His family resides in Australia. He still has substantial business and assets in Malaysia. He has a business in Australia but it is a new one. It is doing okay but the jewels of his crown are in Malaysia. So he flies frequently between Australia and Malaysia. Frequent flyers like him are sometimes called astronauts, as they hop on and off the plane as though they are shuttle flights. Who is he? He’s a typical migrant who is probably at least in his late forties, has maybe a few children in school or universities here in Australia and his wife is here to look after these kids. He shuttles back and forth. The frequency of his travels depends on the usual variable elements, such as the nature and condition of his business. In my short stay here, I have come to know at least 5 of them who fit into this profile. This includes an uncle, who yesterday returned from one such trip. Knowing gentlemen like him is always useful as it gives us an avenue of informal importation of goods at cheap, Malaysian prices. We just got him to get some computer games softwares for kiddo and a cousin. They would have cost several hundred Aussie dollars but these astronauts can get them at a small fraction of that. And, they are not pirated versions either. Original stuff, which for some reason, works out cheaper even after allowing for foreign exchange conversion. I wonder though, how these astronauts feel. I am sure they are tired at some point. I am sure they often wished they didn’t have to be away from their families for extended periods, at any one time. Yet they do it, precisely for the sake of their families. For a few years now, I have dreaded being away from my family. I didn’t use to feel this way. I can remember a time when I didn’t mind getting away for a while, by myself. At some point, this changed and I now feel incomplete and uneasy without my family with me. Most mornings when I drop kiddo off at her school, I still feel a tinge of sadness and looked forward to the evening when we could all be together again. The short drive to my office would be filled with constant glances shot at the clock to see if it was time for her class to begin. 4pm sees me doing the same thing, i.e. casting glances at the clock and the email icon on the computer to see if she has gotten home. The next 2 hours would just be filled with an anticipation of being home to be with her again. Ditto the wife. Lately, I have gotten out to the car porch each morning to just see her off and wave goodbye to her. An hour or so later kiddo and I would be praying for her, before we leave home. 4.30 pm sees me exchanging emails with her, apparently discussing dinner but really, just to “chat”. Dinner usually happens just before 7pm and that is the most exciting moment of the day for me. I’m sure the astronauts want to experience uninterrupted runs of such bliss.