Ageing ... extract from the personal viewpoint of LKY

A friend sent me a very interesting article. In a way, to get me out of my slumber and isolating phase of my life. It is very interesting and I am extracting parts of the article.

Lee Kuan Yew on ageing from his personal viewpoint :

 "If you want to see sunrise tomorrow or sunset, you must have a reason, you must have the stimuli to keep going"

- I think the most important thing in ageing is you got to understand yourself.

- So at each stage, I learnt something more about myself and I stored that.  

- So it's a constant  process of adjustment.  

- I'm determined that I will not, as long as I can, to be reduced, to have my horizons closed on me like that. It is the stimuli, it is the constant   interaction with people across the world that keeps me aware and alive to what's going on and what we can do to adjust to this different world.

- In other words, you must have an interest in life. If you believe that at 55, you're retiring, you're going to read books, play golf and drink wine, then I think you're done for. 

-  If the mindset is that when I reach retirement age 62, I'm old, I can't work anymore, I don't have to work, I just sit back, now is the time I'll enjoy life, I think you're making the biggest mistake of your life. After one month, or after two months, even if you go travelling with nothing to do, with no purpose in life, you will just degrade, you'll go to seed. 

- The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge. If you're not interested in the world and the world is not interested in you, the biggest punishment a man can receive is total isolation in a dungeon, black and complete withdrawal of all stimuli, that's real torture. So when I read that people believe, Singaporeans say: 'Oh, 62 I'm retiring.' I say to them: 'You really want to die quickly?' If you want to see sunrise tomorrow or sunset, you must have a reason, you must have the stimuli to keep going'.

Food for thought and to ponder. After thirty one years of working and rushing everywhere, I am still adjusting of taking things slow and just enjoying the luxury of taking my own sweet time pursuing my own activities. I do not know how long I have but I believe our lives have stages or phases. At this moment of time, this is my phase of life. Who knows what will happen in future ... we adjust, adapt and accept. Just make the best of the situation. Yes, I agree - one has to be interested in the world. In people. In places. In the little things in life ...

Morning Has Broken ... ;-))

This morning as I was walking towards the park, the clouds caught my attention. Thus, let the glorious clouds dispersing and breaking photos show you how gentle the morning sun comes through ... another clear, blue and hot day ...

The longish, dark grey clouds look like "Dementors" from the Harry Porter series

The clouds start to disperse displaying the clear blue sky 

The breaking of dawn over Istana Pelangi (Sultanah's Kedah private palace)

The sun starting to shine through the trees in the park

Approaching home, the morning has broken ... another clear hot day ... Alhamdulillah

Somehow when I watched the slowly, floating clouds dispersing gently to welcome the early morning, the song "Leaving On A Jet Plane" by John Denver always crossed my mind ....
"The dawn is breaking,
  It's early morn ..."

A Very Short Bee Story ... ;-))

Morning Walk ... ;-))

One of the benefits of moving to this new house is its location near the park (Taman Jubli Perak). Thus, it is now just a walk away. I do not have to drive myself there anymore. So, after my Subuh prayers, I just walk there. This is some of the views on my way to the park.

At 6:50am ... while others are busy sending their kids to school, I have already started my walk towards the flyover

The stairs leading to the flyover which now borders the electric railway track that separates our area and the park

The full moon over Sultanah Bahiyah over on the other side of the flyover

The opening leading towards on the flyover where it is a less than five minutes side walk to the other side. The red and white poles protect the pedestrians from the traffic flow

The 64 steps down from the flyover - 64 steps on the other side too - thus I have to climb 128 steps to the park and another 128 steps return to my house ... that means 256 steps for my poor legs ...

the view of the railway track under the flyover with electric fence on both sides -so one cannot just cross over the tracks

A view of the north-south bound railway track ... take me to where my heart is ... 

The view from where traffic has to make a U-turn under the flyover

The park waiting for me .... 

 

The familiar view of the park which I have posted once before

It takes an hour and ten minutes (depending on how fast you walk) to walk from my house, up and down the stairs, one round around the park and back - plus a pit stop at the news vendor (the uncle is already a friend :-)) ). It is so cooling and refreshing to walk in the morning amidst the busy school going traffic. It is quite safe to walk alone too ... in shaa Allah.

Moving House ... Finally ... June 2016 - May 2017

Looks like a double storey house but it is actually single storey. We made it with high ceilings as our neighbouring houses are all double storeys.

My experience of moving house was during my years in Pasir Mas, Kelantan. I moved house for six times in the five years there back in the eighties due to various reasons. Since I was single, it was quite easy as whatever we owned in this world could be fit in one car. Besides, the house was already there. The last time I moved out was when I got married and got my transfer from KL to AS. I still managed to pack everything into one car. :-}) and moved into a house which my partner had bought.

Thus, I was not really prepared mentally and physically on moving out from one house to another house. After twenty-seven years of living in the old house, of course we had collected quite a lot of things and junk. This time we built our house. Dealing with the contractor who built our house was another headache. We had to make sure we were there everyday to check on them to make sure we got what we agreed upon in our agreement. The materials used, the build up itself, the brand of paint agreed upon, the quality of the work .... it was a hassle that more often than not left us so tired of disagreeing. The workers are Myanmars who were not quite adapt to our language. Their site and project managers were often not around and we had to call them for a meeting at the site. The six-month project was finally completed after eleven months.

When they did not deliver the house after a four month delay although the house was completed ninety percent - only the exterior of the house needed to be done - I decided to make a final decision. Ramadhan was coming in a month's time and moving out the things would take a couple of weeks. The furniture I had ordered and booked was due for delivery last month. Besides, the new tenant for the old house had already gotten married!!! Hence, they too needed a house. Syafiq was back for a week semester break and Zin came to help out. I booked a lorry from Rini's husband who did not charge anything but I paid the driver and helper who helped us to carry the heavy things and a token for the lorry.

It was exhausting. Once the decision was made to move in, my partner asked for the whole set of keys from the contractors. We washed the house ourselves and moved the things in slowly. The small ones were taken in bit by bit everyday. We set up each room slowly - the living room, the mini library, the kitchen, the loft and bedroom by bedroom. We managed to make the house looked like a home a few days before Ramadhan. Once Ramadhan set in, my activities for the holy month took precedent and settling the house was set aside.

It had never crossed our minds to look for another house. The idea was mooted by my partner who had withdrawn his EPF money and was mulling over what to invest it in. He talked about a new, bigger house but I was not too keen as I was a lazy housekeeper. Besides, most of the time, there were only two of us. When we put the idea out to the boys, Akmal said that maybe it was time for their own rooms as one day they would have their own partners to bring home. We started to look for a house since two years ago but there was always something not quite right. I refused a double storey house. I did not like the idea of rooms being upstairs and since these boys loved to hibernate in their rooms I would feel left out and isolated from them. If it was a single storey house, it would still create the feeling that everybody wass just a shout away. Everybody was just around  and could gather easily by just knocking on their doors on the way to the kitchen. I used to live and grow up in a four level house.

Let me share with all of you the progress of the house ... from just a piece of abandoned land taking shape into a house ...

Since the house has high ceilings, we decided to build an open loft for the many nephews and nieces to have a place of their own when they visit. It is turned into the TV room.

The loft taking shape ...

Cosy corner / tv room - a storage box, bean bags to just laze around

An open room / alcove as a mini library, prayer room or just for reading. 

The kitchen - where we have our cosy meals and with a TV added, where I spent most of my time ;-))

Finally, we have settled in our new house. There are still a few loose ends to settle and still a lot of clearing up, the garden yet to be started, a few odds and ends from the old house to be taken and well ... as someone said, one will only be settled in three months. Well, here we will create new memories ...