Wondering About Wandering

I cannot keep house. My maid has taken it upon herself to extend her holiday for another week and I cannot keep house. The laundry baskets have spilled over, ants are beginning to appear again, the in-house cockroaches are getting smaller (they have been reproducing!), Puffy is getting grumpy and Bubbit is getting grumpy.

I would love to keep house. I would love to douse the place with detergent and just scour with a really coarse brillo pad. Despite my regular lazy self, there is a little Monica inside who just wants to get out and get anal. But there just isn't the time. From shipping Bubbit from one class to another, to sorting out his new school application, to hanging out in Kamdar, to meeting up with contractors, curtain people, movers, etc, to getting a mall opened in January (in that order of priority!) there is simply no time to scrub. No time for rub a dub dub. We simply have to attempt a harmonious existence with baby cockroaches for the meantime.

I often yearn to move out to the sticks and lead a simple life. You know, grow chilli, sell fried noodles, sew my own curtains. Lead a blissfully simple existence and have the time to reflect, ponder, dream, wonder and engage the imagination. It does dawn that I am raising a child in an unsuitable urban environment, where we marvel at skyscrapers and video game graphics rather than fish for tadpoles and learn about the different species of banana. You know, children naturally gravitate towards learning about nature and history and geography and why things are the way they are. And sad to say, I often don't know the answer, being a product of an urban childhood, or don't have the time to find out. "We'll Google It" has become reply of choice. Of course, we never get around to it because once we're online, it's straight to the games. And so we have to contend with Petrosains and the like, which do a marvellous job but it's a further reinforcement of learning from 3rd parties rather than first hand isn't it. It's not the same as fishing for tadpoles is it.

So my point is...well I have no point really, except that I do think about moving away somewhere quieter. And simpler. And I wonder if that really is more than an occasional wish or if it is a viable option. I discovered that I do have a strange liking for small towns - Ipoh, Kota Kinabalu, Mentakab (?!)...Of course I do love the city and being in the thick of it all, so wherever I go has to have access if you know what I mean. I wonder about what I will do to make a living. I wonder what kind of school Bubbit will attend. I wonder if people will visit. I wonder where. I wonder, I wonder, I wonder.