One of the most difficult things living abroad is the constant anxiety on the conditions of the loved ones you left behind. You just simply dont know when the next bad news going to beep on your sms inbox or whether the next unknown numbers that will appear on your mobile screen belongs to the unfortunate messenger who will have to break the bad tidings that you dont want to hear. Just today I got a message that one of my aunts passed away and my mum was rushed in an ambulance as her blood sugar level went dangerously low and she fainted at home. These two separate incidents just reminded me how constant anxiety is a common sine qua none if you live thousand of miles away from the place you call your real home. There are times when loneliness creep in and these are the times when your mind flies home reminiscing the good and bad memories you left behind. I have tried to avoid loneliness by filling up my time with all sort of activities with my kids and missus. Golf, the gym, swimming, horse riding, cycling, table tennis and coffee lounging with the kids are now in our regular schedule. One good thing of course, the kids are now closer with me. They will wait for me everyday after work begging me to join them in their activities which could be anything from what I listed above or to something quite silly like giving a chase to our two rabbits, mocha and alley that we set free roaming around our compound.
Of course back at home things are no different except that my circle of families is a lot bigger. I would make an effort to spend the weekend with my little siblings even though we are all now grown ups with our own families and our own set of stresses and problems.. I am the one who always feel the need to make up the lost time for I was away from them since the age of 11. So at weekends we would always make an effort to get together and either find a new hangout for dinner or just simply go to our usual hangout for a few sips of mocha latte and either do people watching or simply watch the Premier League on the big wide screen that is now commonplace in most cafes in town. We also will constantly update each other on things some of them petty like one of our little new nieces saying her first word or sometimes on a more serious stuff like the conditions of both our mum and dad. The weekend hangout would basically become our socrates cafe exchanging stories as well as our life experiences worth sharing. These are the few little things I miss. Anyway, as I am updating this post, my first angel Amal is coming to town. She will be here for two weeks for Easter. We are all thrilled. Lil bujik has been asking me when she will arrive. Missus is of course also happy as she will have her own companion.
