Lest we forget (Part 2): Physical exhaustion

Why, nobody tells me that this is a 24/7 job:

• 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 
  
• no annual leave
  
• no sick leave
  
• no overtime pay
  
• no year end bonus
  

(No tax to pay too, wohoo, is that uplifting?)

Last Friday, I overheard my ex-colleague said "Have a good weekend!" to another ex-colleague.  How I haven't said that line for years! Weekends? What weekends? Nothing change on a weekend, there's still meals to make, mouths to feed, laundry to hang, dishes to wash, floors to vacuum. 

Years ago, weekends was truly something to look forward to in the mundane office.  By Friday afternoon I'd have plotted a complete schedule of where to go, what to do.  Saturday mornings, my private tutor would come to teach me Japanese.  Sunday mornings, I'd be on the road on my precious bike by 7am, riding through favourite spots for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea. Some weekends we'll have yum cha followed by noisy boardgame and computer game parties until 2am at night.

Clocking off at 5pm from your office job? I wish I could do the same.  

On some nights, the body is so tired that the muscles forgot how to relax.  I have to tuck my limbs underneath my back and squash it to stop the muscles from twitching out of exhaustion.  The body wants to rest but has forgotten how to.  The mind drifts in and out of weird dreams.

I feel sorry about those mothers who does not enjoy having children: isn't this akin to daily physical & mental torture?  As my mother puts it, "What can I do? I have no choice."