Rain And Holidays
It rained yesterday, after nearly two months of drought. If anything could've been a better way to celebrate the absence of haze, it was rain. A proper heavy drizzle, not too heavy, not too light, and leaving behind a nice lingering scentlessness.
It's nice to be healthy. I've always envied other people their physical hardiness and resistance to sickness-- due to various factors, I'm not the strongest body on the block-- but all the same, a point was made and taken when I came down with eye pains, a hacking wet cough with phlegm, a sore throat (and consequently a creaky bass voice--I'm a baritone), a bad headache, and constant thirst, all at once, thanks to the wonderful guys over at Idiot-esia and their lovely lovely haze.
And now that all of the above sicknesses are gone, I'm actually breathing with a renewed thankfulness that I'm alive. I'm just glad to be breathing without coughing every five minutes. And, of course, for the fact that the rain washed away every last trace of the blasted burnt-wood smell hanging around in the air, for all the world as if all the country were trying to produce smoked fish en masse. Not for me, thank you very much.
Of course, some people's moneymaking genius does appear when in times of crisis. A hostelmate of mine went round the place peddling masks cheap, and apparently made a mint. He's been grinning a lot these days. On the other hand, his business has dwindled down to nothing now that the haze has gone-- but from what I hear, his stock's finished anyway. I didn't buy a mask, which I regretted for a short while, but since the haze cleared up the next day I didn't regret it for too long.
And now I've got a bus ticket down to So Hour, where I'm going on Saturday for the holidays. I'm going to visit my grandparents, who sound enthusiastic about my going back down (it's been five years since I was last there). I'm enthusiastic, of course, and optimistic about going back; my grandparents are normal in that they love spoiling their grandchildren (that means me), and their favourite mathod of spoiling involves stuffing. Lots and lots of food, six large meals a day, that kind of thing.
I, to them, am depressingly thin and scrawny. The last time I was there, I spent an uncomfortable half-hour listening to accounts of relatives everywhere who were too tall to fit in through doors standing up; even my cousins are at least three inches above me, and I've heard lots about how I must've somehow inherited a recessive short gene. Well, they're going to be disappointed again, but you can't please everybody at the same time.
At least I'll get to crow over them about my school results (I'm one of the more intelligent grandchildren in the place, although I do say so myself; I've got documentary proof), even if they don't really put much store on such things. They're farmers, and as such, bulging with muscles everywhere. I'll probably come back to KL with an inferiority complex. (Cheeky and Gene might argue that an inferiority complex is the last thing I could possibly get.)
But I don't care. The holidays are looming up, and I plan to enjoy that brief week to the best of my ability! I'm going to So Hour, where Way lives (not that I'll meet him, though); I'm going to get fat; and if the past is any indication, I'm going to visit a bunch of relatives and come back with a load of food! A glorious vista of opportunities to eat and eat with impunity!
Of course, the Chemistry lecturer has said that my next exam is the day after the holidays, but so what? I'll just bring a little extra work down and study while I'm there. (In fact I might actually be expected to teach my cousins while there. It's happened before.)
And of course, I'll get to go through the immense backlog of ancient Reader's Digest issues there. (My father subscribed to it for a few years, and left all his issues in a musty old corner of a room, where I discovered them on a visit and so found a way to while away the time.) I've gone through most of them, actually, but there's nothing to be lost by hunting down some new ones.
It'll be good to meet the cousins again, even if some of them show a disturbing tendency to kleptomania, skulduggery, and violence. They can even, literally, overheat a Nintendo by simply playing it for hours on end. I've never been able to do that.
Holidays, rain, and no more haze. What more could you possibly ask for?
It's nice to be healthy. I've always envied other people their physical hardiness and resistance to sickness-- due to various factors, I'm not the strongest body on the block-- but all the same, a point was made and taken when I came down with eye pains, a hacking wet cough with phlegm, a sore throat (and consequently a creaky bass voice--I'm a baritone), a bad headache, and constant thirst, all at once, thanks to the wonderful guys over at Idiot-esia and their lovely lovely haze.
And now that all of the above sicknesses are gone, I'm actually breathing with a renewed thankfulness that I'm alive. I'm just glad to be breathing without coughing every five minutes. And, of course, for the fact that the rain washed away every last trace of the blasted burnt-wood smell hanging around in the air, for all the world as if all the country were trying to produce smoked fish en masse. Not for me, thank you very much.
Of course, some people's moneymaking genius does appear when in times of crisis. A hostelmate of mine went round the place peddling masks cheap, and apparently made a mint. He's been grinning a lot these days. On the other hand, his business has dwindled down to nothing now that the haze has gone-- but from what I hear, his stock's finished anyway. I didn't buy a mask, which I regretted for a short while, but since the haze cleared up the next day I didn't regret it for too long.
And now I've got a bus ticket down to So Hour, where I'm going on Saturday for the holidays. I'm going to visit my grandparents, who sound enthusiastic about my going back down (it's been five years since I was last there). I'm enthusiastic, of course, and optimistic about going back; my grandparents are normal in that they love spoiling their grandchildren (that means me), and their favourite mathod of spoiling involves stuffing. Lots and lots of food, six large meals a day, that kind of thing.
I, to them, am depressingly thin and scrawny. The last time I was there, I spent an uncomfortable half-hour listening to accounts of relatives everywhere who were too tall to fit in through doors standing up; even my cousins are at least three inches above me, and I've heard lots about how I must've somehow inherited a recessive short gene. Well, they're going to be disappointed again, but you can't please everybody at the same time.
At least I'll get to crow over them about my school results (I'm one of the more intelligent grandchildren in the place, although I do say so myself; I've got documentary proof), even if they don't really put much store on such things. They're farmers, and as such, bulging with muscles everywhere. I'll probably come back to KL with an inferiority complex. (Cheeky and Gene might argue that an inferiority complex is the last thing I could possibly get.)
But I don't care. The holidays are looming up, and I plan to enjoy that brief week to the best of my ability! I'm going to So Hour, where Way lives (not that I'll meet him, though); I'm going to get fat; and if the past is any indication, I'm going to visit a bunch of relatives and come back with a load of food! A glorious vista of opportunities to eat and eat with impunity!
Of course, the Chemistry lecturer has said that my next exam is the day after the holidays, but so what? I'll just bring a little extra work down and study while I'm there. (In fact I might actually be expected to teach my cousins while there. It's happened before.)
And of course, I'll get to go through the immense backlog of ancient Reader's Digest issues there. (My father subscribed to it for a few years, and left all his issues in a musty old corner of a room, where I discovered them on a visit and so found a way to while away the time.) I've gone through most of them, actually, but there's nothing to be lost by hunting down some new ones.
It'll be good to meet the cousins again, even if some of them show a disturbing tendency to kleptomania, skulduggery, and violence. They can even, literally, overheat a Nintendo by simply playing it for hours on end. I've never been able to do that.
Holidays, rain, and no more haze. What more could you possibly ask for?
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