March 2004

Last week, Mum got in a stew when Dad came home from work and announced that he had invited a Very Important Prospective Client to dinner.

Actually, Mum always gets in a flap when Dad brings work colleagues or clients home for dinner. I don’t know why because Mum’s a very good cook – aided by yours truly, of course! But, she changes her mind about the menu six or seven times before she can put off the shopping no longer, and she cleans the dining room at least five times! I think Wizzie can tell when these dinner parties are looming, because he spends all his time under my bed and only comes down to eat or go for a walk.

Dad didn’t exactly help matters either, this time, when he claimed that our summer holiday depended on us making a good impression and helping him to ‘seal the deal’.

Mum calmly waited until Dad decided to give Wizzie a quick run round the block before hitting the cookery books.

‘What about a nice roast?’ I suggested.

‘Too boring,’ replied Mum.

‘Well, how about your delicious coq au vin?’

‘Soooo last year,’ said Mum.

‘Indian! You make superb curries.’

‘But not everyone likes curry. It can be an acquired taste.’

‘Chinese, then,’ I ventured.

‘Perfect!’ cut in Dad, hanging Wizzie’s lead back on the hook. ‘He and his wife have just returned from a tour of the Far East to celebrate their Silver Wedding Anniversary.’

So, Chinese it was, then. Mum had the menu under control – lots of tasty dishes including my favourite: beef in black bean sauce with egg fried rice. Yummy! But then Mum laid the table and it looked so, well, un-Chinese. She had put out her blue and white porcelain bowls and chopstick rests, which Nan Com had brought back from her travels, and her best white tablecloth and napkins were pristine and well starched, but I could tell from her face that she thought something was lacking.

I disappeared upstairs to read for a bit, but found my mind wandering to some photos Mum had taken some time ago back in 1997. They were of a special lunch she’d hosted for a few of my little friends and their mums. It was the day that Britain had handed Hong Kong back to be ruled by China and Mum had decided to cook lots of small Chinese dishes to commemorate the day. Of course, I don’t really remember it as I was very little then, but Mum had also made us each a special menu card with the date on and we ticked off the dishes we liked. We even tried to eat with chopsticks that day but, since knives were still a bit of a mystery, I think we quickly reverted back to forks! Mum then spent the afternoon showing us how to make Chinese paper lanterns and, would you believe, mine is still pinned to the notice board in the kitchen.

By the time Dad returned from golf that afternoon I had made lots of brightly-coloured Chinese paper lanterns, which Mum had pinned all over the ceiling. Using my computer, I created menu cards and decorated the outside with what looked like Chinese writing. I’m not sure the symbols actually meant anything, but Mum said they looked authentic! To complete the table, Mum helped me cut some tomatoes to look like lotus flowers, and we arranged them in a bowl with a candle in the middle.

Dad’s VIP client was bowled over by my efforts and arranged to see Dad on the Monday to sign the contracts.

I think I’ll hang on to the lanterns as they might come in handy next World Thinking Day…

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