Steaming It Off
THERE are things that one gets so used to that when they are no more you actually feel the void — the emptiness of loss.
These “things” may vary in terms of the impact or effect they may have on you once they are no longer there.
For example, when you are used to a certain scent or odour in a certain place and it suddenly goes missing in the air, you will feel it or at least you will not smell it.
Check this out.
Recently my usual route home did not feel the same anymore because it lacked the particular salty, spicy smell of the Colonel’s famous fried chicken because they were pimping up the place.
Going home was weird for a few weeks, but now we are back on track and there is that heavy aroma again — that just makes me hungry!
For those of you who grew up in the capital of our village, or those like me who have frequented and explored the place since a young age, you will agree with me that Maseru has never been the same since the closure of a certain beautiful French-named restaurant which was situated opposite our local morgue — oops, I mean our local hospital.
That place was classy and it gave our quaint little town a certain pizzazz.
Here is another instance.
I have not been to the northern part of town in a long time, but I always revel in catching a glimpse at what I have named the “Stone Man”.
He resides on the front yard of a house by the dam.
That dude is always dressed to the nines, I tell you.
He is in a different outfit every single day, come rain, shine or snow.
He is the ultimate trendsetter.
And now he is gone!
Can you believe it?
After all these years?
That route is not the same anymore and I hope he comes back soon to light up the mornings, days and evenings of travellers of all modes who used to get entertained by his stoic pose and unique sense of fashion.
I can safely term this emotion as nostalgia. When you feel this way, you find yourself with a heavy heart and watery eyes for some reason.
There is that deep longing, a yearning for past events, places visited and even people met.
You get this sad smile on your face with that far-away look and the one sentence that keeps repeating itself in your head is: “Those were good times.”
One ends up reminiscing about all that has passed and is gone, because you realise time is flying by and there is nothing you can do about it.
Tell me, have there never been times you find yourself missing the good old days when bliss was just a simple packet of soft cheesy chips given to you with love by maybe your mother on a Saturday, just as you were going out to play mantloane with your crew?
When you got outside your house, you became an instant celebrity with an entourage that way outnumbered the number of chips in the little foil bag.
What was really great about it is you could use half a mashed chip as a bargaining tool for anything — and believe me anything.
You chose carefully who you gave to — at that age, favours were always kindly repaid and never forgotten (unlike these days).
Yah neh, looking back on those days always makes me feel very old and that scares the living daylights out of me!
Sometimes when you are bored, alone or with company, you end up bringing muse over the good times that you had.
Okay, maybe it could be a defence mechanism to boredom, but it really happens.
Picture this.
You go to a party and it is the dullest social event ever and the first question you ask yourself is: “What in the world am I doing here?”
But then you might stay, mostly maybe because your crew is there or you have to be polite.
Whatever reason that makes you bear and grin the tediousness of that time (freebies?) will make you start picturing all the other events which you have gone to, the difference being those were happening.
You go off to a place in your head and wish you could somehow conjure the fun genie to make the people you are with lighten up and LIVE IT UP!
Emotions and feelings like these creep on me every once in a while, be it because I am bored, excited or just simply looking back and ticking the high (and low) lights in my life.
But eish they get worse in this cold weather, especially in the month of June. Another year added — OMG, soon there will be wrinkles
THERE are things that one gets so used to that when they are no more you actually feel the void — the emptiness of loss.
These “things” may vary in terms of the impact or effect they may have on you once they are no longer there.
For example, when you are used to a certain scent or odour in a certain place and it suddenly goes missing in the air, you will feel it or at least you will not smell it.
Check this out.
Recently my usual route home did not feel the same anymore because it lacked the particular salty, spicy smell of the Colonel’s famous fried chicken because they were pimping up the place.
Going home was weird for a few weeks, but now we are back on track and there is that heavy aroma again — that just makes me hungry!
For those of you who grew up in the capital of our village, or those like me who have frequented and explored the place since a young age, you will agree with me that Maseru has never been the same since the closure of a certain beautiful French-named restaurant which was situated opposite our local morgue — oops, I mean our local hospital.
That place was classy and it gave our quaint little town a certain pizzazz.
Here is another instance.
I have not been to the northern part of town in a long time, but I always revel in catching a glimpse at what I have named the “Stone Man”.
He resides on the front yard of a house by the dam.
That dude is always dressed to the nines, I tell you.
He is in a different outfit every single day, come rain, shine or snow.
He is the ultimate trendsetter.
And now he is gone!
Can you believe it?
After all these years?
That route is not the same anymore and I hope he comes back soon to light up the mornings, days and evenings of travellers of all modes who used to get entertained by his stoic pose and unique sense of fashion.
I can safely term this emotion as nostalgia. When you feel this way, you find yourself with a heavy heart and watery eyes for some reason.
There is that deep longing, a yearning for past events, places visited and even people met.
You get this sad smile on your face with that far-away look and the one sentence that keeps repeating itself in your head is: “Those were good times.”
One ends up reminiscing about all that has passed and is gone, because you realise time is flying by and there is nothing you can do about it.
Tell me, have there never been times you find yourself missing the good old days when bliss was just a simple packet of soft cheesy chips given to you with love by maybe your mother on a Saturday, just as you were going out to play mantloane with your crew?
When you got outside your house, you became an instant celebrity with an entourage that way outnumbered the number of chips in the little foil bag.
What was really great about it is you could use half a mashed chip as a bargaining tool for anything — and believe me anything.
You chose carefully who you gave to — at that age, favours were always kindly repaid and never forgotten (unlike these days).
Yah neh, looking back on those days always makes me feel very old and that scares the living daylights out of me!
Sometimes when you are bored, alone or with company, you end up bringing muse over the good times that you had.
Okay, maybe it could be a defence mechanism to boredom, but it really happens.
Picture this.
You go to a party and it is the dullest social event ever and the first question you ask yourself is: “What in the world am I doing here?”
But then you might stay, mostly maybe because your crew is there or you have to be polite.
Whatever reason that makes you bear and grin the tediousness of that time (freebies?) will make you start picturing all the other events which you have gone to, the difference being those were happening.
You go off to a place in your head and wish you could somehow conjure the fun genie to make the people you are with lighten up and LIVE IT UP!
Emotions and feelings like these creep on me every once in a while, be it because I am bored, excited or just simply looking back and ticking the high (and low) lights in my life.
But eish they get worse in this cold weather, especially in the month of June. Another year added — OMG, soon there will be wrinkles
