Therapy?

While no one would like to admit to their family being run like clockwork and driven to routine, the days when I grew up, while goofing off was alright, efficiency and punctuality were two "industry buzzwords" that would accomplish a few things. That we get to school on time, that we get back from school on time, that we can grab a quickie lunch and make it home in time for my dad’s afternoon clinic. Maybe we get ice cream in the end too. Of course everything has to be terribly efficient.

The typical weekday afternoon in the mid-90s: parents close morning clinic at 12:30, buzz off to fetch sister from school, skew over to the opposite end of the main road and wait for me to come out of school (my sister’s school and mine were just on opposite sides of the main road, yet another terribly efficient coincidence), lunch and then afternoon clinic at 2:00pm. Considering in that one-and-a-half-hour period that we had to survive two peak-hour jams in the middle of town, and somehow manage to sneak in a finely balanced meal in between (OK hawker food), this was stress-inducing, life-shortening work that should be undertaken only by superbeings. But we managed somehow.

Much earlier when I was in primary school and had not grasped the concept or even the spelling of efficiency, my dad and I came up with a simple plan. In the large gulf between specifics and hiding behind your own words, we wanted to narrow the gap a little bit. To quantify in exact units of time previously vague, conpromising and frustrating terms. This way we could no longer have the excuse of "how was I supposed to know we had to be early" because of the exact quantification of time.

Just a minute meant just that, a minute. 60 seconds. No negotiations.
At this instant meant within 30 seconds.
Soon meant 10 minutes, and this was the term I used the most. I mean, 10 minutes could accomplish you pretty much anything save for a term paper and a world-saving thesis.
Coming up means 15 minutes, usually the time needed to travel from home to school. So this was a very useful term as well.

Of course I remembered this system being formulated way back when, but through the ravages of time, meant I only remember only a few terms today. Blame it all on memory. I don’t use it anymore, but can’t help but chuckle everytime someone mentioned these few words and I mutter "yeah that means 10 minutes bub" under my breath.

I do miss using these terms though, yeah. Of course we were allowed to take our own sweet time when not in a hurry, but whenever these keywords are mentioned, it meant a commitment to be punctual. And it had better be respected.

Otherwise, life’s good. As always, with a few road bumps in between.

So, when exactly am I coming up with a proper blog post next time?

Soon, probably.