20 February 2012: Father-Daughter Lunch Date

My dad is funny. We were supposed to attend a forum entitled "Legacy" which was sponsored by HSBC in Oakwood Residences. The schedule was for 11am to 2pm, lunch included. We were rushing to get there this morning because we left the office a little after 11am already. It's a good thing that Oakwood is just some minutes away from our office, and that there wasn't a lot of traffic.

When we got there, my dad asked the guard where the HSBC event was. The guard seemed confused so my dad figured it might be in the hotel part of the building. I asked if him if he was sure it was today and he kept insisting it was, so I took him at this word. So we went to the hotel part where the girl at the Reception told us to proceed to the 5th floor. When we got to the 5th floor, there were 3 placards on display, each for a different event. None of the three involved HSBC. When we asked one of the employees there, he suggested we check if it was on the 6th floor, although he also did not know of an HSBC event scheduled for that day. But my dad was insistent, so back into the elevator we went.

It was only when there was still nothing on the 6th floor, where the pool and restaurant were located, did my dad call his agent in HSBC. The agent informed him that the forum was scheduled for tomorrow still. We were one day too early. Hahaha.

Since we were out of the office already, we decided to just have lunch. Woohoo, father-daughter bonding. We haven't done that since I was a kid. That could be why we were both so out-of-practice. And that such things are really not a regular occurrence in our family.

We had lunch at Arya in Podium as it was the nearest mall. We were the only ones in the restaurant. So, we sat down, perused the menu and made our choices. After ordering... *crickets chirping* Hahahaha! Oh well. I tried to strike up a conversation but it's a bit difficult. There has always been an invisible line between me and my parents, something that always reminded me that they are STILL my PARENTS, so I still have to take care as to what I tell them. Oh well. In the end, we had a bit of small talk as we ate our lunch.

Appetizer: Roti with curry sauce



My order: Ground chicken with grilled tomato salsa and Persian bread

Afterwards, we both wanted coffee. We went to Starbucks where I decided to treat him to coffee. Okay. Even that didn't work out. He still paid me back, despite my insistence that it was my treat. Oh well. Maybe it will be different when I get my first paycheck and treat my family to a lunch or dinner somewhere.

But despite the lack of conversation, it wasn't really an uncomfortable silence. It was just nice to have some alone time with my dad. I kind of missed it. So, I guess it was a good thing that we were a day early for the forum. :-)