No Doubt

One of my earliest childhood memory is going to music classes with my mother.

I loved those classes.

I was about 3 - so I would've been tiny and my mother would take me for an hour's class every Friday evening in Ipoh town after work.

It must have been hard for her to travel all the way back to where we lived only to take me out again after a tiring day in the office. We always went by shared taxi and I remember sitting on my mother's lap trying not to put too much of my weight on her.

I never appreciated what she had done for me until now when I can understand the hard work(and stress!) of travelling and her saving up for my music lessons instead of spending it on nice things for herself.

I will always remember those years because it was something I had with my mother and my mother only - my father was in the Phillipines at that time completing his MBA and was often away for months.

We were then a small family struggling to get by financially and even as a child I had to understand that we couldn't afford to waste money on sweets, junk food or fancy toys.

My mother however always made an exception for a piece of simple cream cake from Yaohan after my Friday music lessons on condition that I was good.

I truly believe those music lessons I had when I was so young has made a difference to my hearing capabilities.

I am very alert on picking up music and I can recognise the songs I like very easily from the very first rhythm. When I listen to songs I hear the different instruments seperately unlike Wei Chieh who seems to clump them up and confuse the tune.

I know it because he's always humming catchy tunes aloud at home and I get very bothered when he catches a beat that is not supposed to be there.

Heh.

It must be rather unpleasant for him not to be able to hum his favourite tunes in peace but the clockwork in my head doesn't like or permit for inperfect tunes. It corrects his mistake in my head and bothers me to no end if I don't tell him about his mistake (he likes humming the same catchy tunes for HOURS and sometimes DAYS).

I was originally trained to play the organ but I no longer play much of it anymore these days. I learnt to play the guitar on my own after the PMR exam when I was 15 and it is now my rather quiet best friend.

It listens to my happy tunes, my rocky moods and allows me to trash out tears when I am unhappy or frustrated with life (and to the unfortunate ears of my neighbours).

I do appreciate being able to play music and let my many emotions into it and although I know my mother think that her hardwork sending me to music classes are wasted, it really isn't because if I don't have what she gave to me I would not have sharp hearing and I wouldn't be able to learn the guitar by myself and be with the music that I love.

Anyway...

This is a song that have held meaning to me for many years. I first heard it on MTV when I was about 15/16? The lyrics reflect what I do want - the Simple Kind of Life. It reflects how I felt about Wei Chieh during the uncertain periods of our relationship when we went long distance and were trying to figure out our involvement and how much we each wanted to invest into our relationship.

Now that we are still together 5 years after I first got to know him (09.04.04) and getting married in 2 month's time I do feel like I am (hopefully) now on the path to the Simple Life.

So here's No Doubt with the Simple Kind of Life.