I love Panda Express

Some say I may have Alzheimer's Disease. Or is it Parkinson's? Whatever it is, this is how the story goes.

We drove Grandpa to Sai Kung for golf and decided to eat some good Cha Chaan Tang (HK style cafe) food while we were there. Changster being Changster, the swings and slides are like magnets to her little buns of iron; no one can peel her off that plastic seat until she's done with at least 20 rounds. Naturally, we stayed.

My "BFF" from work called at 1pm when I was monitoring Changster like a hawk on the side. She didn't even asked if I had lunch or was free to talk. She was thinking out loud about something which made absolutely zero sense. My train of thought had a train wreck from talking to my BFF and when I managed to push the "End Call" button, I was exhausted and felt lost. At that particular fateful moment, some other mother asked me which school did Changster go to when she was little, I had a brain freeze and said "Panda Express".

You can probably imagine what I got from the proper HK and expat mothers. "Total negligence" was already one of the milder comments. I violated every single protocol that a "good HK mother" would follow. I was considered as rude and crude by making a bad "joke" (Sorry Dyson 3000, I am not a good wife). I didn't care about my daughter (which is so untrue! I am always ready to move in should a little brat dare to harm my Changster). I sent my daughter to some unheard of crappy school and would let my daughter be a loser by not paying for any private tutorial to make way to some ivy league schools.

I rarely make conscious effort to do things that I don't give a damn about but this time, I thought hard during the drive home and came to a conclusion:

1. Everyone has a BFF at work. They are the one who drives you crazy and regardless of how hard you try, they stalk you. So, don't get upset. Once in a while, let the BFF to have a taste of his/her own medicine (以夷制夷)

2. Panda Express represented a day of freedom, of extravaganze when I was in college. It was my once a quarter day in the mall (in which Banana Republic was a god sent). My reference back to Panda Express is only me talking to my inner teenager.

3. I probably was hungry and thus thinking of General Tsao chicken and Lo Mein. The cha chaan tan Breakfast set was tiny. Not going back

It does pay off to listen to other people once in a while, just need to be careful in filtering out all the nonsense. I love Panda Express!