Pumpkin soup

I have been very busy during the past few weeks. Tons and tons of experiments to do from 8.30am~10pm...every day, non stop. Thanks to my supportive husband, dinner is always ready whenever I go home. When I reach home every day, I just need to attend to my son and put him to bed. My son's meal, shower, homework is usually taken care of. How lucky can I be?

Friday is my hubby's relax day. He can do anything without being disturbed by Sya and me as we both are not off on Fridays. He likes to go to the nearest electrical store, sits on Japanese massage chair for 20 minutes and relax. That's his luxury activity every Friday. If I have time to go out during lunch, we would buy bento and have lunch at nearest park...recently frequent trips to Bizan hill to enjoy lunch with the cats.
However yesterday, a busy Friday, I couldn't make time for a lunch date with him. Hubby called and asked me what I would be having for lunch. Since I was so busy, I told him that I had never thought of it yet cause I may not have time to even buy lunch. Before going to his Friday prayer, my hubby came to my lab with a big bag.

Inside was some food for my lunch. What was inside? It was pumpkin soup, nicely lined with asparagus and broccoli in a tupperware and two big pieces of bread in a ziplock plastic.


I thanked him and said: 'Arigatou abang. Tapi camana nak makan ni kat tea room ya. Ramai orang Jepun kat lab makan lunch during lunch hour ni...'
He said, 'Tak susah la yang...abang ada letak sudu sekali kat dalam...' He sounded a little disappointed. Knowing he had been taking the trouble to prepare, I thanked him again. Then he left.
I could only squeeze my lunch at around 2 pm. In the tea room, as I opened the tupperware, my Mongolian friends came in for her lunch too. She praised me and said the lunch looked lovely. I told her that my hubby had made it, smiled at her sheepishly. She looked at me and said, 'Ahh...your hubby must really love you...' She then continued and said, 'If my hubby were here, there is no way he would do the same to me.', she expressed her envy. My Mongolian friend who is a newly wed, just came to Japan 8 months ago. She came alone as her hubby could not leave his work. I know she really misses him. Those words, coming from her must have been hard. To make her feel better, I told her that it would be different when he's here, knowing the difficult situation she is in. She looked at me and smiled, unconvinced. We had a quick lunch. The soup was warm and delicious. Extra warm with extra ingredient, if I may say....:)


It's times like this that made me realize that I have been taken things for granted once in a while. Being busy is not an excuse to not appreciate the trouble my hubby had gone through to make my lunch. A lesson learned...no matter how busy one gets, there is a need to stop and think and acknowledge what we have....that we are really blessed. I know I can survive, because of him. I cannot be where I am now without him...never.
Again, thank you hubby. I cannot repay you enough in my life. I hope we can lead a normal life when we go back. Is the decision to go back next year good or not good...it doesn't matter now. As long as we can be together, that alone is good enough for me.