When Laura was just about a month old, I had already become an “experienced” dad. Jeannie had been at home for that whole month or so. She was thinking of going out with some of her close friends. I told her to go and enjoy herself. Don’t worry about looking after our baby, Laura. I’ve got this!

Jeannie went over the “how(s)” to prepare Laura’s infant milk in case Laura needed more than the 1 bottle that was ready; change her diapers; Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera! (sounds like a quote from that famous movie[1]). Jeannie said she would only be out for a couple of hours. I said, “Don’t worry. As I said, I’ve got this”.

Laura was a pleasure to look after, never gave much bother. When the time came for her milk; I duly made it, scooping the right amounts from the tin of milk nearby, mixing it with the right amount of water, etc.. I forgot that Jeannie had already prepared a bottle of milk and kept it in the warmer.

So, I fed Laura the milk I had prepared her; carrying her while she was going to sleep. I was actually slow dancing with her in my arms to “I Love The Way You Love Me” by Boyzone and other songs of that era.

When Jeannie got home, she noticed that I had not given Laura the milk that she prepared before she went out. Oops! “I forgot”, I said. I made another bottle of milk. I showed Jeannie where I got the milk and… “Alan, that is my milk for me to recover. You gave Laura the wrong milk!” And I was wondering why there were two opened tins of instant milk. Now, I know why.😂😂

One of my favourite moments was at Subang Parade Shopping Mall many years back, maybe around year 2011 or 2012. It was a Wednesday. Either I, or Jeannie (on days that she was not working) or both of us; would take Laura for her music lessons at Yamaha Music School.

The best dad / daughter / best friend / best dad moment: Laura was about 11 years old at that time. She had finished her lesson, which would have been around 8.30pm. This was the time that Laura was skipping her competitive swim training for her music lessons. It was the only time she would skip competitive swim training. (2) We had just finished dinner at McDonald’s and started walking to the other end of Subang Parade towards the car park. A casual walk. While walking, she put her arm round my shoulder and I instinctively put mine around her waist. It was a bit of an arm’s stretch for her as she was much shorter at that time. Our walk was only a few minutes long. However, the time captured of total friendship : priceless! I still remember this walk like it was yesterday.

Laura does not trust my cooking. She has had this “thing” about my cooking. I wonder if it is because of… It was a time when Jeannie was travelling out of town for work. So, I told Laura that I will cook up (prepare) some burgers, chicken nuggets, potato wedges and other stuff.

I got the stove plate heated up, poured a little bit (not too much) of oil and started first with the square burger patties, then the nuggets, potato wedges and the rest. I thought I’d cook up a feast to keep Laura and I fed for at least 3 days. By the time I was nearly done, there was a mountain of food ready for eating. Laura came into the kitchen, took a bite into one of the wedges and spat it out, saying it tasted like soap. I asked her to try the nugget. She said, it, too; tasted like soap. I told her she must have been imagining things. I took a bite of one of the burger patties and it, too; tasted like it had soap in it. I wondered why it tasted like soap.

Laura saw a bottle of dishwashing soap near the cooker. What I did was I took the dishwashing soap by mistake instead of the bottle of cooking oil which is usually stored near the dishwashing soap. Both the dishwashing soap and the cooking oil looked the same colour and were in near similar shaped bottles. I just grabbed the bottle without checking if I had the right one. 😅😂

Come to think 😏of it, at that time; I wondered why the oil dried up so fast in the pan. I didn’t think further than that. I just added more.😅

Moral of the story(ies): read the labels.

I have always considered being a dad as the highest honour and privilege. Each moment is a learning moment; I have never been through this before. Laura is about to turn 22 years in a week’s time. Working and all official and stuff like that, she would describe to us (Jeannie and I) how her day went. She is very excited about work. A few days ago, she told me, “Father, your role is not to say anything, just listen to what I have to say”. “Sorry, I am still learning to be a dad of a working daughter”, I said. Hahaha.

It was Father’s Day last Sunday (June 18th). She and Jeannie took me for a scrumptious dinner on Saturday evening at “The Chicken Rice Shop” in Mid-Valley. I opted for noodles instead of rice. The “mango kerabu” was super delicious. On Sunday, Father’s Day itself; we had a scrumptious lunch at Benjy’s in Subang Jaya.

Laura has grown to be an amazing person. She fusses over Jeannie and me all the time. She knows exactly what she wants, sets goals, plans and goes all the way to achieve them.

Father’s Day is everyday to me. Even though Laura is all grown up and very independent; she will always be daddy’s girl. Her grow up-ness has elevated our status to “Father” and “Mother” as such; from “daddy” and “mummy”.❤️❤️

NOTES:
1. The movie: THE KING AND I; starring Yul Brynner and Anne Leonowens.
2. Laura stopped her music lessons to focus on her competitive swimming when she was selected as a state swimmer to represent the state of Selangor.