Rich People Problems-Kwan 2017 (WWT)

CHAPTER ONE
TYERSALL PARK, SINGAPORE
MADRI VISUDHAROMN
Lady’s Maid to Su Yi Since 1999
Madame usually has a bowl of congee in the morning, sometimes with a fresh raw egg
cracked into the steaming-hot congee, sometimes with just a few ikan bilis. Today she
asked for Hokkien ma mee, which was a highly unusual request for breakfast. The
noodles Ah Ching prepares for her are done in a very specific way, using a hand-pulled flat
yellow noodle, which she likes stir-fried in a thick oyster sauce gravy with a dash of
brandy. For lunch, madame just wanted me to bring her some fresh star fruits and guavas
from her trees. She asked for the whole fruit—she didn’t want them sliced or anything,
and sat up in her bed, staring at her fruits and holding them in her hands but not eating
anything. That’s the moment I realized that something was terribly wrong.
PHILIP YOUNG
Only Son
I saw Mummy after breakfast. For the first time in as long as I can remember, she wanted
to know how I spent my days in Sydney. I told her about how I drive down to my favorite
café in Rose Bay every morning for my flat white, and then there are always errands to
run, something in the house that needs fixing, or I’ll have lunch in the city at one of my
clubs or play a round of tennis with a friend. In the late afternoons I like to sit at the end
of my dock and do a spot of fishing…that’s when the fish are always biting. For dinner I
often eat whatever I’ve caught. Mickey our chef will always do something terrific with the
fish—grilled and served over risotto, made into a tartare, or steamed Chinese-style with
rice or noodles. Sometimes I’ll just go down to the local and have a pub dinner. (Mummy
shook her head in a mixture of sadness and disbelief—the thought of me sitting in a pub
eating a burger by myself like a common laborer is too much for her to fathom.) But I
love eating very simply when Eleanor isn’t around. If she’s in town, Eleanor keeps Mickey