Parents are back from GZ and had a harrowing scare for a while cos mom was coughing a few days before she flew home and i was worried sick about the possibilities of SARS. But thankfully, she is all clear and seems perfectly fine now. The folks are back for a short stint as my mom needed to go for her annual check up and various fixer-upper from her eyes to her vericose veins in her legs. At least they are both physically quite fine, espcially my dad. In fact i think he has put on some weight since i last saw him in Chinese new year. I am always glad when dad is home. He is like Mr Fix-it around the house who knows everything from troubleshooting a faulty car fan-belt to changing the batteries in the little gate remotes... I think i have a sort of learnt helplessness whenever my dad is home though he enjoys playing Mr lay-back and letting me sort out of this problems on my own before jumping in to help me before i am utterly defeated. When mom and dad are home, i can stop being an adult for a while and just be a little girl again. I can sass them around, tease my dad and my mom, act like a spolit brat and a doting daughter. I can cajole my mom into making my favourite dishes and tickle my dad into buying me a new phone (i am still working on a car). I know it is really disgusting but then i don't really expect anything from them... I just like to indulge in the parent-child relationship once in a while because i really don't get to see my folks often. I think i miss having parents around, just as they miss having their children around. I miss talking back to them and they miss having someone to talk back to. And as most children, we do tend to take advantage of our parents. When our whole family is living together, tension sometimes arises and that can't be helped especially we tend to feel being over-protected or restricted in our adolescence. But now that we hardly see each other, i think we make use of whatever time we have together to really indulge in a little pleasure of acting like a child or a parent because when we don't see each other, we will often treat each other like matured adults. Doesn't that sound odd? I don't know... It feels really natural to me and i am proud to say that i have remarkable parents. Both of them, though my mom used to drive me nuts. I guess each family have its little nuts and bolts here and there. But what is important is that it will all fit in somewhere... and i am happy about the way our family fitted together and i would fight tooth and nail with anyone who would criticise my folks. I guess i am protective of my family too. I think i can't be any luckier than being with the family that i have and i really don't say it often enough.

Today i will.

Thanks mom and dad... You are the best.