left for Beijing today, with the girlfriend* driving them off to the airport. This was a matter of some irritation to me as my mother had broached this subject with the girlfriend earlier in the week, claiming that she had "only been joking" in asking her to give them a lift. I pointed out the fact that such a comment would be taken rather seriously and lead to the girlfriend feeling obliged to agree. Which is precisely what she intended.

I still remember what happened the last time we sent my parents off to the airport when they left on a trip to Montreal. On returning to the car, we found the engine wouldn't start due to battery problems, necessitating an instantaneous decision to join AA Singapore and a call for emergency help. To top it all off, when they returned from their trip, my mom called the girlfriend to get her to call the AA again as the car still couldn't start and it was determined that we had to change the battery.

On this occasion, we arrived at the airport to discover that my father had gotten the flight time wrong and they were due to depart an hour later - at 1.15am instead of 12.15am as previously thought. That meant a trip to Swensen's with one of my dad's students and his parents (and somewhat clingy girlfriend) in attendance. My mother, as she so often does, did her utmost to enliven the conversation with innumerable anecdotes from the 'family archive'. At least the ice cream helped to leaven the bitter aftertaste.

The person I feel for the most in this whole situation was my poor girlfriend. She had to drive everyone to the airport, waste an additional hour or so there, and then drive me and my sister home. To top it all off, she had to be up early the next morning to travel to Tampines JC to support her students at a public speaking competition. There is an old joke that asks what is the real punishment for polygamy. The punchline of course is having more than one mother-in-law. How true.

*Using the moniker 'the girlfriend' is not meant to be disrespectful. I have made a conscious decision not to reveal the identities of some individuals in this blog, unless they wish otherwise. In using this term, I also tip my hat to Colin Goh, the noted Singaporean filmaker, writer and humourist who calls his wife 'the wife' in his regular columns for the Straits Times.