The Struggling Time Jugglers

Rita said "zeit gehts schnell mit dir"
Literally into english, that means "time moves so fast with you"

Of course I am flattered hearing this. That means my friends still enjoyed my company. Equally, I also missed them very much, and had so much fun catching up with them. It has been a long time since I last saw them. Of course life is not a bed of roses for them either but they seemed to cope well with life, in good shape and healthy. Even though we live not that very far from each other, we never cross each other's path in our daily lives and as usual everybody are busy doing whatever they are doing.

The last time I saw them was 3 years ago when the 4 of us was put together playing in a team, best score count for the ladies golf inter-club match and we were solidly defending our club's championship titles.

Typical of Switzerland's inclement weather, the game goes on despite freezing rain, storm, gale or sunshine. The morning started with thick fog and freezing cold, long queue at the tee-off starting box and we were a bit down by the ryhthm of the morning that we played so bad for the first three holes. It was like a jinx and we couldn't break the numbers we're making.

On the fourth hole, one of us made a birdie and suddenly Michelle pulled out a champagne bottle from her golf bag just because we had our first birdie and according to her, its so important to celebrate to keep the spirit high as well as to keep the body warm. She even had a small tiny cups ready for a toast. I know alcohol help to warm up the body a little but when the effect is over, one usually feel double cold afterwards.

Anyway, in the name of team spirit, I took a sip and tried to stay sober and not get carried away. We still have fourteen more holes to play and I would like to stay on the game. Since it is an inter-club friendly match, there was refreshments after the 9 holes and we were once again served by the caterer another glass or 2 of bubbles, chicken soup and bits of this and that.

After that short 15 minutes break, we went on the 10th hole and Michelle had 13 air strokes! She was very serious all the time and her practice swing was perfect but each time she missed the ball by an inch. Rita, Mayleen and me, we were almost rolling on the ground laughing. I have no idea how many glasses Michelle had but it was the funniest golf game I ever played in my whole life. Have you ever experience something so funny that your stomach muscles knotted in a way that it felt so ticklish and painful at the same time but you just can't stop laughing, to the point that tears started streaming from the eyes?

That very same day, I was a little bit disoriented and disorganised too. It was very early in the morning and I was in a hurry. When I arrived, parked the car, ran off to the changing room, I had forgotten to switch off the small tail lights. As usual, during ladies inter-club golf matches, there are dinner, prize giving, and by time I went to the car, with the freezing temperature and the lights which was left on for the whole day, had depleted the battery and it went flat dead. It was late then, freezing cold and since its ladies' golf event, there was not one knight in shining armour to save me. I almost dialled the AAM number when Rita came along with her jumper cables. It was great experience to see girls trying to connect the cables in pitch dark, lots of giggling until another girl started her car and put on the big lights so we could find the positive and negative end of the battery. Well, who need the AAM when Rita is around and I got home safely but from that evening onwards, everytime just after I put my golf ball on the tee, someone without fail will jokingly asked if I had switched off my headlights. That just ruined my concentration!
Those were the days when we all aspire to be the next Annika Sorenstam or Michelle Wee, but where on earth did I find the time to play 18 holes golf, at least twice a week and the whole season of golf tournaments? How did I do it then? How did I juggle the time? How come these days, I can't even find time to sit down and put my thoughts into words, let alone play golf! Have I grown old before my time? Did I slowed down so much that I am panting, huffing and puffing trying to chase time? Deep inside, I was a little panic imagining myself in my mother's shoes. Will I soon be like her and then wasting my time scouring the market for anti wrinkle, lift and firm creams and magic potions of whatever to slow down aging and relieve rheumatism and then moving back and forth in and out of hospital with hips and knee caps replacement surgeries, osteoporosis and endless clinical checkups? As if panic has its own mind and able to pushed the dial buttons on the phone, and that's how I ended up few evenings ago with my ex-team mates. With each round of drinks, new topic came into discussion. At the end of the evening, all my mind's wonderings found all the answers I was looking for. It is a relieve to know that I am not the only one who has been out of the loop. I am not the only one caught in a wave of change. I am not the only one going through the ups and downs in life, feeling sickly and rotten with drastic weather changes and the best part is that they think I haven't change one tiny bit. All my worries and uncertainties about this and that was really baseless. I also found out that good friends means you are closer to the heart than what meets the eyes. Another thing that became clear to me is that; time, priorities, choices and personal interest does influence an individual's lifestyle.
Someone told me long time ago, whenever you are confuse about something, talk with someone or read books related to whatever you're trying to find out. Most of the time, we have the answers to our own questions but it is very tricky to differentiate the jumble of things in our own head. No one can give us straight answers because every one of us are different. We may be eating the same food but individually our rate of digestion differs due to different metabolic rate. We may be educated in the same way but our perception and understanding towards life is different due to our cultural background and upbringing. An open discussions with others kind of help to dissect our thoughts and that's how one tend to see solutions or find the answers to whatever that's hovering over one's head.
Today, of course I have hunged up my golf set and I did undertook some other projects which are nonetheless time consuming and requires a lot of detailed attention. That doesn't mean I am totally off from doing sports or golfing or I've quit being competitive. I just needed a change in my lifestyle and wish to do something different for a while. Maybe one day I will go back to this sport, and back to serious competition again, but for the time being, I'm very happy to trade the light titanium driver for the spades, which is a little bit heavier but its enough to keep the major muscles group well toned without having to pay for gym subscription to use their dumb bells.
Afterall, my garden is not all that flat. Working out in the garden means I'm doing aerobic activities. I have to hike up and down 200 metres of steep slope to get from one terraced part of the garden to the next one before stopping for a while to sniff the roses. I am still very goal oriented and sometimes always in a hurry, which is actually not good. I'm still learning to pace myself, though occasionally I still get a bit carried away with whatever I'm doing and forgotten to stop for a minute to enjoy the garden, but the roses will snagged me with their thorns as I pass by as if telling me, " hey! stop for a minute! Take a sniff on my blooms"
Gardening is definitely very therapeutic activity, at least for me. It soothes my nerves, calms me down, helped switched my mind off from too much thinking and it feels great to end the day seeing how the plants flourish happily and rewarding me with beautiful blooms. This is hundred times far better than twice or 3 times a week of nerve rattling four hours of mental game on the golf course, not forgetting to mention the numerous speeding tickets I had collected because I'm always rushing and not missed my tee-off.

Even though my garden tasks are scheduled accordingly, the timings are reasonably flexible. I can pick up the shovel anytime I feel like doing it. The pressure is far less compared to competitive sports because the plants in the plastic pots can wait until I am ready to set them into the planting holes. I've been transfering all the hours I use to spend working on my swings and perfecting curving the ball to the green for "just one putt" technique into the garden and those hours had shown so much results with flying colours.

One of the best thing the garden has done for me is that in many ways, I am cured of my shopaholic habits. Nowadays, I plan in advance what I'm going to buy and when to buy it. Most of the time I ended up not buying anything because in between the planning and the buying time, I found out that I don't really need it. In other words, I have quit being impulsive.


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