Empty Nest

Sometimes it's just nice to wallow in solitude whilst enjoying the sounds of children at PE from the school over the wall. There's nobody at home except me. And what better than to languish in this aloneness for some hours and let myself slip into luxurious lethargy...

Usually there would be Adeen watching the sports channel or sleeping in after the graveyard sessions on the 737 flight simulator at Subang Airport. But today he was out early, for today Adeen debuts as a co-pilot for our national airlines, just a few days after completing his line check, which is what they call doing take-offs and landings under the eagle eyes of an assessing Captain.  He's not out of the woods yet, still a cadet pilot,  but only 100 flight hours shy of the next rung. He drove himself to KLIA this morning, wanting to get there extra early and unwilling to risk the vagaries of KLIA's crew transportation. Adeen was obviously excited but don't we all remember the excitement of turning up at our first job?

Speaking of which, Muni recently received her long-awaited job offer as an associate at Astro.There was also another offer from a company involved in "green" development which incidentally, is a cause that she has taken to heart. However this Astro job is a natural career progression for her as a multimedia graphics designer and is quite in line with her specialisation in Film and Animation at university. Muni will be moving back home which is nearer to Bukit Jalil than my sister-in-law's where she is currently based. Hope Muni will get a very gainful experience at her new work-place just as much as she had had at her first real job at Voxel Studios.

And so what's up with everyone else in the new year? Amin in KK has just got his PADI diving certification. Well done Amin. You'd think a houseman's life would be too hectic for adventures but in the past 12 months he had climbed Kinabalu, toured Sabah either with his car or on his motor-bike, and then this diving thing and who knows what else he has in mind. No wonder he chose to be posted to Sabah; it seems he's really loving it.

Syirah is into her PLKN (National Service Training) stint and enjoying the activities while making new friends. They've started marching drills and also learnt the rudiments of kayaking. I think the camp has a bunch of very positive and motivated kids to work with - Syirah says the camp are never short of volunteers for any activity, unlike at school when you might get a single raised-hand  if you're lucky,  after having to raise your voice in exasperation by the "eagerness". Yes, she gets to come home for the Chinese New Year break.

And yes, someone asked about Azeim. The last time he called he was gallivanting in Venice. Venice? I thought only honeymooners go there. But you never can tell, perhaps he was scouting for a summer job as a gondolier - go learn to sing Santa Lucia or something first Azeim before you apply. Azeim's studying about ships and all things related. Quite difficult, I think with the many kinds of ships out there - there's the Cargo Ship, the Battle Ship, the PirateShip, the Ro-Ro Ship .... BUT to me the most complicated of them all is the RELATION Ship.  But I guess he's not in one yet, if his facebook is anything to go by. 

So here I am, pondering an empty nest and what else does a mama bird do but chirp about the nestlings? Oh yes, there is another young man busy about his projects with whom  I can look forward to having a romantic dinner-for-two the next couple of nights, since Adeen has 2 night-stops in his schedule. It's back to cooking rice manually in a small pot. Or should we just have fish and chips, and talk about a move to somewhere remote like Kazakhstan, or if that's too expensive perhaps someplace with a quaint name like Umbai, but that might be a wee bit too close to the school for naughty boys, perhaps another place just as quaint - Alai, where my late father was brought up? Hmmmm....