I've been in Singapore close to, 7 years? 6 and a half. The house I live in is no longer anything special, it's just home. Home the way you can close your eyes and in your mind envision the layout of the entire place.
For just one second, though, I walked out of the shower and caught a whiff of something. It immediately brought me back to how I used to feel about Mama's place. The excitement and foreignness of staying here in Singapore when we used to visit as children. That thrill of turning past the guard house, arriving at the condo lobby and rushing up the stairs. And at night, when we cousins stayed up so late to play games, never wanting the night to end because we hated to part when it was time to go back to Malaysia.
So cool how that one whiff could remind me of all this. Such a shame so much of childhood gets forgotten. I always talk about how I don't remember anything from my school days, or even JC days. But that's not true, I remember all the fun I had with my sisters and cousins.