Ring a till, not...

Just as wealth has no bearing over humility, there are many things in the world that money cannot buy. For one, money can't acquire the feeling of warm personal attachment to another person. And this feeling of deep affection toward another person does not fall under the subset of blood relations by default.

Last night, as I was happily dishing the tofu onto my plate, one of the see-you-once-a-year elders suddenly sprang this on me, "I've not seen you in years! What were you doing in Hong Kong anyway? Did you think of me?" which was followed quickly with a justification, "Well, I just wanna see if you have heart..." Honestly, I was half glad I hadn't eaten the tofu yet for I would probably have made history by being the first person who'd choked to death by tofu while screaming "WT...?". An honest answer would be "Nope, not at all." but I secretly suspect that wouldn't be the most politically correct answer and I might just get myself into trouble for being rude. So, I ehh... and erm... and managed to wriggle myself out of a dicey situation without having to lie against my conscience or offend the I-cannot-afford-to-piss-off elder with the truth.

In retrospect, I wondered if perhaps throwing the same question back ("So, did you think of me then?") was the lesser of the two evils coz now, not only have I earned myself the reputation of a silly goose who cannot carry out a decent conversation over dinner, I have also earned myself a couple of sleepless nights and perhaps a couple of fine lines fretting over my complete lack of wit and the mental bashing I'm awarding myself now. On the other hand, I couldn't help but wonder if I'm simply reading too much. And perhaps I should seriously consider writing The Complete Idiot's Guide to FAQ During Family Reunions.

Of course, I could also consider writing a 10,000 word essay speculating the intended purpose(s) of that string of questions, given the context, case studies of relevant situations and personality traits, but whatever it is, somehow I'm pretty sure it had, no doubt sadly, a negatory effect on the respect I have for this particular elder in the family. And that too, is something money cannot buy.