cakap cakap...Life!

 Sometimes I am reminded that our time on this Earth will soon be done. At 65 going on to 66 reading about people dying at 56 or even younger catches my attention more than what our King is asking the people of Malaysia to do...the latest being something about getting on with our life now that the elections are over. What the King of Thailand will have to say to his people may make the Thais listen reverently because of the good the King has done in the past, but our King changes every five years! I would think that the Yang di Pertuan Agong is more concerned about enjoying the perks of being our King more than anything else before he has to make way for another King. So perish the thought that what our King says will make any difference to my day. 

Today I will concern myself with thinking about what I want to do for the rest of the day. I woke up at just past 5.30 am and an hour later I have already put through a whole load of washing, cleared the kitchen sink off all of last night dinner aftermaths, feed the cat, showered and put on my shorts and singlet (that's the Malaysian part of me - cannot put on trousers even if the weather is freezing!) watched the news on ABC, made me a cup of green tea (which my son bought for me yesterday) and am now at my PC writing this- at just past 7.30am. And now I am thinking about our life being done on this Earth, say in about ten to twenty years at the most - after all I am 65!

Morbid? No it is not..... because while I do have that thought at the back of my mind of more importance is what I intend to do for the rest of the day today. Of course during the course of the day, off and on and when the spirit moves me, I will put pen to paper- or should I say finger to the keyboard, and write what is in my head. Sometimes politics,sometimes life but most times it is about what moves me.

In between writing there is breakfast, lunch and dinner to do for my wife and anything else she wants and need to be done for her. Sometimes we watch TV together, converse and laugh a lot....not much fighting between us because there really is nothing much to fight about. I do not stay out late for any reasons at all, she does not want any expensive diamond rings or new Winter dresses to keep her warm or up to date with the Winter fashions - so we are good friends now. And good friends enjoy each others company. We are working on a new routine now. She goes to sleep at 10 p.m and wakes up at 10 a.m. Not easy to do when she is NOT sleepy! But we are getting there.

I also want to get the house a bit more organized. Too many books collected over the years gathering dusts and taking space in our tiny apartment. there are many I want to keep because I enjoy reading them over and over again - especially the biographies - but when your living space is limited, you must cull what is no longer needed or of no use. Ikea has assisted a lot in making our storage space pleasing to the eye but Ikea does not work for free. 

Our living room is where we want it to be...the ambiance of a three or maybe four star hotel done on a Budget hotel budget because almost everything is bought second hand or purchased when heavily discounted because of some blemish here and there. Our table lamp is one.It would cost almost Aud $200 new but we got it for Aud $60 because there was a tiny tear in the woven tapestry of the Lamp's stand. 

      

The curtains are all from Ikea - and you and I know that when Ikea do their sales, there stuff are priced very reasonably. 

We have a huge plasma TV bought many years ago and still giving great pictures and our one indulgence these days is good food. We have done our Maggi Mee and Eggs days when we first moved here early last year so now we indulge in whatever our finances will allow us to do. I have become quite adept at knowing which Supermarkets will have their 'specials' on which day of the week. At times there will have their 'half price' days when you actually pay half price for the things you really need  - and when they do we go out and buy as many of the items as we can afford to stock up for our future needs. Last Sunday night was one of those nights. The three of us - Lucy, my son Zack and me went over to the Coles supermarket nearby in the evening and did what I call our 'anything you want' grocery shopping and we needed the three of us to carry the grocery  home!

You might say that there is nothing much happening in our lives these days and I would agree. We do not talk about which new model Toyota or Holden we want to buy. We do not even have a car. We do not plan for a holiday anywhere - hell we are living in Melbourne voted the best livable city in the world! 



Who needs to go anywhere else.....except maybe to Kampong Baru for the best Nasi Dagang in the whole wide world and to See Kee curry puff in Bukit Bintang for his Kambing Curry Puff which is simply 'best one lah!" And so even for us living in the most livable city in the world there are things that we miss and yearn for but in the main....life is good!