Something About Mary

August 11

There was definitely something about Mary - so much weight loss that we stood staring at her, lost for words. My good friend, Mary Anne returned for a short two-week break from Melbourne and instead of having dinner at some fancy restaurants, I decided a cosy dinner at our place would be a better idea.

Sunday afternoon, I was in my kitchen preparing away, cutting, slicing and chopping. Capsicums, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, baby corns, turnip, onions, cloves of garlic. The night before I marinated some pork and chicken and had them in the fridge. Peanut soup with chicken feet and dried sole was boiling in the pot on one side of my two-burner stove. By six in the evening, I managed to whip up sweet and sour chicken with tomatoes, cucumber, baby corns and onions, black pepper pork with capsicums, stir-fried shredded turnip & carrot with dried shrimps, siew pak choy with garlic & oyster sauce, and soup.

Five of us - Fai, Connie, Mary, Adrian and I - adjourned to our humble looking junglelike garden after dinner for more catching up and dessert of ice cream. Mary shared about her life in Melbourne, occasionally about good old days when we were all working together.

Like Fai, Mary and I were colleagues in the same department when we were working for The Star. She joined four months after I did. Early one morning, she came up to me (more like she crept up on me, haha) and said "I heard that you do ciggies. You want to go down together?". From her coffee-coloured skin tone and facial features, it was obvious that Mary was of mixed parentage. "Are you Cindian?" I asked. "No, Cibai" came the reply. My face must have had the look 'why such vulgarity'. Mary laughed and explained that she was of Chinese-Punjabi parentage. From then on, we waited for one another to get into the department on the 10th floor, and did breakfast, lunch, and dinner or teh tarik sessions together. Fai joined us mainly for lunch and teh tarik sessions. Times when we weren't seen together were times when either one of us was on leave.

We are six years apart from each other, Mary, six years my junior and Fai, six years my senior. Together the three of us had lots of crazy chats, silly jokes and hilarious exchanges. Mary and Fai kept me company when Adrian was away for lengthy overseas projects. I am ever grateful and thankful for their unconditional friendships and all the wonderful precious memories we shared. Mary and Fai, thank you. Here's to a lifetime of love and friendship...CHEERS!

Mary, Fai and me