It’s the 4th day of the new year, and my reckless decision to travel long haul straight after a 3-year travel hiatus due to the pandemic meant that I am still trying to recover from a severe bout of jetlag and sleep deprivation.
Prior to the pandemic, never in my wildest dream would I envision dragging my kids on a long-haul trip across the major cities and towns in Italy. But if there was anything that the last 3 years taught me, it was to cherish and seize the crucial moments in life, even if it meant potential meltdowns and drama right in the middle of a long-haul flight, in the middle of winter, and in a country that I can hardly navigate on my own.
We walked the ancient cobbled streets and climbed the ancient hills of Rome, Assisi, Perugia, Sienna, Florence and Venice over a 12-day trip, ending in Milan. We saw the balcony of Juliet, imagined the famed horse races of Sienna, marvelled at the laces of Burano, drank the best wines we could afford, and chomped down multiple rounds of Gelato, as would expected of by all tourists to Italy.
However, what surprised me was my mom. At a ripe age of 70+, she took to Italy with so much new wonder. Trying out things that she has never tasted before in her entire life, dragging my children along when the incline got difficult, and being a gamed for almost anything that came her way.
My mom is the epitome of being limited only by her mindset and constantly reminds me that it is not my age that defines what I can or cannot do, but how I approach and respond to things.
As 2022 comes to a close, what are your plans for the new year?
About Kaye
Grew up in Singapore, stood on the cusp of the internet revolution, and surfed it (literally). My “cloud” was made up of FTP servers and free VM software, my “WiFi” was LAN cables that ran across the walls in trunking that my dad hand-laid. I learned to code in Turbo Pascal, and subsequently, Delphi (if you know them, you’re probably as old as I am, or older). 🙂
I’m fascinated by all things digital and still bear nostalgia towards childhood gadgets. My first Pentium-I PC that ran on Windows’98 which I hand-coded my entire A-Levels computing project with, the comforting sound of the 56K modem, the fun I had with the Nintendo Popeye Handheld, the fights with my siblings over who got to use the landline, and my original Nokia 3310 that’s still sitting somewhere in my mom’s house. Not to mention the grande dames of the living room – the television sets that I grew up watching.
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayehau/
Twitter: @kayehau
Email: kaye.hau@generaltechtalk.com
Photo by Matīss Upenieks on Unsplash