Dang! This little grape on my foot hurts. It didn’t yesterday. Now it does. Strange one, this. My usual blisters are white. Or clear. This one was dark red. Wifey thought it was suppressed bleeding but why would that happen? This pair of shoes (an Adidas trail runner) has been good for me these past 6 months. Yesterday’s run was around a footy oval, on near flat terrain, mostly gravel. 16 laps of maybe 600m each. With runs to and from the oval, that was just a little over 10k. Not overly excessive. Certainly not enough to earn me a grape sized and grape coloured blister. I cant wait to get home and remove the socks to check on it…

My Boss left the office over half an hour ago. Said he was jaded and tired. He had to be with a client in a police station for over 5 hours yesterday (Sunday). His wife added that it was his second consecutive weekend caught up with work/work related matters (we were in a seminar last Saturday). This silly client was accused firstly of whacking super flue on doors/windows of shops next to his. When the police searched his house, they didn’t find any super glue (I would have thought THAT strange, as most houses would have that stuff, I would think) but found an item which was from one of the shops he was accused of vandalizing. He was then charged with theft of that item. I know how it felt to have your time “robbed” by clients who do stupid things. Back in Malaysia, I had a client who was accused of slapping a woman around, in public. High profile client (accused of) doing stupid things in a high profile manner. Guess what? Got front page headlines, of course. For days. Press wont leave him alone. He had text’ed me, around 2am, if I remembered correctly. Needed some form of help which I had to promptly attend to 7am the next day. High profile client who paid a lot of fees, so I duly obliged. When I contacted my big boss, of course he agreed with what I did. I’m glad in my present place, I wont have this client to deal with, especially if he is still vulnerable to like escapades. My present boss though, has to deal with strange characters like that. Sounded almost like a character straight out of John Mortimer’s pages (he of Rumpole fame). Know any lawyers with clients who do the strangest things? I guess lawyers’ occupational hazards can be great fodder for conversation pieces and that is one fringe benefit no one should begrudge us.

Mondayitis of an “orange alert level”, I’m suffering today. I think. It’s the start of the school holidays, which will go on for 2 weeks. In Malaysia, this would have heralded a holiday trip to somewhere like Penang. It would have meant a few days together with the family in a beautiful sunny, warm and beautiful beach resort. It would have also meant a few days for Elysia to spend with her favourite cousins, Nicole and Isaac. We are however, in Melbourne in the middle of winter. The wife woke up this morning bemoaning the act of waking up to a 4 degree cold morning. She moaned and asked “why?” in a tone which made me wonder why we are here and not in Penang enjoying relatives, beaches and great food. About 2 hours after ruminating and aching the wife’s sentiments, I went into Elysia’s bedroom, told her I was leaving for work and another dagger pierced my heart. She was going to be alone for a few hours before I came to pick her and send her to Auntie Hooi’s. In Malaysia, she would have Lini (our Indonesian maid) look after her, or even better, she would have spent a few days with us in Penang. So why are we here… I keep telling myself my heart says to remain in Malaysia but my head tells me to move Down Under. I love Malaysia, but I don’t think that is the place for me and my family in the long run. Yes, yes – in the long run we are all dead, so said Keynes. For now however, I have to think these winter blues will subside to be replaced by a glorious spring, where the wife would be excited to be in beautiful Melbourne. I have to remind myself that after the morning cold thawed, when the limbs limbered up, we’d be glad to smell and breathe the crisp cold air instead of the muggy sweltering Malaysian humidity. I have to remind myself that those Penang holidays always come to an end, and we would be back in our office facing the corporate and business worlds of Malaysia, with its overwhelming corruption and bureaucracy making everything revolting. Invariably, Elysia leaves her cousins in Penang to return to a Malaysian school which will take her deeper into the forests of racially based progress in an increasingly limp education system. I have to remind myself that having an Indonesian maid for years had handicapped Elysia’s ability to look after herself better, something we have had to remedy for the last 9 months. Yes, the familiarity of Malaysia gave us much security. We need to rebuild that sense of security, here in Melbourne. We have taken the first steps, and must continue to strive on. Brave the winter mornings. Brave the absence of close relatives. Brave the new surroundings. And…brave Mondayitis.