Family dinner for Mid-autumn Festival

Father wanna had the family dinner for mid-autumn festival at Pizza Hut, so we went for it tonight. When I told Florence about my father's choice during our lunch today, she's surprised as her parents would propose going to Chinese restaurant for traditional dinner only, never interested in trying out new dishes.

I remembered that I seldom dined out before I went to higher secondary school, partly because we gotta took care of grandma's dinner and mostly because it's expensive for a family to dine out. I never deny that I was (and am) poor, and my family used to be poor. My mother got a job in the factory to help out my father's burdens when I was promoted to Primary 3, by the time I was thought to have the ability to take care of my little brother who was in Primary 1. My father lost his job when I promoted to junior secondary, but he never complained about that and kept trying hard to get a job. He used to be a forklift operator at the cargo terminal, and with nil education background it's actually difficult for him to get a good one. He has tried working at petrol station, at factory, etc, and finally he settled as a guard of an industrial building. Aged over 50, it's indeed a harsh job for him especially for the night shift. That's why my family understood that every bit of money earned was not easy, and we reduced expenses to minimum; among all, dining out was, of course, never a good option.

By the time I completed Secondary 5, my father went into hospital due to serious liver illness. I remembered I gotta bring my HKCEE result slip to the Princess Margaret Hospital, where my father stayed for several months for treatments. He was so happy that he showed the result slip to nurses, while I was embarrassed. What's on his mind that time was to get me into university for better future.

Afterwards it came the time I got admitted to university. Living in hostel far away from home, I've nearly forgotten how hard my family has worked to bring me up. Then in Year 2, my father got heart attack, while the factory where my mother worked failed to pay wages on time and went into lawsuit. My exam results were no way to be regarded as good. Seemed that all sorts of bad lucks converged. By that time my brother got the chance to be admitted to bachelor degree Programme of Accounting, maybe to year 2 directly, due to his outstanding performance in TI. However, he lapsed the opportunity as he didn't wanna add extra financial burdens to my family. Suddenly I realized that I was really the lucky one among us, but I didn't try my best in my study. It's too late by the time I learnt the truth, I got no way to work out a first honour degree from that point. Fortunately the surgery was a successful one, my father's health recovered step by step. Thanks to my part-time at McKinsey, I used my saving to subsidize the medical fee. My mother got a part-time job at KFC. My brother got a job offer soon after graduated from TI.

Time flied, I was graduated and got a job at a so-called professional firm, and subsequently at banks. Earning stable income, I started to get my family things which they didn't enjoy before. The most obvious one would be dining out for sure. My parents had never tried dishes other than Chinese and Indonesian. That's why they were so excited when I leaded them to taste Japanese foods at Watami. They're fond of pizza, even though I told them what they had were HK-style pizza instead of the original Italian ones. They're interested in some kinds of western dishes as well. Finally they had something to enjoy after their harsh early lives. Gradually it turned into a practice that we'd dine out for festival days. My parents would get excited and started pondering what to have for dinner when festival days approached. My brother insisted to share the expenses at the beginning, but I refused that since he enrolled in his part-time degree programme and set up his candies shop. Other than foods, I also tried to share my wealth with my family through monthly contribution. That's why I'm poor, no kidding =P

All these memories flashed across my mind suddenly, not only because of my family dinner for the mid-autumn festival tonight, but mainly due to a question raised by Alvis. He asked if I would usually have bad luck as what he has. When I thought back, I didn't really able to judge. All past events sharpened my intrinsic values. Rather, I would say all these challenges turned into sorts of invaluable experience for life, together with happy and sad moments, ups and downs. Be optimistic, then everything would turn out fine and far better from imagination *,* Afterall, the most important thing is to live a happy life =)