My husband and I have become resourceful. We are rediscovering, and finding new places to do day trips. Not too far away, between 2 to 5 hours. In place of nights away at hotels or resorts. Not doable due to my mum’s situation/arrangement.

After more than a year, I finally have a caregiver, Kalyani. She does 3 nights and 3 days of between 10-13 hours, most shifts. The 3 nights are from 6.30pm to 7.30pm (13 hours), Sun to Tuesday. Wednesday is 4.30pm to 9.30pm (5 hours) while Thursday and Friday are 10.30am to 9.30pm (11 hours). It might appear complicated but it’s not. It’s the almost optimal arrangement for all concerned. Brother number 2 does Saturday morning to Sunday 1pm. I do the balance hours and my mum’s morning showers, etc.

Working within these parameters means we are limited by what hours, what days and how far we can go outside our home. Travel to places and return in ample time to do the handovers. Don’t get me wrong. My life is not a hardship. Far from it. By focussing on what we have, we have managed to fit in some variety into our lives.

I remind myself constantly about being mindful. Awareness. Acceptance. Being in the present and enjoying the now. Not worrying about the future, which is outside my control. Not wallowing about the past that I cannot change but accept. I try. So far, it has been working quite well.

We revisited Kuala Selangor Nature Park. Located some 70 km from Kuala Lumpur. We used to be frequent visitors, and even stayed at its chalets, once. Sadly, we haven’t been back in the last 15 years. The park appeared the same and yet not. There were visibly more monkeys about. Macaques and Silvered Leaf Monkey or Silvery Langur greeted us at the entrance. There were so many that I had to dodge a few to park the car. That said, it was a treat to see the Silvery Langur monkeys. They were the more attractive and friendlier of the two. Friendly enough to sit on visitors’ heads and eat off their hands. Yes. Yes. There was a sign, although not too prominent, advising visitors not to feed and/or fraternize with the primates. Hmm.

Anyways, the walks in the park and on the cemented walkway or boardwalk were certainly worth the long drive. The main trail took us through trees with branches that even contortionist would have marvelled at. While their thin roots were spread akimbo like they were standing up all at once. The cemented walkway covering the mangrove swamp got our thumbs up. As an aside, wooden boardwalks are nice to look at and walk on but they are not durable. They are damaged easily by the local weather. Too much rain. Too much sun. Covered in luminous light-yellow moss, the walkway was flanked by muddy swamp that had some interesting inhabitants. Crabs and mudskippers.

Crabs or rather crabs with one large claw of various colour. I kid you not. Blue, green, orange, yellow, red and even fluorescent. It was a fun discovery as we had never seen multi-hued clawed-crabs. I Googled. They are called fiddler crabs. The big claw akin to a fiddle. Hmm. Mudskippers. We’ve seen them before in muddy and swampy areas. The ones in the nature park were a little prehistoric in appearance. Like a cobbled together salamander, fish and frog. Long bodied with gills and bulging eyes on top of the head. We saw them swim, jump and dive underwater or under mud. Mudskippers, to me, are a little disconcerting. They give me goosebumps. Sorry mudskippers.

After a10-minute drive from the nature park, we were at a Chinese fishing village called Pasir Penambang. Again, we have visited this village many years ago. What stood/still stands out is the long row of wooden houses built on a wooden platform over the River Selangor. The front doors of the houses were wide open. Fridges, rice cookers sat in the living area. People from different households chatted over figurative fences. It was like time stood still except for the ubiquitous presence of mobile phones. And, we had a delicious seafood dinner with a river view. All that in one evening.

We also walked on the beach and enjoyed the sunset at Morib Beach in Banting. The artistic wall and floor murals at Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi in Sepang were a fine find. And last Saturday, it was a post-Thaipusam visit to Batu Caves in Gombak. We walked up the 272 steps. Went to the temples, including those on the ground level, caves and surrounding area. By evening, I felt a sense of inner peace. My husband and I returned home feeling happy and content.

The plan is to keep finding interesting places within an acceptable radius, and visit them.