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We are what we think & my blog entries reflect how I think. Have a sip of the poison of my mind.. It's not always lethal.

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Family's House Moving: From West To East

Mum has been staying with my elder sister, her hubby and their 3 children for many years now ever since the late 90's, after my nephew (my elder sister's first child) was born and mum took on the task to provide an extra pair of hands to help take care of my nephew when his parents go to work during the day and at the same time, be a coach and guide to their maid.

As the subsequent long years rolled by, my 2 nieces were born 5 years apart from each other and multiple maids have come and gone when their employment contracts ended. Currently, mum is still helping to take care of my youngest niece who is going through primary education as well as providing guidance to their present maid. My elder sister is indeed blessed with the ideal family setup and wonderful children.

They have been staying in the western part of the country just like I am (me and my Lioness in our own den) and my second sister as well (her own house). Since we all stay in the west, visiting one another at our own respective places of residence during the family gatherings has always been convenient.

Today, my elder sister and her family, along with mum and their maid Zo, are moving over to the newly bought condominium apartment in the east my elder sis and her hubby purchased - which is at the extreme opposite end of the country. Elder sis and her hubby fell in love with the apartment with its handsome sea view.

As family, me, my Lioness, my second sister and her boyfriend all came to help with the house moving. I'm actually going through a bout of coughs and phlegm buildup and therefore, I'm feeling a bit under the weather; but I knew I could still manage it and help my family out. We made trips back and forth from west to east and back again (picking up my Lioness halfway after she finished her alternate Saturday half-day work), shifting labelled cartons and furniture over to the new place.



Halfway through the chores, prolonged exposure to the dust associated with house moving intensified my phlegm buildup which made me more uncomfortable, resulting in my nasal passage feeling like it's choked up like a clogged-up rusty old pipe while at the same time, I had to deal with my coughs. To alleviate my condition, I drank as much water as I could.

Towards early evening, we finally managed to shift the last of everything over from the old house. Phew. Now that the dust has settled and I can breathe easier again, my Lioness and me both went downstairs to have a little stroll to check out the condominium compound.




To conclude this house moving day, elder sis and my bro-in-law took all of us out for a sumptuous dinner a stone's throw away from Kembangan MRT station before we all went home. When my Lioness and me got back to our block, she went up to our house while I go get my coffee fix at the neighbourhood basketball court and at the same time, deal with something welling up inside me and subtly gnawing at me from within. I guess it's another Emo moment.

The impact of distance punches in

For so many years since the late 90's, family always felt like just a short bus ride or a short train ride away. That feeling ended today. From now on, I will have to travel from one end of the country to the extreme opposite end to visit my family at their new home.

Today almost felt like sending off people dear to you who were migrating. That's an exaggeration of the situation, I know, but at the same time, the parallelism was there; albeit a similarity that's of a less severe magnitude in comparison. Even so, I'm beginning to miss my family already and I'll go as far as to admit here that I'm wondering why I'm feeling strangely.. 'abandoned', for lack of a better word. I wonder if second sis, who is left behind in the west as well, is feeling the same.

You are probably rolling your eyes already at this point but like I've said, 'tis an Emo moment. Emo moments are usually not very aligned with, and skewed a little from actual reality and they are usually exaggerated and overblown perceptions of said reality; but the fact remains that I'm finding myself to be really missing my family a lot now as I take sips of my coffee. It's not the coffee though.

Before today, it had always been comforting knowing that family was so close by. But now, they've moved far away. That won't stop me from seeing them of course, but I guess the comfort of anytime-close-accessibility has been replaced by a huge chasm called 'distance'. Distance makes the heart grow fonder and creates an Emo out of you.

On top of it all, I'm worried about mum. She told me that it was rather hard for her to leave her friends behind in the west. You see, my mum is elderly and her legs are giving her some problems, so it won't be an easy matter for her to travel the long distance to go visit her friends back in the west. Mum told me she is really gonna miss her morning coffee sessions with her friends. As it happens, she doesn't know anyone living in the eastern part where she has just moved to.

I'm making a mental note to call mum even more often now to chat with her and to remind her to come stay over at my place whenever her granny-caretaker duties can be put on temporary hold. Before I left just now, I made sure that her portable radio was right next to her bed. At night, she listens to her favourite radio station. I hope her humble little radio companion will take her mind off her losses during the night when the mind tends to wander more.

From where I'm sitting at the dark basketball court, I can see the road off in the distance where the bus that took me to my family's former house always travelled along. What used to be a comfortably short 25 minutes bus ride has now been replaced by coming to 2 hour's total of grinding train and feeder bus rides. The same transportation grinding will of course, have to be repeated going in the opposite direction when I make my way back to my house at the end of the day. I better look into exercises that strengthen butt endurance and fitness.

Despite the out-of-place and weird sense of 'abandonment' I'm feeling that really shouldn't even be there at all, I am happy for my family for having moved to a really pleasant new home with a much more prettier and lovelier view; I actually find the view at the balcony to be rather therapeutic. I suppose the balcony will be the favourite spot where my family will be chilling out at the most. I would myself. The only minus factor though, is that the hall is much smaller than their former house's. The bedrooms are smaller in comparison too, but not by too much.

Well, I'll have some major travelling distance adjustments to adapt to from hereon in the family gathering department of things. Why can't they start inventing wormholes already?

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