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| Selfie with mummy's reflection on my shades |
4 Oct is a special day. It is your mum’s birthday and more
importantly, your parent’s wedding anniversary. We first met each other at the now defunct ‘Madam Wong 2’
disco club at merchant’s road in late 2001. I think she was attracted to my robotic dancing moves (don’t
laugh, all guys will go through this), she always flatly denies it, but somehow she talks about my dance moves a lot. For me, it has to be the sassy long
straight (re-bond) hair and bright smile of hers. She was wearing a maroon red spaghetti strap top (this was
the trend back then) with gathers at the breast area (yes, I’m a breast man)
and tight jeans (yes, I’m an @$$ man as well).
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| Brunei is exceptionally boring. Going to the cinema was about the only leisure you can find |
We hang out for a while before I
was due to attend a 3-month Ranger course. Unfortunately, or in my perspective, fortunately, I got into
a bike accident a day before the start of the course and that took me away from
work for some time. I guess it was meant to be, as the time I spend
recuperating meant that I could spend more time with your mum. All was nice and rosy until 2 months
later, I was informed that I would be posted to Brunei for work in Feb
2002. Long distance relationships
were tough to maintain and we hear enough stories why it doesn’t always work
out. Many thought that spells the
end for both of us, but we persevere and made arrangements to visit each other often.
All in all, we still see each other every 3 months or less. I was posted back to Singapore in Oct 2003
and from there, we started planning for our wedding and tied the knot on 4 Oct
2004.
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| Selfies like this are hard to come by when both of you are around us |
After we had you, holidays were
always planed to your needs. We
think about your dietary requirements, the necessary surroundings for you to be
safe and adequate convenience for timely naptimes. After a decade of marriage, we finally found courage and
help for us to go on a “couple only” holiday trip. Courage because we worry you can’t survive a night without
us and Help because we didn’t want to trouble others (particularly your
grandma) too much. On hindsight,
after our couple trip, I guess ‘Courage’ and ‘Help’ were not the issues. It was simply “We can’t bear to leave
both of you” on your own.
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| Yes, we used to be so trim and tan-looking in Dec 2001 |
Still, the trip did us a lot of
good. Our trip reconnected us
again because it felt so much like “falling in love” again. Our very first couple trip was in fact to
Bali in Dec 2001 and here we are again in 2014, celebrating your mum’s birthday
and our 10th year wedding anniversary. As the taxi driver drove us past Kuta beach, memories
started to flow again and we could recall where we stayed (Dynasty Beach
Resort), the surf shops we visited, the things we bought and the stuff we
ate. All seems such distant
recollections, yet so close to the heart.
We did everything we wanted to do; and as and when we like to. We woke up when we want to and slept as
late as we want to. Drink all the
alcohol that our bodies can take and eat the things we want to eat; no matter
how difficult it was to locate the place.
The feeling was indescribable and the closet word I can think of is
“Freedom”. We stayed a night in
Kuta, followed by 2 nights at Ubud and I must say Ubud is really a magical
place. It is so rich in culture with
great eateries and coffee joints.
We were lucky to be there during this period as there were interesting
religious proceedings along the streets and weather was kind to us
throughout. Lodging was at ‘RoyalPitah Maha’ and this place is just amazing. We had a villa overlooking the cliff with personal pool and
ample space. It was serene and we
even had the time to do Yoga each morning. Perhaps the most rewarding part of the trip was to be able
to talk to one another without having a pre-occupied mind and interruptions from both
of you. We listed down 4 key objectives for the family. They are:
1. Both
of you have to sleep in a room independently and the room has to be given a
fresh coat of paint, redecorated and orientated for En Xi’s start to Primary 1.
2. We
will live healthily by waking up early for walks/jogs on weekends.
3. We
will meet up with HDB and private banks to do re-financing for our home and
work towards a quicker journey to be debt free.
4. As
the above objectives are to be met by the end of the year, we need another
couple trip next year to decide on things to be done in 2015.
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| Yes, I'm still wearing the same shirt after 10 years |
