The Brag Wives Club

To be fair to all, I shall not be mentioning the name of the company I’m about to dish on. ;) Let’s imagine we are all sitting around like one of those Alcoholic Group Session and go “Hi my name is XXX and I’m an alcoholic.”

Now I really wonder why this little gathering I went to, didn’t have a sit around session and cut to the chase “Hi my name is XXX. I’m the wife of XYZ & I’m wearing a Prada dress, Gucci handbag, Victoria secret G-string & Push up bra, Chanel cosmetic, my fake lashes extension were done in YYIO beauty centre, my hair …..” Zzzzzzzz …. Ooops, sorry… were you not done?…. I must have doze off ….

Honest to god, sometimes the term “full of themselves” is just too humbling when you really meet these people I met! Yes I am also the wife of a partner in that company. But I am more known as the “rebel” as I do not take pride in being the wife of a partner. I rather be ….  Me! ;)

For the many years that my husband works there, I’ve only been to 2 events. Surprised? Mind you, these events are usually in top notch places where they serve caviar & the best delights. Yet, I’m not a big fan of going to his company functions. Husbands tend to fall into the tendency of discussing about work. Which leaves the wives checking out each other and making sure that the others know that they are better than the rest.

It’s crazy. I am a simple person. Well, I was even known as a tomboy once upon a time but I’m a mommy now so I’ve walked through many stages of my life to tone down by a fair bit. I am also a successful career woman & a business mogul. I worked through the hours & juggling taking care of my kids all in one plate. I can’t judge for myself if I’m doing a great job but I am successful even before my husband stumbled into my life.

My bank account makes financial officers call me every week to convince me to invest in them. I am financially strong and have been independent since the day I started working. I’ve studied, worked & arrived to where I am independently & I take pride in that since there was a whole lot of hard work involved.

I am so independent that I’m always known to many as being feminist. I really think I am anyway. I insisted on paying half the wedding cost, I contribute half the household expenditure and even help my husband in some of his businesses. So I am not one who suddenly finds herself financially strong & suddenly think she is a different person.

I am not trying to be super annoying (even though I'm starting to sound like that). I'm just trying to point out that maybe...just maybe.... not EVERY partners' wives want to be the damsel in distress only to be rescued by the white & shining armour. And after being rescued, the princess thinks she has to be someone else because now she is suddenly rich!

Due to the fact that I’ve always worked hard in everything I do, juggling too many things at any given time in my life including charity work, I have never been a religious manicure, pedicure or hair salon enthusiast. Somehow a lot of people find that hard to believe. I remembered in one of those dinners I went & I could see the way these wives were checking out my nails, my toes & my hair. They were not disgusting, mind you…  they were just not coloured or polished up to their standards.

I guess I do not fall into the right mould of a perfect partner’s wife. Before I went on dishing, I am in no way attacking anyone. I’m just voicing out my upsets.

Get it – one of them leaned over , tapped my arm & said “Honey, you’ve worked way too hard I see. Maybe you should take some time off to pamper yourself. You need it.”

Ghees, thanks! At this point, I am the only one in there who hasn’t touched botox, collagen injections or resort to plastic surgery. I am also only 37. Yes, I’m not all taut but I have time before I consider these options. Or so I thought. These ladies would point out the lines on my forehead! Literally! They are so narrow minded that they think they are doing me a favour.

Most of these ladies led a fairly normal life before they met their husbands. When they got married, their lifestyles changed dramatically. It must have been too overwhelming for them. They suddenly think they needed to be someone else. I have to say that they are probably a very nice person before. But the exposure of too many good things led them to be too competitive about things which doesn’t necessarily is important to others.

They are nicknamed trophy ladies. They do not work. Neither are they housewives. They have their maids taking care of the chores at home & taking care of their kids. They spend their days in hair salons, nail studios, aesthetic clinics. And if they are not doing that, they are off from one champagne brunch to another.

Compare that to my daily routine! And they wondered why I don’t have time to run to the beauty centres? To top that off, I also do not enjoy having conversations about which hair salons or which boutique to buy their $5000 skirt. I somehow got interested to business conversations the boys were having. Yes, I’m weird.

I do know how to have fun. I dress myself in whatever that takes my fancy. I love happy bright colours. Branded clothing usually come in earth or what I termed as “sad colours” so it’s not because I’m a scrooge. I tend to dress myself in whatever attracts my eyes.

Maybe I do not need too much work done on me to look just as good. Well, I want to believe that at least! Haha.

Anyway, it's this kind of moments when the song my children were watching this morning make sense - by BIG BIRD from Sesame Street - I'm happy to be me.

Strange Pleasant Encounter

I've never been keen on Mondays. The term ‘Monday Blues’ must be created for a reason. If there is any day I choose to take time off work,  I would take Mondays.

Which I did yesterday. My best friend suggested going to IKEA because she needed some napkins from there. I thought 'Alright...since I have nothing planned. I'll come with you & we'll fetch my daughter at noon when her playgroup ends & take the kids to the indoor playground in Changi"

So after dropping off my daughter & my husband, my son, who is always in his best mood whenever I decided to take time off (thank god!), I went straight to IKEA. Gosh! The car park was almost full & it was just 10 am.

So we went in there & for some weird reason, I ended up with a trolley of things ... And I thought I was just there to accompany my friend

Anyway, I managed to somehow buy a mattress for my son & decided when I collected it at the customer service that it may be the wrong size after all. It was too late to do any exchange anyway. I was supposed to pick my daughter up!

So we went to pick my daughter up & straight to Changi. The "pleasure" of having three little kids with us, we literally went to baby care room 3 times because they needed changing. By the time we were ready to go to the indoor playground, my best friend got a call from her fellow Turkish friends & said she needed to leave soon.

So instead of going to the indoor playground, we just took the kids to the main playground which was free for everyone to play.

We probably spent like 30 min running around the kids and making sure they were alright. (Since there were big kids too)

Anyway, finally it was time to go. The children were tired and cranky by then. We managed to make our way to reach the lift. And a group of ladies held the door for us. We thanked them politely.

Then suddenly, the lady on my left said "You are very beautiful."

A little confused and somehow didn't believe anyone could be very upfront, I answered (stupid , I know) "You mean my children?"

The reason being my children have always been attracting people's attention. No one ever said anything about me. So that came as a big surprise for me.

This lady (probably in her late 40s or early 50s) was with her aunt (an even older lady) and her two daughters who are in their early twenties.

If it was a guy saying that to me, I would probably think he is a freak. But these ladies were decent looking, looks like they come from a proper-simply-polite family...you know like those nice people from the church who annoyingly have everything nice to say about the world.

Well, she said she had been watching us playing with our kids at the playground. I didn't think at that time but now that I was thinking about it I was wondering wow..... how amazing is it that you can be watched without even realising it the slightest bit!

For that split second I was hoping that maybe there was a cute hunk who had also spent time checking me out! Haha

She said she kept saying to her aunt that she wanted to speak to me but didn't ….  since I looked like I had my hands full with my two kids who seemed to enjoy running the opposite direction. :)

"I've been watching the way you handled the kids and the two of you (referring to my best friend) running around with the kids. I figured we would be a nuisance if we come and try to talk to you at that time. But now that I'm even closer, my gosh, you are beautiful. Where are you from? You must be mixed!"

She also said that she loves my best friend accent. She later said that the sight of both of us, 2 young looking mothers, beautiful & polite to other people was just refreshing.

"Most beautiful people are a snob" She added.

We talked a little bit and coincidently we were parking near to each other. These ladies helped us out with our kids and our stuff. It was a little overwhelming but maybe because it is not very usual that someone stumbled into your path and can be SO NICE! Rare , I have to say.

We exchanged numbers and she said again that fate has a way of putting us together. She is very keen to get to know us.

I told my husband about it. And he seemed very suspicious. He was like "You gave your number just like that? "

"She seems nice and she was with her aunt and two daughters"

"How would you know if they are even her aunt or daughters? She's probably a lesbian and can see the beauty that I see or they are a cult and they need a pretty head on their shrine. So be careful! Meet only in public places"

Sheeesh..... talking about being super paranoid! :) My best friend  and I talked about it very briefly. I said my husband was a little suspicious about her intentions.

And she said, " During the whole process, we didn't even realise it but it was flowing very smoothly and they were being nice.... it could be anything but honestly, she was there with her kids and aunt.... maybe it is JUST her being herself. NICE."

So it's still a mystery. We have no idea. She has my number and she will probably be in contact with me very soon. She seems sincere. I'll update you about it.

Meanwhile, let me gloat on the fact that she actually thought that I am VERY beautiful! ;) Oh come on! Just let me be! :)