once upon a time

as we aged.... we tend to take things for granted.....  my niece moved to perth when she was almost the same age as us... i could see from her fb how much she misses her friends back in m'sia and how much fun they had when they facetime each other and how excited they are when she goes back to m'sia for vacation...

a few days ago, i saw on her fb that a few of her best friends visited her in perth and they were having loads of FUN! they took pictures, played silly stuff we played when we were kids, took subway to visit perth etc...they are happy!

suddenly, it just occurred to me that, even though, we were the same age as her previously, we could not have all these easily.... in the past, airtickets were super expensive... in the past, internet was rare and super expensive... in the past, IDD calls were expensive... in the past, even taking a picture with camera was precious and we had to wait until x times for the film to be finished..it could be days, it could be weeks, it could be months...but developing the photos were expensive...so we seldom took pictures... because airtickets and IDD calls were expensive and we missed our friends..in order to maintain friendship, we wrote air mail to each other...i remember having a big box of letters from my friends...the happy moments were when we saw a nice envelop in our letter box... felt even more happier when we could feel how thick the envelop was..that means, the person must have written something... in order to express our friendship, we exchanged pictures and small gifts... we replied our letters happily... i remember buying all the cute papers and envelops, stickers, chops and stamps and imagining how excited the other person would be when receiving it... we wrote pages and pages about what happened to us...the happy moment was, cycling to the nearest stationery shop to post our letters. our letters were usually overweight and cost a fortune to send... then it was back to the waiting time... sometimes weeks, sometimes months... if we didnt hear from friends for months, we would start writing again to ask if they are ok.... it was a good memory.... full of hope~~

NOW? everything comes so easy... we have smartphones to connect us for free... free IDD calls, free instant message...internet is cheap, airtickets are super cheap! it is so convenient that people started to take things for granted....when thinking back...im wondering if my niece would have the same memory as us? probably not...perhaps they had more time with each other but they would never understand the joy of writing, posting and waiting for letters... they are truly the hard work of our friends and us and it takes extra effort to stay in touch :)

even though it is convenient now...sometimes i still miss the old ways...but of coz, i prefer the current ways. hehehe...

just some thoughts to share...

by the way, tomorrow is hari raya...happy holidays to everyone.

the photo that inspires me...