as you can probably tell, the lack of updates by hana is a sign of profound malaise. clearly, the switch to non-sahm mode has not been the most joyful of event for her.

which made her question as to who in heck created the work week to stretch for five days and not contain it to just, say, four, or maybe three days?

to which she received a reply from her ever-sensible husband that it was all in the name of a healthy economy and The Big Picture. longer weekends mean longer downtimes, he says. less productivity and lower standards of living. worse still, he came up with the ‘less effective gahmen’ trump card. and in his usual gadget-centric logic, if his handphone is spoilt and requires servicing, a longer weekend would mean a longer time to get it repaired. hmph, the consumerist.

so apparently, long long ago, people, especially in the industrial era, used to work really long hours with really poor working conditions (boo hoo). then in the 1800s, some fella began demanding for shorter work hours, starting some kind of workers’ union, and went around with a catchy phrase, “Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest”. that took quite a while to catch on, but it eventually did for most parts of the world, and May Day or Labour Day had something to do with that, you know, to commemorate the achievement of the labour movement, yadda yadda.

ok, so what’s the point of all this again?

ahh right, i’m *supposed* to be thankful that the work week has been greatly reduced from ancient times when workers were greatly exploited, especially women. but it’s hard to console myself when the fact is that most of the “eight hours of recreation” and “eight hours of rest” is sapped up by the demands of motherhood, leaving little for the self. (yes, i am after all part of Generation Me.)

labour is indeed a great pain for many women – the one experienced in the hospital to expel their offsprings from their wombs, and the one that takes them away from those offsprings eight hours a day, five times a week. the latter being more prolonged and painful for some, like me.

our respite – the forty-eight hours called The Weekend. where family, friends and food are the bonus and remuneration. <3

ok, digressing a little, i cheated (as usual) for the potluck picnic and bought a tray of shepherd’s pie from The Shepherd’s Pie, located at the second floor of Bedok Market Place, just next to our ever-favourite makan haunt, simpang bedok. we could have had it delivered for free, but since we were there for dinner the night before, we dropped by to pick up a frozen tray so we could bake it ourselves on the morning of the picnic.

what can i say, everyone approved, even the husband, the foodie! needless to say, the whole tray was polished off within minutes (as you can see in the picture). definitely tasty, with just the right amount of meat and potatoes. yes, i’m a carb person, i am. i love my potatoes. next time we’ll try the spicier stuff, ok idayana! ;)

the two G.I. janes, aka botak janes. “kakak mia, don’t pull my hair!”

happy 30th! omg we’re old. hurhur.

and that reminds me – aniq’s birthday is coming, AGAIN! ha ha. of course there’s the question of should there or should there not be yet another party this time round.

to which the reply is that it would greatly depend on the economy. namely, the mother and father’s. which means, mummy would have to keep working to sustain that economy, baby. just so you can keep enjoying your birthdays.

crap.

aunty farah, can you save those three candles for him?

maybe i’ll just order a shepherd’s pie and plonk them on it.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 2:06 am and is filed under Food, Friends, Parenthood, Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.