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Procession?

A friend stopped by tonight. No, that’s not true. It was I who stopped her on her busy track. I just wanted to say hello. But I didn’t just get a hello back. She stopped and gave me power!

 

She enriched me with a simple-but-simply-overlooked philosophy, that “Life is a process.” I thought I knew that all along. Well, indeed I did! I knew that. All along. But the trouble with knowledge sometimes is, we don’t put all of it in words. And when a great friend came along and put my knowledge in words that I thought I had heard before, I was stunned nonetheless.

 

For I realized that it was not her words that I actually heard. It was her thought. One of those many that I had shared. All along. In silence. And from a distance. She was there to say hello and release my wordless thought. The stopping-by was brief. But it was enough to have done wonders.

 

I am blessed with great love from great people. So blessed… that it made me wonder if in the many of my previous lives,  perhaps I was that smart accountant in Singapore, or that marathon runner in Hong Kong, or her sister in India, or was I that great professional gallivantor who speaks English, Dutch, French and Malay just as easy as her eating Nasi Lemak with sliced cucumber, boiled eggs, roasted peanuts and deep-fried ikan bilis?

 

Life is a process. And that’s what I am. In this life I am that thoughtful but wordless writer who knows very well how to love but knows not what love is all about.

 

Being thoughtful and wordless hurts. But that’s a process. Knowing how to love well, yet clueless about love… is painful. That, too, however, is a process.

 

But then, one day… when I have all the words and lose all the thoughts, the process will end. When I know what love is but know not how to love, I will end.

 

I would rather be a process in this life then. Be a work in progress. And in the meantime enjoy every strand of my gray hair, every wrinkle on my face and be entertained by every slightest thought of revealing the real name of that Shower Cap Woman (who had no idea that her middle name is also the brand of birth-control pills… until she got pregnant and did not know who the father of her baby was!)

 

I like this process of accepting that life is a process!

 

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I’ll Be Write Back!

 

I was going to start writing Kitreena simple notes tonight – notes that I will slip into her lunch box tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after, and everyday after that. Found these two old old glow-in-the-dark pens and was going to write on the recycled black cover of a color pad. I had already found one of those Roses Are Red poems to be my first notes.

 

I did say those two glow-in-the-dark pens were very old, didn’t I? I can bet you a dollar to a vareniki that they are actually older than Kitreena. Hmmm… guess what? They don’t work no more. They don’t even glide. Forget about glowing!

 

I am off to look for my gold and silver marker pens. They are not older than Kitreena. They are older than me!

 

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To Shadow A Son

 

“They’re here, Mom! They’re here!”

 

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Simply

We have been wanting a lot of perfections. We have been avoiding too many distractions. But sometimes all we need is just…

 

Some plain Meehoon Goreng and…

 

 

… a little challenge.

 

Just enough to fill us and feel alive.

 

 

 

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Bra Vo

Growth on me chesty?There’s  always  something  new to  learn  everyday. And today I learned about how to wash bras safely. Mind me, peeps, for talking about something (you might find) private. I am actually surprised to see that my blog is a pretty popular finding for those who Google words like tetek and kemban. It must have been from my earlier post on penyangkut tetek – the term for bra that KaCher and I used when we were kids.

 

And today, I did not just learn something new about bras, but also about my hardworking helper, Esmeralda Coloma. I had always wondered why she kept my bra hooks done when storing them in the drawers. I just realized that she actually keeps the hooks done even before putting them in the wash. And, of course, that keeps other laundry pieces safe from being ‘hooked’ by the bra hooks. Duh, Enida!

 

While it may not sound like a smart discovery on my part, I do think of Emy as a very thoughtful person. I mean, really… how many of our helpers really do care about our clothes down to that little bit? Unless of course you are lucky to have good thoughtful kindhearted helpers like Bibik, Emy and Joy like I am (and have been).

 

I am also thankful and proud of myself that I am a person capable of learning new things pridelessly. Brava Enida, Brava!

 

 

A little lesson in Italian in case you’re wondering why I am using Brava and not the common Bravo.

Una piccola lezione in Italiano per noi:

Bravo = for male (singular)
Bravi = for male (plural)
Brava = for female (singular)
Brave = for female (plural) – pronounced as [bra-vei]
Bra = for females only (optional for males with tetek)

 

 

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Do It, Men!

To men out there who are man enough to read this, excuse my frankness. When it comes to money, there are two kinds you fall into. One: those who do have money and arrogantly flaunt it. Two: those who do not have money and shamelessly flaunt it. And both kinds are the pathetic kinds. The rest of you men… you don’t fall into any kind. And you are safe from my frankness – for now.

 

I mean, really! We all know that you can’t be having money all the time. When you do, and lots of it, that’s great. Good for you! But do you really have to unnecessarily show it, blogging about it, posting a scanned copy of receipts of your purchase as though the whole world has to know that your feet alone are wrapped in a pair of RM2557.65 worth shoes. Do you?

 

But man! That is still not as bad as announcing it to the world that you are broke. So broke that you could almost sell the Fung Keong canvas shoes your kindhearted Aunty Anne George bought you after your STP exam. And that is only so that you could buy a pack of GardeniaIn his back pocket! corn bun? Eeesssyyy walang hiya! That, I am so lah not sorry at all to say, patheticity at its worst! And then you’re complaining your girlfriend left you for a bloke who works at Burger King and drives a secondhand Citroen he paid RM14k for in cash!

 

Much of the pain is… indeed, self-chosen. But as painful as being broke can be, have some pride, will ya?

 

Still, a respectable man is not one who has the most or the least money. He is the one who respects his money and treats it like it is his secret lover. Go figure!

 

 

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Retro Speck

Wajah kesayangan hamba? Kah kah kah!I don’t usually write about strangers.  In fact, this entry isn’t about a stranger. I would like to dedicate this post to Irwan, my newly accepted ‘friend’ on Facebook. No, I don’t know him yet. He did not introduce himself in his Friend’s Request to me. And from this profile picture of himself, I swear I have never had a friend this retro. I pray to God hope this is just his ‘Untuk Hiasan Sahaja‘ kind of photo.

 

I don’t, let me assure you, usually accept any Friend’s Request from someone who does not have any mutual friend with me. I even wrote a note to a few people, asking if I had met them before, or if we had been introduced to each other before. True to the meaning of a friend, a stranger remains a stranger, ya know.

 

But in this case, because Irwan is a friend of a very very good friend of mine… I thought, Irwan would not and should not turn out to be DJ Dave or any Hi-One I would not really want to know. I also figured out using my own logic, that for Irwan to put such a hideous mysterious photo on his Facebook profile, he must be one of the two: i. He is extremely good-looking, ii. He is extremely mysterious. And both are good. Hehehehehe. You are free to interpret my “Hehehehehe” in your own way. No mystery here.

 

Uh, did you know that DJ Dave’s other name is Irwan Shah?

 

 

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Cope-n-Hope

At times I know I sound harsh. Most of the times, I don’t (know). Call it defense-mechanism, what-you-don’t-know-doesn’t-bother-you mechanism or whatever mechanisms have you. It doesn’t bother me what and how you label others. It doesn’t bother me what and how you label me. I am comfortable in my own brown skin (semi-D Chinese, half-hitched Indian, duplexed Malay skin). Yes, I am made up of more than just 100 percent of anything, everything. 1Malaysian. Proudly.

 

But behind the hard-boiled, hard-core harshness… I am just a child who has just lost her Mommy. I am just a Mommy who has just lost her Monchies’ grandma. And I am just a sailor who has just lost her pharos, her anchor and her true north. If  I am a bit too harsh, too arrogant to be seen drop-dead crying the Oprah’s ugly cry, and if I chose to still be that drop-dead gorgeous WordPress blogger woman… gimme a break lah kan. Even a diva needs that Azean Irdawaty’s anak wayang moment.

 

I’m coping I’m hoping. And I’m hoping I’m coping. And I’m gone… acting tough. 
Light, camera, action!

 

 

Postlude:
Ehhh! Chicheyyy pulawk kemeira koi ni tadi ateh lemaghi howk dekeik ngei telipoang te. Poh palih peluper nyer! Denggg!

 

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Facing The Book

For the first time after 8 days since Mom’s departure, I am facing the book again. The book I am writing. No, it has nothing to do with Facebook (no matter how much it is causing me grief at the moment, bah!)

 

Enida is gone grieving.

 

 

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Returning

I am still grieving. I am not going to deny it and I won’t apologize. Too many people say sorry when they don’t know what they are sorry for, and most say sorry for all the wrong reasons anyway.

 

As a matter of course, I am glad I am grieving. Thank you Qunie (and Be, and Sia Peng, and Karen, and Nina, and many others) for putting the fact in a sentence… that there is perfectly no harm to do just that, and for ‘sentencing’ me to grieving, taking as long as I see fit taking.

 

But then again… grieving has long been in the act of writing to me. So here I am. I have returned to do the grieving thing again. Thank you for greading.

 

 

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