THE SPACE BETWEEN
OUR BIRTH (THE BEGINNING) AND DEATH (THE END) IS CALLED LIFE.
WHAT WE DO IN BETWEEN IS CALLED LIVING.
IF SOME PEOPLE ACT LIKE THEY CAN LIVE WITHOUT YOU, HELP THEM DO IT.
NO MATTER WHAT’S GOING ON,
DON’T LET THIS DRAG YOU DOWN.
~ A DECISION YOU HAVE TO MAKE.
KEEP YOUR ENERGY HIGH.
BE THE POSITIVITY FOR OTHERS TO LATCH ON TO.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
PEOPLE SAY THAT I’VE CHANGED A LOT.
HOWEVER, I BELIEVE THAT A LOT HAS CHANGED ME.
I SEE THE WORLD THROUGH A NEW LENS, WHERE FOR INSTANCE A MOMENT CAN BE EQUIVALENT TO 1 YEAR, WHERE I CAN SOAK IN ALL THE BEAUTY
THE WORLD HAS TO OFFER.
AND,
I, IN MY OWN SMALL WAY,
CAN OFFER WHATEVER TALENTS I MAY HAVE, BACK TO THIS WORLD.
WHAT I DO WITH LIFE AND TIME, I TRY TO DO MY BEST.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
Brr-urr-r-urr-rrr! Not sure if it’s spelt correctly. It is meant to indicate that the weather has been quite chilly today. For a short while (yes, just a teeny weeny time 😉), I thought it was just me. My resistance to cold and extreme cold weather is wearing off. The excuse…er.. reason would be , is because I am getting older?
I am not the only one feeling the colder – than – it – ought – to – be weather. Jeannie felt that the weather was a bit more chilly than usual. It rained quite heavily in the afternoon. It has been raining heavily about an hour on the average over the last few days. The weather, when the sun is up, was humid hot, but not blazing hot.
I was back home at about half after eight this morning; after dropping Jeannie at work. Traffic was alright, not too much of a concern.
Then, I took time to check and reply emails and social media. I am trying to make it a habit to bring myself up to speed on all the platforms I am on. I try to limit 1 hour first thing in the morning, half hour during lunchbreak (Lunchbreak? What is that?), and about 15 minutes before 5.00pm. In that way, I don’t get consumed with the ever lively social media platforms. I definitely cannot cover all the platforms within the said time. However, I do work towards clearing all of them before the day is up.
My next calendar event for the day was my 10 kilometer daily walk. By the time, I got ready and started my walk, it was after 10.00am, earlier than usual. The sky was a mix of morning sun and light clouds. The clouds did provide some shade. It was a pretty good walk session. I completed a 10.33km walk in a time of 1:59.01, averaging a speed of 5.2km/hr. I liked the above average speed that I clocked in.
The above shows my health tracking on my Samsung watch. I am diligent at keeping pace with my health tracking. I am working at hitting at least the normal targets. I still have a long way to go.
Showered. Then got down to writing. One major thing that I learned fairly recently about writing: I have to write, everyday; for at least an hour. Whether I have an idea or not, about what I am to write about, just write. The whole process is to make it a rule or habit. There are no if(s), but(s) or maybe(s); just write. And, that is what I do. Writing for more than an hour, or at any additional time of the day is a bonus.
Before I knew it, was time to make my way to Laura’s (my daughter) office to pick her up. Being Friday, they knock off from work at 4.45pm. Traffic was good all the way. Then, we had Jeannie (my wife) picked up from her office. Laura and Jeannie had some grocery shopping to do. We stopped at KK Mart, a popular neighbourhood grocer in SS12, Subang Jaya (1); to get the groceries Jeannie and Laura wanted.
Then, Laura went to meet with Praga. Jeannie and I were in our usual predicament, “What to eat?” I suggested that we have our dinner at the T23 “chap fan”(2) restaurant in Taipan USJ as I wanted to pick something up from the pharmacy next to it.
When we got near the restaurant, traffic was a lot more civilized than usual – not much of a traffic jam. We managed to get a parking slot just before the restaurant. Well, maybe about a hundred meters (U.S. spelling of “metres”. They spell it as it sounds. Makes sense.) away.
We got in line. “Tak mau nasi” (Don’t want rice), and the server handed me an empty plate. I started choosing the food I liked from a wide selection of dishes. The choice of dishes today seemed like 10% – 15% less, as there was a few empty spaces for the food trays.
My today’s selection first started with a sweet chilli sauce because it was amongst the first dishes. The chilli sauce was meant to go for another dish; a chicken dish, I think. I got a few pieces of potato from the chicken curry dish, steamed egg with mince meat, a slice of luncheon meat (spam), potatoes in a brown gravy sauce and fried egg omelet.
The potatoes in a brown gravy sauce is a must try. Not spicy. When dipped in the sweet chilli sauce for an added, different flavour; ooo-la-la! The steamed egg with mince meat is a Chinese dish, I think. Unusual, it tastes pretty good.
The finale of my meal was the curry-ed (or is it curri-ed?) potatoes because it was under the pile of food.
Jeannie’s meal was more of a set bet for those who are not adventurously daring for spicy food. Not that Jeannie does not eat spicy food. Her meal was more vegetables and rice with a black hard boiled egg made in a dark brown sauce. The hard boiled egg prepared in this way is very popular with the Chinese.
We found a couple of seats at one of the long tables. The meal was enjoyable. Either we are taking more dishes than the normal amount (which I don’t know how much the normal amount is), or the meal is getting more expensive. The meal is still reasonable but not cheap. Free hot soup and hot or cold water is available. Any amount.
We headed to the pharmacy a couple of doors (not blocks, as the shops here are in a terraced row) and got the item that I needed. We got home a short while later.
It was more eagerly to get home so as to pack for our short holiday tomorrow. Golden sands, blue, green, murky seas, sun (hopefully not too hot). Clothes, food, cables to keep my gadgets going when their batteries run low… Did I mention clothes and food? Jeannie likes to over-pack. Laura is joining us, too; on this central, south western state of Negri Sembilan’s city of Port Dickson and its beaches.
Happy Weekend!
NOTE:
1. Subang Jaya is a thriving city in the state of Selangor, Malaysia.
2. Chap fan which is pronounced as “chup fun”, means economy rice in English.
LIFE DOESN’T GIVE US A PURPOSE. WE GIVE LIFE A PURPOSE.
MY GOAL IS NO LONGER TO GET MORE DONE BUT RATHER TO DO LESS WITH AN EMPHASIS ON QUALITY.
MAY YOU HAVE THE COURAGE TO BREAK THE PATTERNS IN YOUR LIFE THAT ARE NO LONGER SERVING YOU, CONTINUE TO IMPROVE ON THOSE THAT ARE, AND ADOPT NEW ONES .
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
Life is complicating as it is. It does not need help
from you or me to complicate things even further.
Live simply.
ONE SMILE AT A TIME – THAT’S ALL IT TAKES FOR ANYONE TOP LIVE A HAPPIER LIFE.
~ ALAN IAN ATKINSON
Writer, Author, Storyteller
Ain’t it the truth!
There is a saying, “The moment you are born, you began to die”.
The world average life expectancy for men is 69.8 years and 74.9 years for women.
The U. S. average life expectancy is 74.5 years for men and 80.2 years for women. This places them at the 45th spot on the world life expectancy charts.
Closer to home, the average life expectancy for Singaporeans is 81.5 years for men and 86.1 years for women; occupying the 6th spot on the world life expectancy charts.
Malaysians aren’t far behind from the Americans. They come in at the 48th spot with the average life expectancy of 73.6 years for men and 78.5 years for women. (1)
The United Nations estimates that currently there are 573,000 centenarians, almost quadruple the 151,000 made in 2000. (2)
My mum’s sister, Aunty Diana; received a personal letter from Queen Elizabeth II congratulating her when she turned 100 in July last year (2022). Aunty Diana resides in the U.K.
In the Wikipedia listing, Malaysia has 134.68 centenarians per 100,000 people, the highest number in the world. (2)
Centenarians are increasingly becoming the norm. “Supercentenarians” or super-centenarians are people who 110 years old. There are some who have reached 115 years. Jeanne Calmant from France is the only age-verified person to have reached the milestone of 120 years (2)
So, at what age can we consider old as in “old”?
We are living in times that provide us with better living facilities, environmental friendly areas, food and methods such as exercise.
The retirement age from work for most people in Malaysia is 60 years. If their place of employment offers to extend their employment on contract for one or two years, the employees will accept.
Some employees may accept the one or two years work extension simply because they do not know what to do with their free time if they are no longer in employment.
At the point of retirement, people will have plans on how they plan to live life – a life of relaxation, taichi, travel and other things. One month…six months… 1 year goes by.
Then, the joy of relaxation wears out. How much of taichi, line dancing, mahjong, long coffee mornings at the kopitiams and travel can one enjoy? Your attention span. vision, etc., takes on new roles. You, begin to notice the short strands of cobweb strung up together at an obscure corner of the room.
You will notice every minute fault in your home that was never there before or went unnoticed all this while. Guess what? You will probably complain (a nicer word than “nag”) about it but do nothing to fix it.
I, for one; formed images of what it means to be retired and old. These formed images were based at the time on what I saw when I was growing up, in my younger and childhood days in Klang (3): The old people go for walks early in the morning for about an hour or so. They may go for walks with groups of friends. Almost inadvertently after that, they end up going for breakfast, most often, to kopitiams (4). They meet up with other friends. Conversations range from politics, share market (in the 1980s) and gossip. More often than not, they will drink tea, chinese tea i.e. (that is); at a kopitiam, not a “teatiam”. Some may opt for kopi, kopi-o and kopi-o kosong (5). However, most end up drinking tea.
At that time, I used to think it rather odd, that they would pour tea from a large aluminum teapot into a small red color clay teapot. From this red color clay teapot, they pour the tea into small red color clay cups without handles (their version of an expresso coffee?).
Another thing is I used to see some old people wash the cars of their children. My impression at that time was because they were staying with their children; they either felt obligated to do things like this or they were forced by their children to do so. PERCEPTION.
It is only years (many years later) that I learnt the reason behind this “art” of drinking tea. Quite interesting. Perhaps a topic for a future essay.
As for the washing of their children’s vehicles; these senior folk may have done this because they wanted to; that it gave them something to do.
So, what do we do from the time we retire till the time we say “sayonara” for the next world? How do we prepare a platform for a continuance of life from retirement and after, for the next 20, 25, 30 years? We should not just prepare nursing homes and basket weaving activities. We should not turn on the tv sets the whole day where it becomes the only activity. We should not just employ them to sweep floors and clean tables at fast food restaurants. All these are “consolations”, afterthoughts or kneejerk reactions.
Many of these seniors have knowledge, skills, expertise that could be put to good use. For example, an organization can be created where these seniors work with plans, ideas, solutions to help the millions of starving people around the world, disaster relief, etc. As it is, the manpower resources available now is not enough because we have heard the same story about world hunger and disaster relief time in memorial. Ideals?…lofty ideas? Maybe. Food for thought.
Life is a gift. At birth, we are not promised anything. One thing is for sure: it will be full of adventure. While people around us will work at creating a pathway for us, and succeed at that; for most of us, we will be set on centerstage, where the world is our audience to watch how we transform ourselves through this ever evolving journey. Or we will be on a platform where we draw the map and connect the dots after us at each marked point of interest. Where the next moment that has yet to come, is a journey to the unknown, or “uncharted waters” if we may, scary because we do not know what that moment that has yet to come, holds for us.
Now, where was I before I was interrupted? You put your left foot in, your right foot out, your left foot in, and shake it all about…Hang on.., hang on…, that is not Billy Ray Cyrus’ song, “Achy Breaky Heart”. Must be old age. 😉
NOTES:
1. WorldData.info, worlddata.info/life-expectancancy.php
2. Centenarian, Wikipedia, en.m.wikipedia.org
3. Klang is a city in the state of Selangor, Malaysia.
4. Kopitiam: is a popular reference among local Malaysians of a coffee house serving traditional Malay and Chinese fare.
5. Kopi is coffee, kopi-o is coffee without milk or creamer and kopi-o kosong is plain coffee – no sugar, milk or creamer.
6. I chose not to focus on illnesses, aches and pains. These cannot exclusively be associated with old-er age; as some younger people may not escape from these ailments.