Happy New Year!

Now you can’t say I forgot.

2009 already, freaky. Seems like the time starts flying by faster the older you get. By the time I’m 40, a year should be just about… 1 day. Can you remember 1 day back in Primary School? Especially the last day of school, endless.

I can actually remember about every step I made from school to home when I was in class 4, on the last day of School. Everyone raced out of Class. I was a bit chubby so I wasn’t the fastest, to put it lightly, so I was really trying hard. In my mind, If I took really long steps, I would get there faster. So there I was, I think it was a Thursday, the end of 3rd term in 1991, with the hugest steps I could make, soaring through the air for an eternity with each stride.

I remember it was a beautiful day. It’s always very beautiful in Tukavesi. The sun was bright, and the ocean gleamed. It was hot, but the light breeze, and flying through the air, makes you forget that.

The only distraction I had that day was that I scored 81 in my “Maths” exam, my first 80. I didn’t blame myself though, I think it was a great trade-off. 81 in Math, for fighting fires in the pine forest that extended from behind our school to an endless land beyond. Climbing up straight rock faces, then jumping off into dense growths of “gasau” reeds (not something I recommend). Crawling into old caves, and burial caves. Hurling gasau reeds from the top of the cliffs and watching them glide like paper aeroplanes to the miniture school buildings below (we got punished for that). Tying our shirts over our head like Ninjas and picking plate sized hornets nests off the trees, to get our nicknames of course.

It was a by far, a worthy exchange.