New Kid On The Blog

This year, there were people that I really wanted to see but didn't manage to, and there were people that are not so important to me whom I saw instead. There were people whom I didn't see because of the lack of time and effort.

I thought CNY is a time for getting together with relatives - some of which we probably see only once a year during this auspicious occassion. However, Saimun's family does not have the habit of visiting friends and relatives during CNY. Neither did their friends and relatives come over except for a few of them. I've been married to the Chim family for about 5 years now and I still don't know all of their extended family members although there aren't many of them. Some I know by face but have forgotten their names. I'm also not sure who is whose son and which ones are married. Most embarassingly, after so many years, I'm still not sure who should be receiving ang pows from me. I guess I'm just a person who doesn't pay attention to these details and the fact that I hardly see them doesn't help either.

I was supposed to meet up with my school friends but I bailed out the last minute because of various reasons (or you may say excuses). We've been talking about it weeks leading to the event but because of the last minute change of venue, it made it more difficult for us to go since I was planning on getting my FIL to send us (if it was around PJ). Another reason (excuse) was our very packed schedule. We met up with a lawyer in the morning and we had another appointment later that evening and I wanted Dominic to take his afternoon nap before the evening appointment. Like I said, these are all excuses. The main reason was the location and our lack of own transport. Of all the gatherings that I had, this would have been the best one but I missed it, although I can't blame anyone but myself. This would be the one that Dominic would enjoy the most. These are my friends who are mostly married and with kids.

We met up with a few friends and the conversation was always the same - how is it in the UK, how the economy is so bad and when we mentioned that we wanted to go back for good, how it is not advisable to do so because of the job, money, cost of living, etc. Later, during our long flight back to London, Saimun and I talked about it and we concluded that for most (not all) of the people that we met, money is at the top of their priority list. These are our friends who are either not married, just married or just started a family.

I also met up with my ex-colleagues and I couldn't help feeling that my life is so different from theirs. I suppose most of them do not have a family yet so their main objective is career development and they do not mind having to work late and to bring home work during the weekends. I'm so far away from that - me who bakes during her free time and leaves her laptop in the office. Sadly, I found that I couldn't contribute much to their conversation anymore. These are my friends who made fun of the Malay/government workers who leave the office at 5pm. These are my friends who are mostly not married or have no kids.

We had our annual pot luck gathering with my university mates too, and honestly, I enjoyed this one the most! It was the most meaningful, honest (at least I felt that it was) and open. The only downside is that Saimun was most of the time half-asleep (I think) because of the lack of any male companion. Perhaps this is the only group of friends who didn't talk about money. These are our friends who are unique. Unique because I can't find anything common between us. Come to think of it, perhaps the only reason we got together was because we speak the same language.

# posted by Skye @ 6:32 am