Got me tagged for another, err, tag; by Moomykin
Rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. List 5 things that could make your life very different should it come true.
3. Tag 5 other people.
1. If I didn’t play dead, I would have drowned that day at the rapids, at Kuala Kubu Baru.
See, since I was young free and single I joined various activities to get to know people. One of them was the outdoor adventure group that rock-climbs (they (used to?) run the indoor climbing gym at The Summit) and also white water rafting. On one of the trips to the river, the water was quite high and fast due to rain the previous few days. Story short: My raft tipped over. My buddy managed to get to the shore, I was caught in a “washing machine” tumble of water behind a big boulder (water physics: this is the resulting turbulence when the water meets back together after going around and above the boulder). I couldn’t get out of it. I couldn’t get up for air easily. Because of the life vest, I couldn’t get down low enough. For a while, I was doing how I used to play in the pool when I was a young’un: Sink, kick / jump up, gasp, sink, repeat. I did that for a while while trying to escape the turbulence, buying time, thinking what to do next. And then I couldn’t anymore. I didn’t know where was up and down anymore. I can swim, but I couldn’t swim out of this one. Kicked, and still no air.
I don’t recall thinking I was gonna die. I don’t recall having the proverbial life flash before my eyes. I also don’t recall panicking. Only Hey, I can’t seem to get out of this shit, man.
After a while, I thought Since I am not getting anywhere struggling, why not not struggle. I played dead.
Turns out that was almost the right thing to do. Then I “came back to life” and tried kicking again, and found myself standing in water only knee high (river bed not always the same depth, okay! It was deep at the boulder!)
One of the guys there is a keen kayaker, from Sydney. Brought his own single-seater too. He was saying that with all this turbulence going on, there is a layer of water that’s passing through underneath all this quite happily. If this happened to anyone, to remember to make like a ball and try to get deeper into the water to let this “layer” take you out.
I was apparently involuntarily dragged out by this layer of water.
The guys afterwards said I may have been under for over 5 minutes. I wouldn’t know. They seemed more scared than I, what with my limp body! I was just busy burping all the water I swallowed.
2. If I didn’t go to this club that I didn’t usually go (likewise with Hot Mummee) we wouldn’t have met!
I went with some work mates. Since I was their boss / supervisor, I thought I should also join in some after work partying. Just that I don’t like the crowd there nor the music (it was Viva- now you know what I mean!). I spotted my cousin, went to say hi. Turns out he and friends were celebrating his wife’s birthday. I went over to meet them, and there she was……
3. If I didn’t leave Australia when we separated, we might still be together and I might be living there now
But… I wouldn’t have (re)connected as well as I have with my family here. I wouldn’t have had the break in my career. I wouldn’t have met Hot Mummee, and wouldn’t have these two adorable kids.
4. If I wasn’t lured by advertising money, I wouldn’t have started this blog!
But it’s all good, if I wasn’t passionate about parenting, I wouldn’t have started it anyway!
5. If I had more time for myself, I would actually be making money with this blog!
I would be spending more time researching and tweaking this blog to go further than what it is now, and probably more mental energy to write better stuff and better writing than the current useless fluff…
Hope this doesn’t drive readers away!
PS: Oops, this is just like me to not follow rules, or not reading instructions (take your pick!)- Anyone reading this is free to pick up this tag; ‘cos I don’t even have as many as 5 friends!
