Questa è Enida

I have been back to be a 9-5 gal. In fact, it is now 9-6. I have been making myself, and I have been made useful – outside the house. In fact, I have not been in the house mostly. Even on Saturdays and Sundays.

I am happy. In fact, I am happier. And I know it for a fact, that I am complaining less and less these days. Because as a matter of fact, I get to develop content and modules of training courses for some people in the Customer Service industry. Not only that, to top it all, I get to TRAIN these guys! Huh! How’s that for a fact?

Oh! i’m lovin’ it already.

A friend of mine told me about her not so romantic hubby and I immediately thought of what I said to mine in 2001 when we were in San Donato, Milanese:

“Babe, sometimes the most romantic thing a husband can do is the dishes.”

I am losing my patience with TM Telekom. Which is still good sebenarnya. Jangan sampai I am losing my interest sudah. It’s a long story, despite TM’s supposedly long history being in telecommunication business. They should have known by now how customers LOVE to wait…not!

I transferred my phone lines and Streamyx from Ampang to Kajang. Two phone lines, Streamyx attached to one. The area in Kajang where I am, had only ONE line available left. So, only one phone line got transferred. The other, with Streamyx, pending available line. So I went to TM Ampang Point again, sekembalinya dari Bumi Kenyalang, to detach Streamyx from the un-transferred number. Just attach it to the number available, even if it means I have to have seven splitters to all seven phone points in the house. Bah!

To cincang the big story into 18 pieces so to speak, between July 25 when I did all this, another visit to TM Ampang Point on August 1, and a call almost everyday to TM Streamyx Customer Care including one today (August 8, 2007) my Streamyx is not even trickling like a stream. Let alone a broad river! Cik Halisa kita, at Streamyx Care Line said “Ini akan mengambik masa sedikit lah Puan Enida.” I said, “This is not SEDIKIT anymore. I am losing my patience sudah.”

Yes, little did she realize, I am slowly losing my interests in their blasted Streamyx because I am really steaming right now with their mengambik SEDIKIT of my already sangat SEDIKIT masa. Demikian lah why I haven’t been online, nor updating my blog. Sekian terima kasih lah kepada TM Telekom.

Between moving to a new house, vacationing in Kuching (the Rainforest World Music Festival in Santubong was a blast!) and reuniting with a long-lost-but-not-so-lost-kinda long-lost friend in Miri, marking exam papers and keying in grades using my very little knowledge on MS Excel’s formula inserting, attending a job interview at a company in Pusat Bandar Damansara only to find another long-lost-but-not-so-long-lost friend, handing over keys back to the landlord of the previous home, going for my one-month post-IntraLase eye check-up, transferring phones connection to this new place, setting up Streamyx, following hubby furniture-hunting two days in a row between IKEA in Kota Damansara, Gothic in Ampang and Furniture World di pinggiran lebuhraya Jalan Sungai Besi…I pingsan a few times, walked in my sleep half of that time, held my breath and pinched myself, trying to believe I am still alive.

Be couldn’t even remember his name, driving home last night after Sushi at Mid-Valley Mega Mall when I asked if he still knew me. He said, “Oh you…you are the happy thing that happened in my life. I remember you!”

I am alive then. Still.

Ucapkanlah kasih
Satu kata yang kunantikan
Sebab ku tak mampu membaca matamu
Mendengar bisikmu

Nyanyikanlah kasih
Senandung kata hatimu
Sebab ku tak sanggup mengartikan getar ini
Sebab ku meragu pada dirimu

Mengapa berat ungkapkan cinta
Padahal ia ada
Dalam rinai hujan, dalam terang bulan
Juga dalam sedu sedan

To Salina, Lisa and nns …thank you for leaving comments on me bloggy, gals! The good thing is, your comments have reminded me of so many other things that I have been thinking and re-thinking and un-thinking of and about. I promised Lisa on this pedas story:

The year was 1998.
I was in Scarborough, Perth, then. The first few months in Western Australia I felt like I was in Fish ‘n Chips heaven. Masuk bulan ketiga, the heaven turned to limbo, and the fourth month…limbo turned to helluva fishy hell. (There is, however, a very good restaurant downtown Perth called ‘A Fishy Affair’.)

After the fifth month I started having some mental imbalance and strange hallucination that resulted in me salivating to the mention of “Tom Yum”. So, off to the Innaloo Fresh Produce Market I went. (What a name for a suburb eh? In-a-Loo! Imagine this conversation:

“Where are ya mate?”
“Innaloo right at the moment.”
“Again? But you were just there 10 minutes ago.”
“I was and I’m still here. Innaloo.”
“But I thought you said you were going to the market?”
“I am.”
“Where is the market?”
“Innaloo!”
“You can’t be serious! So, are you fishing or fertilizing then?”

Silly Aussie!

I asked for the hottest/spiciest cabai there and I got some Habaneros. The guy let me take a quick little lick to prove a point that I didn’t need half a kilo of those bombs. A quick little lick I had and I virtually DIED at the market! I bought six or seven pieces of those orange crinkly peppers and I died six or seven times again…after.

Everytime I made Tom Yum, I had to put only one or two slices for one whole 5L pot (and that is equivalent to over a half baldi of TomYum, ok!) Powerful tak powerful the Habanero kick in Perth. I died a few more deaths that year, but I resurrected a Tom-Yum-mier woman…beating all Tomb-Raiders alive!

It is going to be a bit drippy leaving our current place. For one, Edrick was kinda born here. The first ever place he calls home. But I never really feel homed in this house. This place has never really housed my spirit, or embraced my soul the way the Arbour Lake place did. It’s strange to think about how superstitious I am when it comes to a dwelling. In all the homes we’ve called home before, I always had a corner to call my own. This one wouldn’t sit me down or let me sit down. It doesn’t even have any corner! (If that is possible!)

The landlord/owner is ok. He pretty much has left us alone these last two years. The first few weeks was a bit of a pain. He virtually called me a liar when I told him that out of seven phone jacks in the house, only two were usable. I had some TM technicians to verify my claim and he still insisted that all the jacks were good because the previous tenant had said so. I rested my case. Afterall, he is one helluva a liar lawyer himself. Hate those legal terms – bad English!

The fourth day in this place, we noticed that our neighbors on the back of the house were extremely private and quiet. We tried to match their silence, but in the quietest wee hours…the water pump on the roof would awaken any living or dead souls. After GoogleEarth-ing our place, we discovered that there was a huge ’empty land’ right beside our solid brick back fence. Of course! The empty area is a place to house only some hundreds of dead souls! No wonder they didn’t mind the noise from our water pump!

I was preparing myself for the worst case scenario when I was waiting for my eyes to be cut open on Monday. Of course no surgeries are ever risk-free. Praying for the best, I did. But in those ‘darkest’ minutes, what kept flashing before my eyes were the mental pictures of my children. Their smiles and their smiling eyes. And I keep praying, today, with my eyes wide open – with my 20/20 vision, no contact lenses, no glasses and all – that may my last breath be filled with the very same pictures.

May it be.