when....

When boredom or 'sien-ness' ( in Manglish terms) reaches epidemic proportions and it almost crosses the line between "under control" and "out of hand", i frequently ponder what is remedical to appropriately address this. As all teenagers would agree with me, boredom/sien-ness is what we fear the most. Anyway, the downside of holidays is that boredom sometimes creep in like a cicak on the wall, silent, and it slowly overtakes your hopes and dreams of what a 'perfect' holiday should be. My interpretation of a 'perfect' holiday includes countless hours of TV, computer, futsal, shopping, eating, sleeping and everything that falls under the category of "FUN". It is almost a Law that dictates how holidays should be. But not all things, no things are perfect. Holidays are such things.

We try to pretend that holidays are enjoyable. True, for me. There are times when i would rejoice and give thanks for holidays and there are times when i would beg for some work to do. Not that i like work, but it's just that i dislike the not-working-for-a-long-period-of-time feeling. I dislike or i should dare say, hate being idle. It makes me feel like i'm the world's most fai chai (useless stick)-only capable of consuming resources and contributing none. I feel more complete as a person, if at least i have something to do.

Lo and behold, that was what i did today-trying to find something to do. Boredom has consumed so much of me that whether doing something fun or just for the sake of it wouldn't bother me any more. I just had to do something. Just had to! So, i followed my friends to MidValley to catch The Chronicles of Narnia. Note that i have watched it last week but decided, 'What the heck. I'll just watch it again'. So i did. I spent $7 when the contents of my wallet consisted only my IC, Driver's License, some sale receipts, coupons and yes, $9. 9 bucks?!??!?! Yes.Only 9. For a moment, the number 9 seems like an awful number to me.Awful to anyone when your wallet only has 9 One-Dollar notes. However one lesson which i learned today was to always keep stock of your wallet's contents. The amount of how many colour-printed papers with a portrait of an uncle with a keris determines whether you should go catch a movie or just stay at home staring at the TV. Hence, I told my friend I will pay for the movie ticket some other day...if i remember that is.

The movie started at 3.35pm. But I had no idea why I was already there at 12pm. Nevermind, i thought to myself. I had nothing to do anyway at home. So, I started my aimless stroll around the shopping mall just to pass the time. This was the first time I actually hated wasting time. Or was it because i had TOO MUCH time to waste? I walked and walked, up the escalator and down, stopped to look at some CDs, met a classmate and then looked at my watch and...it was only 1.00pm. I had nothing to say to myself. But you have to give credit to me. At least I could do all of those things listed in the above in just one hour. What do they call this? Multi-tasking? I deserve a salute for this. So, Lesson #2 today was : If you want to waste time, there is no point in wasting your energy.

To conclude, holidays may not be perfect as we all ought it would be. If you feel like kicking the boredom out of your day, do not EVER do something just for the sake of doing it.Don't just do something if you have nothing to do. I've learnt this the hard way today. I would consider boredom is not such of a bad thing at all from now onwards. If it's bad, at least it's not as bad as walking around in a mall for 3 hours with an empty wallet...