Country vs City

I don't know what had gotten into me! Kept thinking of country lifestyle. Today I re-called what we did many many years ago when I was still a little girl.

Like I said earlier, I was raised in a very adventurous family. Mom and dad (I must say especially dad) will always engage us in fun activities during our school holidays. Other than going cycling and fishing, we did have a "Tour around Peninsular Malaysia" in I can't recall if it was 1 or 2 weeks. Then there was picnics, sight-seeing, and many more.

During my schools days, we will travel to many places (within Malaysia, off course). Pangkor Island was one of the most often visited places. Why Pangkor Island? You see, that's my mom's hometown and we still have uncle and grandfather staying there. In fact, that's the place where we had a whole lot of fun with cousins and friends!

I must say that my dad is a very creative man. He could make a whole lot of things out of scrap. There was once he made a bench out of wood under a tree, in front of my uncle's old house. It was a great multi-purpose bench which we played on. It's a place for relaxing during evening, a place to rest your head during cloudy days, a stage for performing, a platform for child play, and most of all a place for fellowship among relatives.

It was such a memorable bench that we even had opening ceremony to launch the bench. All the kids dressed up nicely for the ceremony. The Opening Ceremony of the bench

Me and elder sister on the launching day

Other than that, we had once build walls out of banana leaves on the bench. Pretending that it was our house, we played all sort of role-play games. Role playing - some act as parents, others as the children; cooking. It was sad that in the end, our banana leave house was "stoned" by some "terrorist" (rude kids in that area). Anyhow, we did have lots of fun.

Today, it is hard to provide Grace with this kind of a lifestyle. Nevertheless, I will not give up. I will strive my best to introduce some of these activities to Grace when she's older. As for building banana leave house, it will be a little harder. We are now staying in high-rise condominiums, thus spaces is a concern.

Why had I chosen "Country vs City" as my blog title? Well, though we don't have the outdoor space to build banana leave house, we do have Pop Up Panel house (see below) which we could keep or "build" at any time and any where we want. That's the difference between country and city!

Nevertheless, Grace still had a good time playing in this little pop up house. Here are some photos of her enjoying her play.