Luck, lottery and gambling

"Why have you got stains all over your shirt?" Half of EggEgg's blue school uniform is stained pink as I picked him up from school.

"Oh, let me tell you all about it. First, today it's so hot that a lot of kids were buying ice pops. There were even 2 teachers at the canteen buying icepops. Then Hugo [EggEgg's best-friend-of-the-month] bought an ice cup, he thought he has finished but actually there's still some left, and he ran towards me and spill it all over us."

He is still happily reminiscing about the incident whereas my mind was racing through whether we could get the stain out of the uniform, or whether I should buy him a new uniform has it has green paint and a tear snipped with his craft scissors during their arts and craft lessons since last year. His shoes barely lasted two terms. The once black shoes were now grey, whatever fake leather material surface has been completely stripped with daily abuses. Even the shoe laces are split into multiple whiskers.  When I questioned him about his shoe care, he answered with a matter-of-fact tone, "But Mami, everyone else shoes look like these too. All the boys."

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"Did you buy any ice pops today?"
"No."

 A fortnight ago, he made his first ever canteen purchase.  For two years since the beginning of kindy, EggEgg's been looking forward to the day when he can buy this own stuff like a grown up at the school canteen.  Yet after 8 terms of school he is yet to spend a single cent from his pocket money,  because he's too shy to walk up to the canteen lady to make his order.  Alas, that first ever purchased ice pop had coloring in it, so it made his allergy flared up right away. I had to remind him not to order those colorful ice pops anymore.

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"You can buy stuff at the canteen with your pocket money. How much have you got now?"
"$2 and 30 cents"

Ah... his total revenue of the year. He's earned a few $1 this year doing weekend gardening jobs around the house, I remembered. However, he's also lost his train ticket during the last holiday when I took him out to the city, so I penalised him $2.50 for a replacement ticket. Last week, I bought him a stack of xmas cards for writing to his friends, yet he leave them around the house like trash. I made him pay 10 cents per card that I find lying around. Not bad. $2.30 can probably buy him 5 ice pops if he wish.

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"Mami, I tell you what. Jamie ate lots of ice-pops and he keep on winning prizes. Last week he already won 2 headphones, today he win an ipod3!"

"Nah, you are wrong, those prizes aren't so readily won. Jamie probably has to collect like 20 tokens of the same kind in order to win."

"But Jamie really has won! He even won the holiday to America. For free! Free!"

"EggEgg, it doesn't work that way. There's something called 'terms and conditions' which you probably haven't read. It's usually written in tiny letters at the end of the promotion poster."

"Mami, YOU don't understand what I say at all! Jamie really really has won!"

"Come on, show me the prize if he's really won." I am growing exasperated, luckily our house is just round the corner."

"He doesn't need to bring the prizes to school to prove it to you."

"But EggEgg, there is no way you can get so many prizes by just eating those $1.00 icepops. The company will go bankrupt."

"It's not just $1.00, it's $1.20". EggEgg is still adamant about his good friends fortune.

He continued with the same exasperation. "Mami, after talking to you, you still have no idea about what I'm talking about!"

"I know exactly what you are talking about!"

I can't believe we are having this kind of lines of arguments at this age, he's not even a teenager yet.  Those back and forth arguments of "I am your mum, I know better" vs "You don't understand me like my friends do."

EggEgg challenged me, "Mami,  I bet you this: Jamie really has won. If I'm right, you better give me a dollar. If I'm wrong, I'll pay you a dollar."

"EggEgg, we don't gamble in this house. 我地唔賭錢."

"What's gamble?"

"It means playing with money."

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Cola has finished flipping through the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid #8 which has arrived on our doorstep this morning. He enjoys browsing through the comic strips even though he couldn't read a word of it. Suddenly he chimed in,

"倒? 倒乜啊?"

"倒你個頭!"