CCCII: Surprise Mission Accomplished

I mentioned a few days ago that I could barely contain my excitement about something in the near future. This event happened yesterday afternoon and relates to my mom's birthday. We flew in her sister from Milan and she didn't suspect a thing. This is how it went down:

• I went to work and could not concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time since I was counting down to my aunt's arrival
• Left work early to pick my aunt up at the airport whose flight arrived around 1:45pm
• Arrived at 2:20pm (cutting it very close, and I may have been caught for speeding) and she came out around ten minutes later...phew!
• Got home around 3:30pm. Mom heard me coming at an earlier time than expected (I had told her I needed the car today to go to a party after work, which wasn't a total lie...but wasn't the real reason either) and waited for me at the top of the steps, which she never does. So I walked up to see her and my aunt stood at the bottom and my mom just said, "How are you?", thinking it was one of my friends, and then when my aunt walked up she suddenly realized who it was and she started laughing and hugging her. No screams of joy but that wouldn't be her style anyway. I just can't believe it took her that long to know who it was. 

Anyway, I'm pleased that we all managed to keep this a secret from my mom, especially since she phoned my aunt the day before and asked her to come.

One of the first things we did last night as a family was plan out all the restaurants we will take my aunt to. Having been deprived from dim sum, Chinese food, and other Asian cuisine for the past couple of years, she is going to eat to her heart's content. If you're curious, we are taking her to the following restaurants:

1. Kirin for dim sum
2. Ho Yuen Kee for lobster rice, wonton noodles, etc.
3. Vivacity for dim sum and my mom's birthday dinner
4. Phnom Penh for Cambodian/Vietnamese
5. Fisherman's Terrace for dim sum
6. Vij's for Indian (we were going to go tonight but the location and weather changed our plans)
7. Tropika for Malaysian/Singaporean
8. Urban Thai Bistro (have never been but it was recommended by a family friend). I may sway us to Charm Modern Thai Bistro instead.
9. Shanghai River for the best steamed pork dumplings (Jenny Penny!!!) and spicy peanut noodles

It's times like these that I'm grateful that my family loves food too.