An Empty Feeling

I have finally spent my last day on a ship and waved goodbye to its great bunch of crew. This ship was built from the ground up and was designed set sail to find a land filled with gold. The owner of the ship hired a capable captain and a crew of 100 persons. All of us were eager to set sail. All of us were ready to battle the rough seas to reach the land filled with gold. All of us were confident. All of us were hungry for adventure. All of us knew that we’re going to be rich.

All of us including the owner didn’t know what we got ourselves into.

Along the way, the ship sadly lost its captain. A capable captain I must say. A captain who knew what he had to do. A captain who knew how to bring out the best from his crew. A captain who was liked by many and loathed by few. A captain who had a heart of gold. A captain that I will surely miss for it was him who brought me in to help him guide the ship to reach the land filled with gold.

For 10 months, the crew steer the ship without their captain. Not an easy task I must say but we had to do what was needed. Throughout our journey we encountered rough seas that bombarded our ship. Eventually the ship – already having lost her captain was slowly succumbing to the merciless seas. Our ship was damaged and slowly sinking. We knew we had to dock at the nearest port to carry out much needed repairs but alas, our ship was deemed beyond repair. The owner of the ship decided that it was not worth the money to fix the ship and set sail again to find the land fill with gold. The owner had lost the will to find the land filled with gold. And so, the ship laid their listless on the dock, rusting away and waiting for someone to take her away.

The crew of the ship was devastated. For all the crew’s hard work and sacrifice, they were rewarded with nothing more than a glimmer of false hope.

So one by one, the crew parted ways and said their goodbyes. Some still held onto the hope that the ship will set sail again and decided to stay with the ship. I finally decided to do what’s best for my future and parted ways with the ship and her wonderful crew.

My heart was and still is filled with sadness that for this ship had potential to sail as far as the eye could see. That her crew had the potential to command the ship. That eventually we will find the land filled with gold.

But unfortunately, the land filled with gold will never be found and forever be a forgotten dream…

No….those aren’t GPS coordinates and no these aren’t figures of any bills. These are the numbers referring to our wedding anniversary. We were married on 20th February of the year 2002. We have been married for 7 years now. Now 7 years of marriage is a pale comparison to couples who have been married for more than 2 decades, like my mom and my dad. But in 7 years of marriage, my wife and I were blessed with two adorable kids. Yes, having and raising children of your own is perhaps is one of the best feeling one could ever feel. Of course kids are annoying, run around alot and so forth and so on but then, without them, life would be empty.

Anyway back to my 7 years of marital bliss. To celebrate our 7 years of marriage, my wife and I had lunch at a Japanese restaurant named Yuzu in The Gardens Mid Valley, Kuala Lumpur and  yes I do love food from the Land of the Rising Sun. The food as excellent by the way and I guess that’s the closes one can get to a true authentic Japanese food. I couldn’t really remember what I had but then it was some Eel and some tempura and some buck wheat rice and so Miso soup and something else. But having lunch to celebrate 7 years of marital bliss isn’t what I wanted to blog about and honestly it would be boring to just talk about eating food no ?

My intention to blog about our me and my wife celebrating 7 years of marriage was to remind us that even though both of us have 2 kids and have been spending a lot of time with them, looking after them,  we should never neglect to have some quality time together as a couple. Quality time does not only mean making love lah – but it does help lah in fostering a long and meaningful marriage. Quality time also means spending time together, just the both of us, walking while holding our hands, talking , laughing – well just being a couple minus the kids. It was like dating the love of your life without a care in the world. We were so happy just to be together – no more worrying about the kids, no more chasing after your kids who constantly want to go somewhere you don’t want to go, no more kids whining and complaining, no more kids want to eat at McDonalds – I PREFER BURGER KING!!!!!.

I had a great time with my wife alone even though we were basically spending our afternoon at a shopping complex. Of course we bought some items along the way, but this time the items was for us and not for the kids. We was our time to be a couple and I cherished that moment forever.

May Lin (my wife’s name, if you didn’t know) I’ve have only three words to say to you.

I LOVE YOU