I made this entry (see below) about 6 months ago. That’s the beauty of keeping a diary – or in webspeak – a blog. I get to reflect on my thoughts and feelings at a particular time in the past. In warm summer mornings of recent days the battles with the cold have become a distant memory. This is accentuated by the holiday mood currently descending on the office. This morning over an office breakfast, the talk isn’t of usual business but of the party the office is hosting for the building. Then it was about the Kris Kringle as the little envelopes were being dished out. It was a very light hearted atmosphere indeed. Certainly the mood is considerably different from that of that cold Monday morning in June.

So have things gotten better since then? Yes and no, I guess. My mother’s maxim of “Everything is fine once you get used to it” is proving true. No matter how unpleasant an experience is, repeated occurrences make them less intolerable, so much so that reversed good experiences become absolute and real God-sends.

Theresa and Elysia are particularly excited about their coming trip to Malaysia. They leave in about a week and they have bought a suitcase full of Christmas presents for almost everyone in the family. I just got an email from her asking me to get a good bottle of red for my brother. I am just glad that they have something nice to look forward to. Me?

Well I have a few alternatives. Firstly, I can go watch the Test Cricket match between Australia and South Africa at the MCG starting Boxing Day. It is scheduled as a 5-day test, the second in a series of 3. That should take care of 1 week. Secondly, I can take a drive to Sydney. The drive there and back would take 2 days and if I stay say 3 or 4 days, that is also 1 week taken care of. Thirdly I can just take short daily drives out of Melbourne into the country. Grampians, the Macedon, Echuca and Warrnambool are some of the areas I have in mind. The only one which makes sense (in the context of being a temporal lone single person) for me right now is the cricket. That would be nice. The alternatives would be better with the family with me. Yes, I think it will be the cricket. Howzat?

Monday, June 27, 2005

Brave the Cold and … Mondayitis

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.

posted by teetwoh | 9:42 AM