Simple life simple musings

We are coming into summer days now. Every morning is sunny going into work. The flowy floral dresses showing off tanned legs and arms are everywhere in the city and there is a cheer in the air as people having had a good Melbourne cup are now planning their Christmas parties and booking NYE plans.

S and I are working hard on our house now that we are back. We spent the weekend mowing, weeding, raking and replanting the lawn. I am so excited at the prospects of the new lawn that I could sit there and watch the grass grow...literally! S has caught me once.

We also went to Moore park supacenta and scored this grand tv entertainment unit from Nick Scali in the sales. S was stoked I can tell. For it really did tick every box of ours. It was white, high gloss, the right height, good quality and just the right price. And it has enough slots for all of S's gadgets and gizmo's! Twas a good weekend that just went past.

Well I wondered last night if I could be happier if we had posted our engagement on Facebook so that 78 or so people can 'like' it? Or if he could make me feel more secure by changing our Facebook status to include our relationship. Or if he could do grand gestures so that the voyeur in me can post up details along with pictures so that our friends can gag on our romance. Perhaps tis true what Lady Fairfax says: that Jealousy is the last resort of the insecure.

But when I do reflect on the little things he does do for me, like folding my laundry and putting them away, or like marinating the chicken so that it's easier for me to make dinner when I get home from work, or just him taking the initiative to research council law to find out how to get rid of that tree that really annoys me in the backyard...I know I don't need Facebook affirmation to help me articulate his affections for me. We are happy just the way we are.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Details details...

Instagram at Kuramathi

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Honeymoon! What a life this will be!

At Kuramathi island in the Maldives: one of the most pristine and engaging natural beauties I have ever encountered. This has been a treat showing S the lushness of the tropics and seeing the colours of the flowers, tasting the sweetness of the fruit, the wonders of the sea creatures that coexist still with the tourists of the resort.

Memories of my childhood come gushing back, of all the things my mother tried to teach me about Mother Nature on many of our nature walks. And I have been so excited to revisit them like old friends of mine, playing with the Hermit crabs and telling S all the stories my mother used to share with me.

Today is my last day here on the island. I sit in the fierce sun beating upon the deck of our water bungalow with a cool glass of French rose to sip at for refreshment and I stare at the lone heron that perches everyday on the rock in the midst of the ocean. If only I could stay here forever, with the warm breeze keeping my sun kissed locks off my face, watching the heron and watching the sea. If only we were sure where we would be in ten years time, so that we did not need to spend today stressing and pondering but could just spend it like this everyday of this honeymoon... Careless and carefree, just sipping and staring at the sea.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My world from his eyes

We have finished the stay in Malaysia. And showing S where I grew up and the full extent of my family has been a shy but exciting experience. It'd be like no matter who the person he thought I was or had morphed into in the last ten years in Sydney, all my layers were stripped bare and laid naked in front of him to scrutinize.

So he met all my family, my roots and learnt the history of whence we came from, and how we perserved through poverty and rose out of others' condescending views of who we were and what we were made of. And I wonder if any of that came as a surprise?

I am not born of poverty. The family business began to thrive as I was born so I was lucky enough to be sent for private education. I am known amongst my friends for my weakness for good wine, luxurious spas and my penchant for expensive designer bags. It'd be difficult I think for me to teach my kids to be humble when I myself have turned my own back on my heritage by leaving the country. It will be a tough choice. Do I maintain a very traditional home so that my children feel a disconnect between the home and school like many first generation Australians? Or do I let S take on the reigns in dictating how a second generation Australian home should be run, banking in on the advantages that his parents cultivated in him by their selfless sacrifices when they left Malaysia and raised their kids in Sydney?

I get ahead of myself. S confides in me that he values how endearing it is to him that I care about family and am ever ready to care for them. And if that is all he sees in me after this trip then my family has taught me well and I needn't have worried that our humble beginnings would have frightened him.

Others only can long for such a big and supporting clan in spite of our stories and our dramas. We are wealthy, not of the monetary sort but in the love we possess for each other. As grandma cries as she drinks my cup of tea, as third aunty exclaims how much she'll miss me now that I am marrying to such a faraway place, as I see many familiar friends' and relatives' faces during the 600 pax reception we had in KL, I cannot help but let a few tears escape as I stifle the sadness in me over leaving them behind to start my new beginnings. And S stares at my glistening eyes in wonder. Perhaps not able to comprehend the depths of the emotions as he extends his unsure but reassuring hand. Or does he? As he whimsically agrees that we could raise our kids in Singapore so that I can be closer to my family...and speaks as much Mandarin as he knows, I can see how hard he is trying to love me, and to embrace my world as his own.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Airport Main Rd,,Maldives