Adham and Mater

Ever since I bought a DVD of the animated movie Cars a few years ago, it has become a firm favorite of my son. He can watch it every day and is almost a permanent in-drive entertainment of his. I'm not sure why but I guess he was attracted by the character Mater, who is a dilapidated tow truck with two buck teeth and speaking in a Hillbilly-ish accent.

A few months ago I bought a him another DVD entitled Mater's Tall Tales. This is a collection of short stories where Mater tells his unlikely adventures as a daredevil (a la Evel Knievel), a matador (as El Materdor), a rock star, a private eye, befriending an alien flying saucer, an astronaut, a wrestler and even as a drift racer in Tokyo. My son was even more obsessed with this cartoon!

Anyway, one day we went to Tesco for our bi-weekly house provisions shopping trip (in this case, hunting for that oh-so-elusive cooking oil!) Besides, I have RM55 worth of vouchers to be used, cutting down the expenditures for this particular trip. However Tesco Alor Setar made the 'mistake' of placing the toys in the front aisles right next to the entrance. My kids have long recognised this and asked us the parents to go to that particular aisle. Usually Adham just picked a toy at random, and that toy usually ends up in the snacks aisle (haha!) whilst my wife distracted him and he usually forgot about that toy. However this time, I made the mistake of pointing a Mater toy (in his monster truck@wrestler disguise) to him. Uncharacteristically, he cried when I tried to put the toy back, I mean he really cried! Attempts to distract him a with a RM5 Transformers figure (another favorite toy of his) failed and I have to give in, besides the tag shows it costs RM27.

When I paid for the stuff we bought, I noticed that they cost us RM127 (less the RM55 voucher) It should not be that much. It was only then I realised that that toy was actually RM50! I told Adham that he won't be getting any toys for next month! 

Oh well, the lesson to be learned here is that always check the barcode at the price check station before you go to the counter!