Spout Covers

The man's mom mentioned that there were lizards terrorizing her kitchen. Probably dislodged because the estate is undergoing a re-painting exercise. Heck, it probably drove many crawlies out of the woodworks. She mentioned she wanted a spout cover for her kettle, the kind that her mother used when she was a little girl.

I knew what she was looking for. My grandmother used it too. Then all of a sudden, a couple of neighbors wanted that too. So I needed a couple of spouts. Apparently, kettles are still in the vogue. And I thought hotpots are the only thing people use to boil water nowadays.

Since I was in the area, the logical venue to check out stocks would be at Bukit Timah Shopping Centre and Beauty World. To my horror, the shops there didn't sell it. They sell everything else in the category of household goods but not those spout covers. The aunties manning the shop said they didn't stock it anymore. The other shop was manned by this old lady who spoke only Hokkien. I understood her fine, but I didn't know how to frame my questions. Couldn't find the words. The girlfriend did better. But even she couldn't describe spout covers beyond using the generic word of 'lid'.

Anyway.

Went to Tiong Bahru the next day for my usual coffee run. Hit the shops there. Seriously, the first shop should have it. This is Tiong Bahru. If they don't sell it, then spout covers are relegated to 'retro' status. Walked into one shop. The aunty said they had it. They do! They also had those fabric kinda stoppers for the old-school vacuum flasks. Woah. Forgot to ask the MIL how many she wanted, including for the neighbors. Randomly bought four. When I paid up, the aunty asked me what I would be using them for. "Take photos?" I was like...huh? Of course to use them lah. She laughed. "You young people where got use these one? Of course take photo. Put on the table, style and take photos. Retro like mambo jambo mah." I keeled over in laughter. That's such an awesome line- retro like mambo jambo.

At the same time I bought the spout covers, the girlfriend texted and said since I was hunting for those, her mother went to dunno-where, found them and bought me four too. Oh how awesome. Her mother's always so nice lah. When I passed the them to the MIL, realized that she needed eight in total for everybody. Cool.