cakap cakap...life.

Yesterday, 1st of June, was the first day of Winter. In my life I have never looked forward to Winter as much as I do now. We are ready for Winter! Our small apartment is warm and well heated and we have got the right coats to keep us warm. And Melbourne is a wonderful city that we have grown to love with everyday that we have been here. We are both now closer to being 70 than we are to being just past 60 and imagine how good it is to still be able to wake up and enjoy being in a place that you know have something new to show you every morning of everyday! All you need to do is to go and look for it. 

It has been almost five years since we last left Bangsar. We brought our two cats, Harley and Lea with us. They have been with us when we were in Perth, followed us to Bangsar and followed us back to Oz. Harley, our almost a 'Persian' cat left us about two years back while we were in Adelaide but Lea is still with us. 

There seems to be more 'others' than Australians in Melbourne - but then Australians consider the 'others' Australians too! I swear that at anytime that you are in the city you can count more Asians than any other ethnicity. On the streets, in the shops, on the trams on the trains and on the buses small little Asians are hurrying here and there busily doing their thing. Sometimes they have been long enough in Australia to understand that you que up when you should and you wait for people to come off the train, buses and trams before you board but the old Asians seems too set in their ways to pay any heed to these things. So you can see them pushing their way to the front of the que and rushing to board the trains, trams and buses almost everyday. And most of the time when these old folks converse it will invariably be in their native tongue. They talk a few decibels above anybody else oblivious of the stares and the obvious discomfort of those sitting within earshot of their conversation.           

The Australians are fiercely protective of the right of every person to be the person he or she wants to be just as long as they are not encroaching into the private space of others. I admire this traits that the Australians feel is part and parcel of their self and it has been one of the reasons I now call Australia home. Bangsar is my Kampong and I do think of it with much affection and longings but Australia is home.

But there are still things that I am trying to get use to. I find it sad to see so many people who are the worse for drink. Young and old of both gender seems to take to drink as Malaysian take to teh tarik and kopi o and they start drinking early in the morning and finish up late....very very late! The young take it as a sport while the old and the poor use it as a crutch to ease their burdens in life. I guess to each his own.

Life is good.