A Changing Routine A Different Scenerio

Hi friends,

This is about a changing scene for me.

From this

to this

Yes, I am away from home again. And changing routine.

In the morning send Adelia to the kindergarten. At 5 fetch her back. Done this for the last five days and perhaps for many more days to come. Oh, ya. Next week is a school holiday. Looks like this holiday she will have to stay home. 

Adelia on holiday 

Adelia's kindergarten is outside the condo complex itself but it is just a 5-minute walk from the main gate. So it is better to walk than to drive. I feel a little cumbersome at first of locking and unlocking doors and of swiping card at access control, gate or entrance. Hey, I am not very familiar with this place. Looks like Adelia is a little insecure and less confident having me instead of her own mother to chaperone her. She may sense the unsteadiness and blur in me hehe.

Outside the condo complex, the road is congested with traffics and the roadside, every inch of it is occupied by parked cars. This area is so overcrowded. This is definitely not a prime location but then where in this city is not crowded?

After sending Adelia its time for some exercise. Three or four rounds of brisk walking around the multi-storey building are enough to bring out quite a lot of sweat. As I walk a steady flow of cars, one after another whizzed past, the morning rush to the office. By the time I make the third or fourth round the place would be empty and quiet except for some maintenance workers and guards.

The rest of the people here must be holed up in their own units.

Back in our unit, there's nothing much to do. No garden to water. No plants to prune. No dried leaves to rake.

The balcony is empty, Adelia's mini garden has perished. If I have to stay longer here I would start for them a balcony garden.

Nothing much to cook. Here they used to order food for dinner even for lunch on the weekend. So here I cook on the minimum. Yaey!.

Life here is a yawn but it's ok, just a little sacrifice on my part. It is for the sake of a newcomer expected to arrive very soon. 

Of course, I miss my place, my morning walk, my tennis game but then family love surpasses everything else . . .

Ok friends, till next entry.

Hangover

Hi friends

Old people have tasted more salt they say. Meaning they have more experience, they have seen many things and have more knowledge. Really?

As you live through the years you just try to manage the everyday things that are of the immediate concern to you, yourself, your home your family. Outside that sphere you know nothing and you don't really care.

Soon after when you are retired or free from those responsibilities you look back on life and realized that all these while you have missed so much and you know so little and then  you might be overwhelmed by regrets.

And one regret might be that you have not studied hard or smart enough to gain entry to the sekolah tinggi which allow you to have a better life.  Yaaaah I never step into university . . . Ahh during my time so few people get into university anyway . . . Call me sour grapes . . . haha.

Lucky are those who can gain entry here

Inspirational tour. exposure at an early age

And then you also realized that you were not observant enough and that makes life before were just boring existence. To prove a point, you only now know that there is a bird of this nature, it has a red patch on its tail . . .

Not that it is so important that you must know this but . . . but you feel great when you can show off to your friends that at this age you are still bursting with life that you still have interests and not just hibernating in a shell.

And when you get a message like this off you go . . ..tennis of course . . .

Well friends my entry this time is like gila gila . It must be the hangover from too much lemang and ketupat and the rendang.

So forgive me but I still hope that you enjoyed reading the entry.

Bye . . .

Raya - Going Home, Coming Home, At Home

Salam Raya to all

I have started composing this entry a few days back but only get to continue today. Its raya . . .

Now everyone has gone back to work though some continue their holidays else where, don't we have 30 days to celebrate? As for me, a retiree, I have the luxury of time but not of money to take me to places but then its ok I like just being at home, just appreciate the pictures sent . Anyway you can get rain and sunshine where ever you may be.

This time as usual our celebration started on the eve with the takbir raya and since this time my house was the last destination it was already late when everything done and the group left. One am? Two am? But it's ok because that's one of the ways you can do if you want to have the feel, the spirit of Aidil Fitri, and to bring upon the mood of raya into your home.

A moment like this would remind you of the time long gone. Those days as the raya was nearing I would be busy preparing to balik kampung. With the family was still very young, mother busy, father clumsy, children making tantrum sometimes, you can imagine the situation and going home was a must. What with the bad winding road and the heat and the dust and sometimes the rain. You need to be tough to endure the long journey, or else your fasting will terburai,  remember, that time there was no highway and no RnR.

Actually no one forced us to undergo such a hectic tiring routine to join the rush every year but when it was time its just in you to join the exodus. You would not want to be left behind and realized that only your house was lighted at night. And you wondered why that missing feeling.

Whatever, everyone was on the go. Destination was home. Balik kampung was a must.

The situation now when the family has matured, the children have left the nest, from my point of view home is a vacuum waiting to be filled come hari raya. The otherwise quiet place burst into life as the car door opened and out came the girls. Just like in the TV ad aha. The home coming was a sweet moment though we do quite often meet. My mother must have felt the same a long time ago, I think. So the rush of balik kampung was worth it after all.

How about a situation where you have a family coming back to you and you yourself need to go back and see families and kins left in the kampung. Do you need to do that. As a person in the middle generation you sometimes feel it tough to full fill this unwritten rule. It is hard to oblige and then be called a benevolent person(?)

No doubt a celebration like this is best if all including the extended family can be together but at certain time in your life you want things to be done your way, call me selfish, never mind, that on the big day you are at home, and stay home celebrating with your very own family and get to entertain own siblings and own friends who come to visit.

Let not our own home be closed and appear lonely. Let our own home exudes the warmth and spirit of hari raya. A picture of rejoice. So stay home!

And this time I had it my way. It was nice to be in my own setting, us sitting around the table chatting over good food, cracking jokes and laugh our hearts out. And talking about non serious topics that go on and on randomly but no, no malice but full of goodwill. All happy and so relaxing in your own home.

chirping over food

Indeed Aidil Fitri is a time to celebrate and rejoice and in ways we are most comfortable with. Well I have been through many rayas but at the end of Ramadhan every year I would still be anticipative of the day.

Hope you too enjoy this Hari Raya.