I was really happy leading up to my 60th birthday in March. April to July was quite run-of-the mill. There were lockdowns and emergence of new variants. Made me sad, worried but accepting of the new normal. August arrived. Sigh. From then on, everything was upended.
My life was/will not be the same again. Those few months rocked me to the core. Emotionally, mentally and physically. Death, serious illness and family dynamics. Like Covid-19, they made me sad, worried but almost accepting of the new normal. Almost, but not quite because thoughts, practiced speeches and make-believe conversations seemed to constantly drone inside and outside my head. My head spun. Just like Tom and Jerry seeing stars floating around their heads. I regurgitated unhappy and unresolved matters. Still do. Another sigh.
It was actually this state of unsettledness and moroseness that made me want to re-visit and re-live cheerier, happier moments in my life. I started with a moment, a time or one day that would be my ‘Groundhog Day.’ I failed because I have too many likes. And, I wanted many happy repeats. My head was already dancing with a deluge of fun memories with my husband, my mum, siblings, and friends. In fact, my thinking spree was in itself a happy exercise. Recollecting the different phases in my live – the jolly bits – made me smile and giggle. What a great starting point.
I can have many joyful and memorable ‘Groundhog Days’ in 2022. My mind took me back to the Philippines. With my husband. Long story short. We met at sister number 3’s wedding in England. We became friends. After a few years, he came out to work in the Philippines. I was in Malaysia. We started a long-distance ASEAN relationship.
We met as often as work, time and money allowed us to in either country. During each of our 3-5 days holiday in Manila or Kuala Lumpur, one of us was usually working because of our limited leave entitlement, we were out and about to restaurants and discos (that’s what they were called then) until the wee hours. Unbelievably, we managed to work the next day.
I seriously enjoyed the Philippines. Lively Studebakers, Street Life and Angelino’s in Manila, and villages and resorts outside the city. I remember fondly the Pagsanjan village party, Boracay’s white sand beaches, Bohol’s chocolate hills and flying in a microlight aircraft over an area near the Clark Air Base that was covered with grey ash from Mt Pinatubo’s eruption in 1991. And, Nusugbu where a wedding party played Michael Learns to Rock’s “25 minutes” during the ceremony. Hmm…
Sleeping was never an issue. Nor was eating. We could sleep, wake-up and head-off to wherever, whenever. One time, we woke up at about 11pm. I’m not sure why. Realised we hadn’t had dinner. Went out and ate Mongolian food, which by the way, tasted wonderful. Another time, we each had a medium-sized pizza much to the befuddlement of an elderly couple at a restaurant. It was our deceptively small built and big appetites that troubled them.
I plan to re-visit and re-visit those exciting moments in my life. The getting-to-know each other phase. Being young and adventurous. The generally carefree and lighthearted attitude. And, of course, that special feeling of being in love or at least, in a lot of like. I might be reminiscing with rose-tinted glasses. But, so what?
I also thought of the many Thursday and Friday lunches with my mum. Followed by price monitoring at various supermarkets we frequented. Yes, my mum loved comparing prices of items that were on her shopping list. Plus, the holidays we had together. My favourite was our road-trip to Butterworth to visit her family home, the fortuitous meeting with her childhood friend, who still lives in the same place, and climbing the many steps leading up to the Waterfall Temple in Penang. Another favourite was our stay at Genting Highlands. My mum and I rode the Flying Dragon rollercoaster, the merry-go-round and the 4D Motion Master. The 4D Motion Master operator was worried my mum might not be able to handle the turbulent movements. My mum not only handled it, she relished it. Naturally, she was younger and stronger then.
I have a good number of other happy moments/times stored in my head that I can easily retrieve like a Microsoft Word file. I hope this conscious decision to regularly think about and recall the nicer phases/moments in my life will help further brighten – a hopefully brighter 2022
Happy New Year.
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