Friday, April 17, 2009

A completely different way of life

We arrived in London safely two days ago. Osh Osh was remarkably well behaved during the thirteen hours flight and only cried as the plane made its descent due to the change in air pressure which caused his ears to ache. Thank God for in flight entertainment! Osh Osh must have watched the same episode of Ben 10 at least ten times!

We stayed at our friends' home in Feltham which is not far from the airport. It was such a warm, wonderful feeling to go to a home with a delicious hot dinner waiting for us and comfortable beds to rest our weary bodies in. Our friends were very hospitable and ensured that all our needs were met as we were too tired to think for ourselves that night.

The next morning, we had a four hour train journey and again, Osh Osh impressed us by being able to keep himself occupied and happy throughout the entire journey.

We're now in Brixham, Devon. Our hosts, DH's elderly friends, told us that it's the busiest fishing port in the UK. Having said that, you definitely do not feel the hustle and bustle of city life when you're here. It's so quiet and peaceful. Our hosts' home is up on a hill overlooking the bay. We can see the fishing boats come and go. There are seagulls flying around. One of them is a frequent visitor to the house which our hosts named as Popeye. Yes, Popeye has a mate named Olive, just like the cartoon characters. He eats anything from fish pie to apple crumble. I must admit that both Popeye and Olive have a good life!

Life here moves at a slower pace. We don't look at the clock and are not rushing about getting things done. This morning, we took a stroll in their large garden with Osh Osh. I had just taught Osh Osh how to use our video camera and he is learning it with gusto. He took photos of everything, from the flowers to the grass to photos of Mummy, Daddy and our hosts as well as the food we ate and the toys he played. He so enjoyed photography that it was very difficult to take the video camera away from him! I'm not being biased when I say that some of his shots are quite good. I'll put them up on Facebook when we're home to let you be the judge of them.

It was forecasted that it would rain today but it didn't. It was a bright sunny day. We took Osh Osh to a nearby field and a small playground. Osh Osh had a tennis ball with him. At first, he was just randomly throwing the ball in the air. Both DH and I had to be careful that it did not land on our heads. As we walked on, we noticed that there were several rugby goal posts. So, we decided to make a game out of throwing the tennis ball over the posts. It was quite high and Osh Osh was determined to throw the tennis ball over them. He succeeded three times and was beaming with joy each time. I was very proud of him that he didn't give up and just kept trying. Such enthusiasm!

Our hostess has multiple sclerosis and is wheelchair bound. Their home is built in such a way to provide her with utmost comfort and adequate mobility. She has an elevator in the room allowing her to move up and down their three storey home. Osh Osh was completely blown away by it and volunteered to be the bell boy who took the elevator up and down with our hostess. It's wonderful to see how much he enjoys being with them. I'm surprised at how fast he's grown attached to them given that we've just only arrived yesterday evening.

I would love to stay here as well. They were just joking earlier during dinner that they could use the help and would be delighted if we could stayed with them permanently! How I wish that was possible. I shall not dwell on the impossibilities. Rather, I will cherish this short time that we have here to recharge and take another look at life from a different perspective. Who knows what life lessons I may learn? Hopefully, I will return to Singapore being calmer and happier.

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