Echoes of another day.

When very disparate things come together, you can get interesting things happening. I woke up on right side of the bed this morning and everything else fell into place very nicely, which was a little strange for a Monday.

At the office, as I turned my computer on, I received a few messages from some very old friend, most of whom, this is where things started to go a little strange, have something to do with Thailand. One lives in Bangkok, another has Siamese blood, and another learnt comes from our days when we explored Muay Thai – well, one for of it anyway.

Then a certain colleague came rushing into my office incredibly rudely and equally rudely refused to do some work I had assigned to him. This was not particularly strange particularly with this particular person but he is not significant in this event. You see, I guess it was because I had a those Thai, Muay Thai and Silat linked memories floating around in my head, I suddenly began hearing my late Master’s voice. There were words like siku balik (reverse elbow), tumbok (punch), tending (kick), kilas (twist), and patah (break – break it off). I was momentary transported back to a drizzly night when I was in a gelanggang (training / fighting ring) beside the river, stripped to the waist, covered in sweat, rain and a little blood, hands in fists in front of my face and weaving out of the way of a round house kick aimed at my head. It took all my strength to keep my hands where they were. Flashes of sequences of movement played in my head, elbow to the temple, hands clasping the head bringing it down and meeting it half way with a knee, a drop kick to the knees, and a few other moves that tend to lead to less pleasant consequences.

Anyway, he wasn’t worth the effort. What is the point of getting physical with someone who was helpless? It would not have been fun. So, even as he left, I saw in my mind my fellow students, my brother and my late Master in that gelanggang. I suppose I should thank that arse with the over inflated ego because he made me remember my late Master and made me realise that I miss him and my brothers in the perguruan.

Ah well, a strange morning indeed. The mind really is a mystery, how it works and where it leads us. I was also left wondering, twenty years ago would I have been able to hold it all back or would those moves that played in my head come automatically into the real world.

Most importantly, I am still in a good mood even in the afternoon.