In cybernation...

Let’s say I’ve been cybernating. Its cold, still very, very cold and I had had enough food over Christmas and New Year to cybernate until there is enough sunshine out there to get out. I had been away from work a week before Christmas and it was only yesterday that I dragged myself out and braved the early morning hailstones to earn myself and the cats a decent meal.

This hiatus and hence the reluctance to update my blog in a way reflect my attempt to cling on to 2005 and stop the march of time. As the countdown began on TV to herald in the new year, I buried myself under the duvet and fell into deep sleep and woke up the following morning as if the new year never came. But who am I kidding, eh? During the last few days of 2005, some people did come over to remind me how fast time has zoomed past us.

For four wonderful days, I was in the company of my loved ones from back home. My niece Anedra and her husband arrived with their entourage, which included her parents (my sister and brother in law), her sister and her two little children to make sure that – hey – these are your grand nephews!! At the earliest opportunity, I pulled little Nasar aside and told him to take it easy when calling out my name in public – Tok Teh doesn’t sound very glamorous, you know.

For four wonderful and fun packed days, we were camped at Holiday Villa London, occupying three family suites although our house was just a stone’s throw away. This was just to ensure that we did not miss a single minute being away from each other.
the cousins

These four days were perhaps the longest I had spent with my grand nephews and many a times I caught myself sighing when I had flashbacks of those days not too long ago that I was minding Anedra, changing her nappies and putting her to sleep. I couldn’t wait for the weekends to come so that I could rush back and be with her. Then, all to soon, it was a tearful goodbye at the airport when she left for Kansas when her father went there to further his studies. And more fast forwards later, she was back here in the UK pursuing her own studies AND babysitting my children. She was always available when I had assignments in Germany and in Budapest, I could enjoy a full week away knowing that they were in capable hands. And all too soon, this winter, I was minding her children, changing their nappies and wiping their noses. Where did time go?

Wasn’t it not too long ago that Kak Cik and I were wetting ourselves suppressing our laughter in the middle of the night at her grandmother’s house in Pilah, as we struggled in the dark to change her nappies? Kak Cik had unwittingly plunged the safety pin right into my thigh. There was immediate realisation that there’s a vast difference between real life babies and paper dolls that Kak Cik and I used to play with.
Anedra & Baby N walking tall in Model Village

And all too soon too – there I was in a hotel room in Paris, sobbing into the telephone on Anedra’s wedding day because I couldn’t be there on her special day. Again, I was away on assignment.

These last few days, I kept looking at the photographs that we had taken in Stratford, Cotswold and Oxford capturing the fun moments that we had. And there were also those documenting the havoc in our hotel rooms as the cousins enjoyed every precious minute together. And during the last few days too, it dawned on me, and my aching bones that it isn’t easy anymore dashing across the room after a spritely three year old, or answering clever questions from an inquisitive five year old.
cousins

Thank you Anedra for coming over and repackaging all those years in the last four days of 2005.

Uncle Taufiq & Nasar in Cotswold Model Village


I am now officially out of cybernation.