Another extremely guilty day. Firstly, my mom took leave cause she wanted to spend some time with me her kids..namely me and my sister. Well, it did get off to a pretty bad start. First, she cooked me breakfast =) But erm. As you know, my mother's side of the family has a terrible cooking history and that includes my mom. Oh man. After spending about an hour trying to wake me up (its effort, more effort and nothing but pure effort and that includes screaming her head off, pissing me off..you know, the usualy routine), I was really in no mood at all for tuition. Yeap. My Physics tutor decided to torture me by scheduling my tuition at 11 AM in the MORNING!!!! The things I would do to make him suffer. Anyway, I NEVER ever EAT ALOT in the morning. Not ever. My appitite in the MORNING is NIL. ABsolutely rock bottom. Coupled with the breakfast that my mom made (I'm really appreciative...its just that.....its too much), my mood really hit rock bottom. I had to force the ham down my stomach and swollow her eggs. Just because she made them and I'll feel guilty and bad about it if I don't at least take some. Of course, this being the holidays, there is nothing much of interest in my life currently. Well, except for my tutors telling me how screwed I am (they were inferring as usual) for my June Common Tests and me trying to prove them right by slacking yet another day, nothing much has been going on. Hmm. But there was dinner. Yeap. Dinner was a treat my father gave to his friend of 22 years because he was to be attached to Oakland, America where the head office was. I have always looked up to this friend of my fathers. Firstly, the physics tutor that I have now? It was recommnded to me by him. And secondly, he carries himself very very well. You know, if I could ever choose to be who I want to be when I grow up, I would pick him. According to my father, he is a very well liked person and an extremely efficient and good worker in the office. A combination like that is not only rare but almost a sure concoction for success in any corporation today. Besides being quite high up the corporate ladder, he also has a very nice wife who also used to be a badminton player =) Today over dinner, I had one of those rare oppotunities to see how thier kids behave. You see, I am a very strong believer that character 80% made and 20% in-born. Parental guidiance and nurturing takes up the most part of this 80% while teachers, peer influence and the will to change one's own character takes up the lesser part of 80%. I believe that most of the time, children will in time have characters similar to their parents. And today, my father's friend sons told me alot about their family through their behavior. Firstly, the family is a very very liberal family. Even in front of outsides (which is us), their kids are very independant and do anything they want on their own accord. Its like looking at an Asian family with American brought up. Very interesting. It could be because 3 years ago, their family just spent 5 years in Canada where the kids grew up in a Canadian society. In a way, I was pretty envious as I have always wondered what it was like to be as brought up in that kind of environment. But mind you, I am very proud of my brought up. I kind of like control over my life. I like the idea of having some family principles such as no fighting, no smoking, no drinking (alcohol), restraining me. Otherwise, without restrains, god knows who I would or could have become today. Yeap. I once used to hate my parents for being so strict with me. But now I do understand why control is important and I have learnt to accept that. But when you are brought up in such an environment, you'll always wonder what if....and the people who were brought up in liberal environments would also wonder what if...Argh. I must have drifted off unconciously into some really stupid crap. Anyway, the 2 sons were very free with what they said. They could even talk bad about their own schools (which by the way happened to be my secondary school) to my father and could even maintain a conversation with him. Wow. I'm not sure about them, but everytime I attend these type of dinners that are unrelated to my family, I would usually keep my mouth shut unless spoken to. Logic behind it is simple. Respect. If my parents don't ask me to talk, I will try not to unless of course, I am spoken to. I also perceive it to be extremely rude if I actually do talk more than my father. Its kind of hard to explain..I just feel its wrong. The other bad thing about talking too much is you might actually cross the line between polite dinner talk and sensitive talk which includes views on politics, religions..etc. Its very easy to get carried away and not only do you leave a bad impression on others, you also leave a bad mark on your family. But thankfully, most of the time I am so uncomfortable at these type of dinners that I don't have much to say anyway. Anyway, that should conclude my dinner story. Anyway, its very late and I ought to be sleeping. . Till then