During the recent public holiday we discovered the Mc Donald’s at the Peak was selling not one but two Happy Meal toys of the Hot Wheels variety that Rockstar loves (to be exact, it’s the tiny stickers with minuscule instruction diagrams he enjoys putting together).
Sc00ter Boy on a mission to Mc Donald’s (for real, he thinks the whole Mc Donald’s thing is for toys and then they offer SOME food in case you get hungry)
Now, the Cyberport Mc’s often sells out of the Good Stuff real fast because of all the little kiddies in the area, there are so many big developments/ homes with families living here. So I know what’s coming when we bring JD for her 3km walk at the Peak on yet another sweltering day (way to tell the dog we love her) and there is, as often is the case on a public holiday, a massive crowd of tourists and picnickers swamping the Mc Donald’s counter.
No wait, Rockstar actually didn’t even notice the Mc Donald’s, but with only a couple seconds’ hesitation I pull him over to check the “Happy Meal Toy On Offer” window. To me that is an indication (to self) how much I love him ok, because I loathe crowds and especially crowds of tourists because of the whole germ-freaky thing whereby they might have foreign bugs we haven’t built resistance to etcetcetc (yes, from That Time when a visitor from our London office sat in the dealing room I worked in back then with only a light sniffle – that seriously floored all the otherwise tough locals because obviously English bugs are different from Hongkie bugs. When I worked I was squeamish because I didn’t want to make a mistake on pricing and execution of someone’s trade (since your mistake is in dollar terms and error reports signed off by bosses, no one wants one-a-those) cos I wasn’t feeling well. Now I don’t work, it is JUST SO MUCH MORE WORK if you have a cranky, sick toddler. And frankly I see more and more mums everywhere sanitizing things. At Cantonese Music Class the local mums wipe down the music keyboards before their kids start ok….)
That’s when we queue for some 25 minutes in the crowd (which I might add by Hong Kong standards is a lifetime ok, remember when I told you how Kings went nuts at an uncrowded KFC in Seremban because they took 20 minutes to still not yet produce a zinger burger without mayo) just so I can not wait for them to get the Happy Meal food that comes with.
Kings made an even bigger sacrifice that day – he almost didn’t make it for his basketball game. By “basketball game” I must clarify it’s not the people who stand around aiming a ball at a hoop while swapping desk stories. It’s the people who post online not just how many points everyone scores, but the number of rebounds each player makes, right next to the manga cartoon or other caricature/ photo of said fanatics enthusiasts even as they discuss their over-zealous frenetic rabid passionate efforts on some officious-looking website in Chinese. By all means read into that how I think they should audition for the cast of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (showbiz good!). I call dibs on saying that because I have agreed to spend the rest of my life Til Death Do Us Part with Guy Who Thinks People Die From Playing Soccer.
In fact Kings so tried to hold it in he bundled a maniacally-waving-Hello-Kitty-helium-balloon-Little Miss (normally, he HATES even the freebie balloons and this is one that yes, floats about – we suffered a lapse of judgment so severe as to present it to a younger child who is very particular we not attach ribbon to wrist or balloon to anything else really, because why shouldn’t we follow behind her holding the tail end of the HKD 78 balloon in case it flies away? Wasn’t like we had anything better to do like eat lunch), a mad-delighted newly-walked border collie, an over-packed diaper bag and an annoyingly collapsible stroller into the car so I could sprint over to the carpark with our older child, clutching his newly acquired Mc Donald’s prizes tightly.
Somewhere I just know there is a marketing researcher who works for the big bad golden arches doing a fist pump of the formerly-embarassing-to-Rockstar kind, and going YES!
Rockstar was “Do I have to eat chicken nuggets to get the toy??”
No darling, you don’t have to eat the stuff that comes with the cheap little gimmicky toy by devious multinational company to make you Bite of the Proverbial Junk Food Apple. In fact, lemme tell the swamped staff they don’t have to actually take our Happy Meal order or pack it for us, they may simply zap my Octopus card so we can have the toys.
Said swamped staff then refused to let us do that. Tut-tutted us, even. Wouldn’t take any money for food we would not consume. (To be fair the plain steamed corn doesn’t really qualify as junk). Insisted on charging us just the HKD 8 for each toy and “counting it” as the person before us having bought the Happy Meal. There are battle-weary Mc Donald’s servers who care. Even as she hands over an umpteenth plastic, not paper (which was returned in favor of plastic) bag to Random Elderly Tourist Who Couldn’t Finish Her Fries.
Somewhere I just know there is a PR person who works for the big bad golden arches doing a fist pump of the formerly-embarassing-to-Rockstar kind, and going YES!
And btw my late maternal grandma from Guangdong who lived to be in her late 80s more than a decade ago loved Mc Donald’s french fries. I was a teenager back then and she even tried to make her own when she couldn’t get to Mc Donald’s, then concluding they had secret ingredients in the oil they used to fry the potato.
And so then here we are.
That is Rockstar making his breakfast sandwich (chicken and ham paste with thin slices of pear) with his Mc Donald’s Happy Meal toys in attendance
On the inside, he is smiling. But he wants THAT picture up, of him seriously scarfing. I have such a BOY of an elder child.
And where’s Little Miss while all this caffeine-fueled typing is going on?
On a foam break at that Place of Worship of the Work Warriors, St. Arbucks.
Free babycinnos from Starbucks. Just as devious, these people. It’s like the Miss and I just have to have our Starbucks fix before heading on to Wisekids or Chinese Playgroup, these days.
Another tip: When you are hard-pressed for time at Mc Donald’s on a public holiday, you may want to consider not standing behind any holidaying helpers in the queue. Only because it’s fairly likely the one innocent-looking helper ahead of you is going to be ordering 20 large Coca Colas, several bags of burgers and 2 dozen large french fries because that is exactly what happened to us. Our own helper seconds me on this one.
ps: Linky party will be late this week because it’s my paternal grandma’s 90th birthday tomorrow! The whole extended family will be flying from near and far to the birthday bash over the weekend…
Here’s wishing your paternal grandma a very happy birthday! Will all of you be celebrating with her as well?
Miss Rockstar seems to be enjoying her babycinnos. She must be the youngest fan there. No photo of Miss Rockstar with said balloon?
McD’s toys must have some magic in them. Here recently there was a mad craze for minion McD toys until the management said no to selling toys without the meals and having to limit 2 or 3 meals per customer. And customers buying meals just for the toys and throwing the meals away until some people started collecting the unwanted happy meals to give to charities. Magical McD’s toys.
Well, may all of you have a good weekend!
Making and eating sandwiches is serious business. Thus Rockstar’s face when eating the sandwiches. Did he make the exact same sandwiches in school previously?
Well almost; he had pear n apple slices and salmon and chicken pâté/paste for school…n&