My Mum's Great China Toy-Score
You know how when our Moms go on overseas tours (business or leisure) and they inevitably come back home with souvenirs and/or clothes and/or stuff that is generally (1) Too Expensive, (2) Doesn't Fit your size or your personal tastes (including socks), and (3) You Don't Need nor Want to enhance your own personal lifestyle with. You really can't blame mums for trying, because they care enough to want to, or have to do it. We can only but blame ourselves for being ungrateful brats and wenches, innit?
But we never complain about food-stuffs. Preserved food and snacks are always good :)
So me darling mum calls me up from the airport - one day last year - to let us know she's arrived unto Singapore's shores after a couple of weeks in China (work + leisure). And she says: "我买了玩具 给您!" ("I've bought some toys for you!") ... and I gasp a little gasp. Not that I am surprised that she would buy her adult son "toys", but moreso the two poignant words that had flashed thru my mind was: WHAT TOYS?" = doubting her toy-purchasing choice right there and then, without even knowing what they were, or how they looked ... I felt like an ass of a son then, and the memory of it makes me feel like an ass even now.
Mum happily handed her "ungrateful"-son this musty black plastic-bag (feels like a black trash bag actually, more likely is) - which was already suspect, but weirdly more mystifying. And as I opened it up, it felt like a black trash bag filled with "treasures" ... within it were various figurines of all shapes and sizes, colors and brands = a grab bag of toys I have posted below!
What I've posted above is not the full collection of figures in the bag. A couple of Lord of the Rings action figures have been decapitated and stripped for custom-parts (*cough*), as well as a select few Ninja Turtle figures and Power Ranger-figures - forever now in pieces, for yet another custom (*cough*).
She apparently bought them at a street-side make-shift stall - even after I'd cautioned not to buy anything - and remembering my intense pickiness on toys I like (I do somewhat quasi-regular show-and-tells about what toys I blog about, and what I like ... seriously), and of my penchant for flea-market finds (I used to be such a flea-market fiend in those salad days...).
Now, it wasn't the sheer "nigh-desirable coolness" of the toys that were in the bag (*ungrateful-cough*), but the "notion" of them that warmed my heart ... Mum said she knew I could at least find them useful as parts for customizing toys! Let me tell you, I was so proud of my Mum! (Not that I've never been proud of her, yeh? Just this particular episode in relation to toys for her adult son :p)
After then, I will give my mum's taste in toys the benefit of doubt for future choices (will share with you guys the story of the China Olympic Mascot Plushies next time ;p), but I will never doubt her intentions ever :)
My Mum Rawks! ~ Happy Mother's Day to all Mums reading TRE out there in cyber-lalaland!
But we never complain about food-stuffs. Preserved food and snacks are always good :)
So me darling mum calls me up from the airport - one day last year - to let us know she's arrived unto Singapore's shores after a couple of weeks in China (work + leisure). And she says: "我买了玩具 给您!" ("I've bought some toys for you!") ... and I gasp a little gasp. Not that I am surprised that she would buy her adult son "toys", but moreso the two poignant words that had flashed thru my mind was: WHAT TOYS?" = doubting her toy-purchasing choice right there and then, without even knowing what they were, or how they looked ... I felt like an ass of a son then, and the memory of it makes me feel like an ass even now.
Mum happily handed her "ungrateful"-son this musty black plastic-bag (feels like a black trash bag actually, more likely is) - which was already suspect, but weirdly more mystifying. And as I opened it up, it felt like a black trash bag filled with "treasures" ... within it were various figurines of all shapes and sizes, colors and brands = a grab bag of toys I have posted below!
What I've posted above is not the full collection of figures in the bag. A couple of Lord of the Rings action figures have been decapitated and stripped for custom-parts (*cough*), as well as a select few Ninja Turtle figures and Power Ranger-figures - forever now in pieces, for yet another custom (*cough*).
She apparently bought them at a street-side make-shift stall - even after I'd cautioned not to buy anything - and remembering my intense pickiness on toys I like (I do somewhat quasi-regular show-and-tells about what toys I blog about, and what I like ... seriously), and of my penchant for flea-market finds (I used to be such a flea-market fiend in those salad days...).
Now, it wasn't the sheer "nigh-desirable coolness" of the toys that were in the bag (*ungrateful-cough*), but the "notion" of them that warmed my heart ... Mum said she knew I could at least find them useful as parts for customizing toys! Let me tell you, I was so proud of my Mum! (Not that I've never been proud of her, yeh? Just this particular episode in relation to toys for her adult son :p)
After then, I will give my mum's taste in toys the benefit of doubt for future choices (will share with you guys the story of the China Olympic Mascot Plushies next time ;p), but I will never doubt her intentions ever :)
My Mum Rawks! ~ Happy Mother's Day to all Mums reading TRE out there in cyber-lalaland!
