Rainbow Piñata Cake (Part 2)

With love, from Phuket

I am spending 3 days in Phuket with my girl squad for a little getaway as I completed the Rainbow Piñata Cake order. It marked the first time I had more than a few hours of alone time since the birth of my prince. I would not have gone on this trip if it was not for one sweaty midsummer night, after a looooong day with the "baby from hell" due to teething (I blame any unexplained baby crankiness on teething), I frantically wrote to my tiny village of support, "Houston, we've got a problem. We need to go on a trip."

For the next month or so, I went back and forth thinking for a million times whether I should bring Luciano with me. As I confided my dilemma to my mummy friends and my husband, they told me with conviction that I should REALLY take some time off and just go alone (perhaps I looked like I was about to eat them alive). And so I went ahead to book my ticket.

The night before I flew off, I told my husband we should go out for dinner with just the three of us. Being the usual me who tend to have catastrophic thoughts and extreme fear of flying, I told my husband over dinner, "you know, in case anything happen to me....please find Luciano a new mummy....and know that I love you guys so so much." To that my husband responded with, "Are you crazy?! NOTHING is gonna happen to you and stop talking bollocks!"

I arrived to sunny Phuket early Saturday morning. Alone. My friends did not arrive till later that afternoon. But once they did, we chatted like we have never parted. We spoke about what's going on in our lives, our hopes and dreams and other random things like, "OMG look at that girl, she is SO hot! I wish I have her body...I want a boob job.", "Do you know you can implant the same stuff to your ass?", "I want to make my eyes bigger so people can actually see them." etc etc.

Anyhow, I had been waiting eagerly since I touched down in Phuket for my client's message to let me know whether the cake was safely delivered and of course whether they liked it. Sometime in the afternoon, I finally got her message. She was kind enough to also send me some photos of her son and the cake. She told me that her son loved it and "it was carnage around the cake!!! So many kids trying to touch it!!". When asked if the cake tasted good, she said "The cake was so light and moist, you never get that with a kids birthday cake." I was SO relieved and proud upon hearing that and my little vacation officially started right there and then :)

It has been the most relaxing 3 days I've had since a long time. I am so grateful that I had the luxury of taking these 3 quiet days off and that my friends from Hong Kong was able to join me.

I have known these girls for close to 20 years (OMG I am so old). We met back in boarding school and were instant friends because we are all nerds. We never drank or party. You'd probably see us sitting in a corner in the school cafeteria braiding each others' hair (I'm just kidding). According to my husband, I am the wildest of them all as I started enjoying a glass of red wine at dinner.

We have seen each other through life's ups and downs and they have loved me flaws and all.

I left Phuket thinking, "I hope I have been as good of a friend as they are to me...And if not, I promise I will make more efforts."

Throughout the years, some of my friendships continue to blossom, some faded in colors, while some sadly fell apart. During the trip, the three of us talked about friends being in different life stages and the resulting difficulties in remaining close. Both of my friends are not married yet and are focused on climbing the corporate ladder, breaking that glass ceiling and figuring out what they want to do in life. All while I scoop up poop, tell my boy for the thousandth time to tidy up and worry about whether he will turn out to be a descent man.

I am not sure what's the key to a long and thriving friendship. Perhaps its showing interests in each others' life, prioritize time to stay connected, empathize and most importantly, to remember that no one is perfect and we are all just trying to make sense through the ebbs and flows of life.

However, it is these friendships that make life worth living. For together we celebrate victories, mourn over heartaches, pick each other up from the trenches of failure and reassure each other that "NO, that boob job is unnecessary and you are perfect the way you are."