Monday, December 5, 2011

Shelf Life

It was fun displaying things on a shelf in Singapore and my Mom enjoyed being photographed.
You had a reason to celebrate the whole year round out there and the streets were always full of Christmas lights.

I remember one day my oldest son went to bargain with the store owner when choosing what I believe was a Sega .
The man told him( I forget so I'll make up a sum ) 120 dollars, to which my son replied
I will give you 150 and not a dollar more.

Everyone laughed including the store owner. He explained to my son that when you bargain, you have to go down in price.... not up. lol

Well we chuckle to this day remembering what a good business man my son was.

I bet the man went home to tell his family what dumb people these foreigners are.

But

When we were taking diving lessons, our instructor taught us how to go down, using the anchor rope.
He had both Chinese and American students.
Americans did well but the Chinese fared not so well.

So he chastised them.
When we tell the Americans to go down, they go down.
When we tell you to go down, you manage to instead, pull the anchor up and stay up?
How do you do that? lol

We had other funny things happen, like when I forgot to give my partner back her air hose during an instruction teaching us to share air if one would run out.

Then there were the long spindled sea urchins which always threatened to spike you at the bottom and the huge rock fish which could have taken a good chunk out of you if you stepped on them and then on top floated the thousands of small jelly fish. We had to make sure we had on long sleeved shirts but they still managed to give us a little tingle. lol

On our final test when we had to go down alone with our partners, mine brought her own scuba friend and I was left to go down with a stranger. I didn't like that and under water exerted too much energy trying to stay away from him, which in turn caused insufficient oxygen supply in my body so I could not get enough air from my hose no matter how hard I breathed. I had to go up and it took me a long time before I could get air back into my lungs.
What I did was probably very dangerous but my partner covered for me telling the instructor the current was strong. lol
Anyway.
On our way home an old Indian man was crossing the street and got hit by a car.
He lay in the middle of the street, in a dark pool of blood , his head turning blue.
As we passed him, I remember thinking that today, I was supposed to die but I didn't.
Death needed a replacement and he took this man to show me that he knew I escaped, and I better watch my back cause he was right behind me.
That man probably crossed this street every day.
I came home quite distressed from the days' ordeal.

I still got my PADI in scuba diving and dove quite well with other people.
I forced my husband to take diving as well , so I had my own loving life partner .
The instructor told me I dove better with him lol
I guess he knew it was a mistake to put me under with a stranger.

With kids it's the same thing. We went to Honolulu for soccer and the kids went to the beach in the down town area.
It seemed safe except for a great wave that came in as I was sitting down in the sand getting me and my cameras all wet. Fluke wave. Darn.
Well there was a pier and on the other side cement wave busters.
The kids were hanging around there and decided to climb the wave busters.
The waves came in bigger and my second son and his friend, got stuck in between these two
cement pilings getting bashed into them.
The waves kept coming in and out at an alarming rate, they couldn't get out.

My son came so proud to tell me Mom we almost drowned hahahaha
The waves were strong and kept us under water but we were strong and managed to get out.
Every one was watching us on the pier Mom. lol Wow!
Good thing my other friend didn't go in cause he would have drowned for sure.
They were so excited and proud of the feat they just accomplished.

And here we are, parents, all sitting watching our kids and didn't see this happen.

As it was there would have been nothing I could do either at this point but I would have told them not to go in between these barriers for this undercurrent reason.

I guess we all have a shelf life.
Probably just like cats with their 9 lives. lol


Have a great day!






14 comments:

Olga said...

In my life, there was one moment when I went swimming with my aunt and my mother. They were standing there, talking, and I fell into a hole. I could just see their feet as I disappeared into the hole. When I was ready to bid farewell to life, my aunt pulled me out at the last moment.

A Lady's Life said...

oh boy! How did you manage to do that? lol

Lydia Kang said...

It's true, we all have a shelf life. Which is why every day is a gift!

A Lady's Life said...

So true Lydia :)

SandyCarlson said...

Oh, the shelf life! I don't like to think of mine!

♥●• İzdihër •●♥ said...

can not disagree.

:).

A Lady's Life said...

Thanks Sandy and Izdiher

Gattina said...

Your son should never go to a market in Northern Africa, even sometimes here in Belgium you can haggle but down not up, lol !

A Lady's Life said...

lol Gattina he is married now so that's his wifes' problem now.

Maude Lynn said...

That diving story is terrifying!

George said...

I like your thoughts on our shelf life. I'm getting to the age when I'm beginning to wonder when my warranty will expire. Hopefully I still have a few years left.

A Lady's Life said...

george you sound pretty healthy with a long shelf life lol

A Lady's Life said...

mama zen - if i was single maybe it would have fared better but i didn't know him and so not used to being out in the world alone.Was time to pull hubby's whiskers to join me lol

Diane Stringam Tolley said...

Love the picture of your Mom! What a terrifying ordeal while scuba diving! I love to scuba dive! My husby took lessons and got his PADI, but he never could come with me. He couldn't breathe once he got under water. :( and you arr absolutely right. None of us knows what our shelf life is. So we'd better work with what we have!!! Thank you so much for this post and your insight!