Wife and MUM 5/2011

Sunday 20 February 2011

Last week I told you that Irene is meticulous, detailed, takes pride and initiative in what she does. What can I say this week?

Charles Spurgeon the famous evangelist said that "A true wife is her husband's better half, his lump of delight, his flower of beauty, his guardian angel, and his heart's treasure."

WOW! Is Irene all these?

Irene is certainly a better half. From the perspective of food she is great. She is a good cook. She tastes a cooked dish and can make suggestions as to what ingredients to be added to enhance the blend in taste. She would describe the mismatched in taste between two or more ingredients as a battle for the approval of the various taste buds of our mouth. Her analogy fascinates both me and our daughter and it would set our daughter laughing.

Irene would also tell us and suggests to herself what ingredients to deduct from the recipe. She would say “I will try this tomorrow or next week or some date she figures is the right time. The right time could well be a day when she can serve the dish to 5 persons or 20 persons depending on the dish, the ingredients and the recipe.

How she did become a great cook is really what makes her a better half.

I recall that on the first month of the first year of our marriage Irene cooked “Mee Swa” in Hokkien or “Mein Seen” in Cantonese, a kind of noodle one morning before we leave for work. She dressed up the dish (she is a very artistic individual) with strips of pork and vegetables. It looks delicious. I sat down and eagerly tackle the food in front of me. On removal of the pork and vegetables is a lump of sticky noodle much like a cake of white mud splash on top of the bowl floating on soup gravy and covered with pork and vegetables. It was a labour of LOVE.

Being a good husband I waited for her to get out of the kitchen and then threw the food into the dustbin. When she came back into the kitchen she spotted that I had finished the bowl of noodle. I say “Nice”.
Well, never mess with the intelligence of a woman. I never knew how good, great and gracious she was until she told my sister about this incident some twenty five years later.
She narrated the incident to my sister. She said “I saw that he had finished the food and I was surprised. How can a big bowl of noodle be consumed within such a short time. So when he got out of the kitchen I open the dustbin and there was the lump of noodle” We all had a good laugh.

So what makes her a better half? She has the temperament, the intelligence and the patience to rise above her pride to be the BETTER half. Better is not only measured in quantity. The quality is more important.

No 6 attribute of a great wife: Ability to laugh at herself.

Yes, borrowing from Charles Spurgeon, Irene is truly my better half, my lump of delight, my flower of beauty, my guardian angel, and my heart's treasure.

Cheers.
See you next week.

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