Wincy's Dew Drops

The pitter patter of rain on the tight vinyl of my brolly reminds me of many cherrished memories

Singing nursery rhymes in kindergarten when it was too wet to go out and play

Cousins and I building igloos with grandma's foam fruit boxes and freshly pressed bed sheets

Fiona and I grilling grandpa's catch of fish under the wavy green roof of the carport

Cameron and I in our wellingtons, scouting skillfully through swamp grasses for bird eggs

Sailing on replica ships during Australia's Bicentenary, feeling like a pirate on the high seas

Making it to the other side of the Clyde River as we cooperated with a rope when it was flooded and running hard and fast

Wandering through the Japanese gardens with mum, as we snapped photos under pagodas, fed swans and spooked the peacocks

Taking refuge in "the Rock that is higher than I" as I squated drenched head to toe on the old hospital grounds by a makeshift fire, when I felt betrayed by the two people closest to me

Watching goldfish in the garden ponds of Macao as Tante Annie bought me warm siopao buns from a vendor

Holding a plastic bag over Julia and I when it sun-showered, as we hitched a ride from our Gili Isles escapade on the back of a pick-up loaded with sugar cane

That hair-raising motorbike ride over the mountians of Central Lombok with uncle Wawan; the potholes, mini landslides and winding roads

Rushing over the border to see turrential waters fill up Wadi Sharm in Oman, on one of those rare wet days of Arabia's deserts

Eating Veronika's signature crab curry in a Malabar monsoon

Writing research chapters during a winter sabbatical at Jayke and Billy's Wentworth Falls retreat

Candles releasing juniper and bergamot oil that blended with damp pine leaves outside my cabin window, as sulphur-crested black cockatoos turned the canopy into their kitchen