It was not an overly cold morning, the heaven was doing gentle sprinkles; just enough for me to cover my head with my hood as I made my way to my favourite cafe. After getting down from the bus, it takes about another 5 minutes walk.
Today was not the first time I took this route. However, it was very different today. Ordinarily, it would be very crowded. I figured it was because of the gentle sprinkles which put off parents from bringing their children to this wonderful playground, or ‘park’ as we call them here.
“Hop-Hop park” — That’s how my daughter used to call this place.
The park is located along Kangaroo Road, and she was too young to pronounce the word ‘kangaroo’, hence ended up calling it ‘hop-hop’ park.
That emptiness of the park amidst the peaceful light sprinkles somehow lured me into making a detour. You know how you’ve watched scenes in movies where people stare at a particular empty place and then memories started to flood in and the scenes will show the people doing all the things in that empty place?
I was having such moment.
Every swing that I used to push my daughter in, the flying fox that we needed to queue because everyone was at it, the seemingly dangerous walk across the rope bridge that gave me heart attack everytime she attempted it, that corner where she always picked up pile of dead leaves and say “Daddy, for you…”
I am sure you’ve heard it before, enjoy all the little moments, because they don’t last forever. Yes, I’ve had times when I was tired, and was not up for it when she asked “Daddy, I want to go to hop-hop park”. ‘
And when we were there, queing for another flying fox ride was annoying, pushing the swing was tiring, and as she was enjoying herself, our command was “5 minutes more, we got to go.”
She doesn’t ask to go to the park anymore. As I let the movie-like scenes replay in my head as I stared at hop-hop park, I wish I could held her as she goes for another flying fox ride, or receive that pile of dead leaves as gifts.
If you’re a parent with grown up kids, you will know that when such days are gone, they’re gone.
If you’re a parent with young kids asking you for all sorts of things, I wish you would push through your tiredness and annoyance to build more memories and enjoy those moments.
And… keep those dead leaves in a box for memories.
