The Road to 40 Day 189/365: A Dad Experience

I had a total dad experience this day, from morning until late at night.

When I bring Vino to school, I usually stay on to wait if he still turns back. This has been a habit of mine since his days in Vietnam.

When we moved back then, it was the first time he went to a big school and it was a new country. He was naturally a bit overwhelmed about all the changes. There were times that he would go in and would look over if we are still there because he was crying.

Since then, would always stay behind until I’m sure that he’s okay already. There are times that he would still look back, but oftentimes, he would be having fun with his friends and has already forgotten about me, which was actually good to see.

Upon returning to Singapore, I still continued to do this. What started out as a show of reassurance for him has become a little routine for us.

I went home soonafter as Che was working from home. It was a bit unexpected, so I had to ask if she was going to be okay while I’m outside. I planned on getting some of my knivees sharpened – something I’ve been meaning to do for a few weeks now.

My knives aren’t as sharp anymore, and I do have a whetstone where I try to sharpen them. But I guess sharpening knives has a certain art to it.

I looked for a shop that sharpens knives and saw one nearby. I swung by and found that they also sell other things. I gave them my knives and went around the shop. I was fully expecting five sharp knives after this, but for some reason, I was easily convinced to give up one of my knives to upgrade to a Japanese knife.

With cooking being a big part of my life, I’ve always been in awe of beautifully crafted Japanese knives. However, when I see their prices, I usually hesitate, because I feel like a knife is a knife.

The auntie helped explain the craftsmanship of this entry-level Japanese knife, and it was really nice to hold. It didn’t take much to talk me into buying it.

So I went home with four newly-sharpened knives and a new one. I was almost thinking about buying a chopper because mine had a hairline crack, but I figured I don’t need it too much.

After having lunch at home and cleaning up a bit, I went to pick up Vino from school. I thought about buying food for Vino, but I figured maybe we could just walk over to the hawker center and have some pau. True enough, he was hungry and wanted to eat.

It was raining hard, but we managed to go across to the hawker center and had his snack there. We also did some puzzles while he ate. It was a happy experience for us to figure things out together.

He was supposed to have football training, but I was apprehensive because of the weather. Vino had a bit of cold from his last session where they trained under the rain.

The football dads planned on getting together for a couple of beers after training, so I assured them that while we weren’t training, I was still open to grab beer with them.

Two of the dads still went to training, so our schedule was still around 8:45-9pm. That meant I could still have dinner with Che and Vino.

I reached the place first, and one by one, the dads came over. We had Guinness in the Irish bar, which was a first for some of the guys. They enjoyed it, though.

Two of the dads were from the same industry, while another one was a physicist turned real-estate person. It was interesting to hear about the unfamiliar jobs.

We also had a chance to talk about our boys and things that annoy us about their generation. To some extent, it feels probably similar to what our parents had to go through when we were kids. But I think it’s a bit more amplified with this generation because of their access to information.

What we all agreed on was that the brainrot things are just stupid. Skibidi toilet, 67, and the Italian-sounding nonsense are just a few that we talked about. We all feel strongly against it and hope that the kids grow out of it soon.

After a couple of beers (three for me because I was listening more than talking), we all parted ways. One of the guys said he’d have a nightcap of whiskey at his home nearby. Myself and another dad expressed interest, but since everyone else was leaving, we just decided to go home.

I needed to get on two buses to get home, but since it was really late, I decided to just walk after going down the first bus.

It was quite new for me, getting to know my own circle of locals. Since I didn’t have workmates, I’m not really forced to make connections with people. Hence, if I get to choose, I’d be more comfortable connecting with fellow Filipinos.

But since all our kids were playing in the same team, we were somewhat bound by this connection. From this meeting, I learned a lot about the guys’ personalities, and I could say that we at least have the kids to keep us together.

I got home surprisingly not drunk from a drinking session, so at least there was no reason for Che to be angry.