Favourite Family Routine

Being in a family with both working parents, the only chance of a get together would be during the night. This is not rare in Singapore, where working hours are generally long and workload is always piling. That said, the only chance for routines would be on weekends. Since a routine basically consists of a serious of events that occur within a fixed time frame, I shall cover it in 2 parts - pre and post dinner on weekends.

Our family weekend routine would often start with a jog in the evening - me, my parents and my younger sister inclusive. We would take a slow jog by the river, enjoying the scenery and the breeze. Occasionally we would spot uniquely coloured birds; most often identified as king fishers. We would always stop in our tracks see it in action. That graceful feathered bird would swoop onto the water surface and then fly to the edge of the river victorious; a fish is caught between its beak. Other sightings would be illegal fishermen gathered under the bridges trying to earn extra cash with their catch. My sister and I often wondered who would actually buy from them, considering the water is littered with trash. After the jog, we would head home to wash up before dinner.

Dinner on weekends are always home cooked. My parents felt it was essential to eat a home cooked meal at least once a week. So while we took turns to wash up after the jog, a meal is cooking in the kitchen. It’s really heartening to see that they actually took the effort to whip something up despite them being tired after the jog. It’s also always a rare sight, seeing the kitchen piled with vegetables and dishes and actually functioning. A 360 degrees change from the sparkling clean kitchen on weekdays.

Dinner would take place around the dinner table in front of the giant television. We are all fans of drama serials, so the weekend would always be the time where all four of us would gather around, have dinner and watch shows. My Mom supplies Korean dramas while I supply English dramas and occasionally a film I deem worth sharing. While Korean dramas are always family favourites, I’m quite appreciative of them watching Grey’s Anatomy with me over dinner. It shows that they are very receptive to different genres of shows, and what’s more important is, they are very keen to share and experience what I like. Episodes after episodes, we would stay glued to the google box til late at night. We would often make a lot of conversation over the shows we watch, relating it to our lives, people around us and the lessons and ideas conveyed. =)