My Mother The Lush

I went to my mother's a couple of nights ago to take her to dinner. She has this habit of inviting me out for a meal or accepting my dinner invitation, but eats at home before she goes out with me. On this occasion, I told her not to eat first, that I'd be at her house to pick her up for dinner at 5:30.

I arrived at her house at 5:15. What did I see? There was my mother, watching TV, with a shot glass of port in one hand and a paring knife in the other. In front of her was the bottle of port. An excellent vintage apparently. My brother brought it back for her on his recent trip to Portugal. She confesses to quite liking this brew. She likes alcohol and partakes whenever she can. I don't know how she does it. I thought most Chinese people have a mutated enzyme that makes it difficult to metabolize alcohol. I guess she's not one of them.

In front of her on a plate was also a chunk of salami. She bought this from a wine country outing she went on with a seniors' club. She was chipping away at the chunk of salami with her paring knife. She made me try some. I have to admit, this salami was indeed fragrant and delicious. She said she was just having a light snack before dinner because she was hungry. But her bottle of port was half drank and the chunk of salami was much smaller than what the wrapping could encase.

So that's what my mother does when I'm not looking. Her version of watching TV and eating bon-bons. Good on her. But really, what's with her eating before dinner?