" At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies. "

Told you Sir P.G Wodehouse's a Genius!

A brimful day.

Owing to the rarity of my stepping out of this house, today's experience was rather quaint. In the morning, I accompanied my two friends, Ayu and Adila to attend a funeral of a second cousin of theirs who passed on due to a debilitating disease. It was undubitably a bleak morning, and it saddened me to know that the deceased's only child is barely two years old. The latter did not have an inkling of whatever that was going on, incessantly munching his crakers, falling into oblivion as any child would. It has been six years since I last attended a funeral so it did a good deal of reminding me to cherish everyone near and dear to us always, for the the grim reaper would not be seen knocking on our doors before returning our souls to the One above. Al-Fatihah.

Come afternoon, after leaving the arwah's house, we got into a desultory conversation, 'nak pegi mane?'. It might seem inconceivable to wander elsewhere after attending a funeral. But wander elsewhere we did, and our feet brought us to the National Museum. The majestic building loomed up before us as we ascended the stairs. I was psyched as it was a second visit for me, the first was way in 1986, when I too as a child would have obviously fallen into oblivion then. It was ok, so-so, nothing new to tell. Except for the derisive fact that almost all the baju kurung-wearing mannequins' faces were covered up with pantyhoses. Is it somewhat of a custom in our malay culture? I think not. Incidentally, Datuk Seri Rais Yatim should be able to enlighten us on the acceptable apparel for us all.

Lastly, we headed to KLCC to exchange our local currency with that of Japan's. Again, never would I thought I would be bothered to be engrossed with the fast altering 'buys' of the currencies displayed on the board. Not until today that is. We rushed to the first counter to deal with the broker-like lady. no luck. Rushing to the other end of the mall, we managed to secure quite a good deal with the broker-like man. Exhausted, we agreed to head home. See, today was indeed brimful. Owing to the fluidity of human behaviour, it is possible for one to be caught up with fast-changing emotions, and as it would be, it has for me. If you are wondering, why RM to Yen, rest assured, I am not leaving Malaysia for Japan. My friend Adila is, to meet her husband. joy! :)

Of my FAV book

Flippertygibbet - A noun. One who is unreservedly reticent, hence resilient. whose facade would suggest nothing but pure boredom. Whose mind and thoughts wander aimlessly in the midst of everyday life affairs. One who has one too many inglorious moments in life, and still counting. One who laughs, howls like a hyena rather, in the middle of the night (say, 4am) at the thought of a harmless frog scalded by a cigarette butt. Or by the mere recollection of such statement, " go and get your hair cut, you look like a chrysanthemum!".

One who conjures up ideas to justify their own laziness, without even realizing that the time is nearing 5am. One who would take more than 5 minutes to wish the other goodnight, simply wanting to sound smart, by blurting 'goodnight' in do-it-yourself french, chinese, japanese. and howls again.

One who would wake up and smile as classes had to be given a miss due to sleepiness. One who would make do with nothing for lunch at lunch hour but would skip classes to eat lunch.

But most of all, one who finds solace in reading the silliness of Wodehouse, whose eccentricity is timeless, the founder of the aforementioned noun, thus inspiring the former. Lo and behold!

A Love Story.

For it is not my forte to compose Love stories, here is something I would like to share with everyone, written by a Love story Connoisseur!

The other day I had the "ride of my life". Sounds like a nice title for a B grade horror flick is it not? It was never close to a horrifying experience but it was certainly a splendid moment! I would not want to bore you with the details of the event. The following were just bits and pieces of the things I remember so vividly. In short, that evening I had a nice "quiet" drive with my "dearest". Before that, almost all afternoon we just sat down and talk about things that we wanted to talk about. She waited for me to finish my laksa at lunch while we talk about anything and everything that crossed our minds.

Never had I experienced a more pleasant chat with anyone in my life, than this one. It was not like we never chatted before. Some years back when we just knew each other, we always approached each other's table at the library to have a chat (although she would always say that it was me who was a nuisance interrupting her while studying). But I am pretty sure that we can never deny that we enjoy each other's company. And of course like always, silly jokes were exchanged and we would end up laughing, smiling and leaving each other with blushes on our cheeks.

Then she simply got tired sitting at the lunch table, probably because they were lots os people around. I think a guy sitting at the other table overheard our conversation. No, it was not those kind of mushy stuff that lovers talk about..But something to a lesser degree I suppose. At times we talked our hearts out, sometimes jokingly, and most of the time at the top of our voices! How 'romantic'! Ceh!

So she proposed that I take her out of the campus for a ride. There was nowhere in particular she wished to go to. She described herself as a "homey" type of person and would rather stay indoors if given the choice. So it would make sense if she says that she wanted to go out but stay indoors, as in just sitting in the car for a ride around town. I did just that. That evening, I drove her around KL: the Garden City of Lights, pretending to be a tourist guide for this lost cute tourist.

This cute tourist happens to love ice-creams. So I decided to pull over at a petrol station that has a McD. She wanted to have a cup of McFlurry. But as I parked the car, there was a familiar tune on the radio. You guessed it right, "She will be loved". Just imagine how she blushed! Almost a confused lass, she suddenly changed her mind and wanted to have her McFlurry as a 'take-away'. Preferring to stay indoors, remember? Luckily the McD was a drive-through.
While enjoying our cups of ice-cream in the car silly jokes like this would eventually pop up:
'Nak pergi mana?'
'Tak kisah lah, jalan-jalan je. Tak nak balik UIA lagi'
'Pergi tengok lampu kat KL nak tak?'
'Tak kisah la..lagi jauh lagi I suka. I suka duduk dalam kereta. Pergi la Kelantan ke..'
'Jangan...Minyak kereta full tank ni. Nanti bukan pergi Kelantan je, I bawak u pergi Narrathiwat, kahwin kat sana nanti baru tau! Kira i tengah culik u la ni'
'Boleh'

Boleh? What kind of respond is that?! She caught me off guard, and she rarely able to do so. In the car, the chat resumed and I found her as a girl with many surprises. When you think that you know a person after all these years but actually you don't. As we talk about life in general, it was a shock to me that we have so many things we commonly agree upon. But we try as much to get the conversation in the light of our situation and personally I think we are very comfortable with each other. Very.

But I cannot say that I am swept by the tides of love. It has not reached that stage yet. As my "dearest" rightly puts it:
'We are more than friends, tapi tak sampai tahap tu lagi'.

And so it is. Although this lovely piece was written some two years back, it captivates my heart still, invariably. And so in Love We are, high as a kite, drunk as a skunk! If U are reading this Dearly Beloved Ahmad Feisal, thank U ever so much for being mine. Bestest of Friends, Soulmate and Partner :)

'Beehive' or beware.

'Beehive' or Beware.

The plain utterance of its title would undoubtedly be met with a dismissing disdain by the claiming adults (tsk tsk). Nevertheless, this is a story which promises an excellent moral lesson to everyone, especially to those little rascals out there.

No, this is not another derisory Hollywood movie. When I first watched it, the colourful tale got me enchanted before long. And so enthralling it was that it saw me ensconsed on the sofa every now and then, converting the usually inattentive me into a somewhat attentive little girl.

It all started with an empty chair, left empty by the wife of a recently widowed Mr. Brown, a beleaguered father of seven unruly, extremely ill-behaved, yet adorable children. All the former ever needed was a nanny to tame his childrens' wild antiques, but it took him 17 easily terrified nannies before a government nanny ( a moralist rather) was sent from Above. Yes, literally speaking.

So what if she was slightly disfigured? This quite unfortunate looking nanny did magical wonders to reacquaint Mr. Brown with the joyful task of being a father and a husband. A quick bang by the rather crooked stick of hers would mend every unimaginable mishaps, a result of the childrens' misdemeanour, turning them into abidingly polite children. Of course it was not a joyride for the nanny nor the children, but the former remained unabated. All it takes was a bang by her magical stick to do wonders remember?

Now, how I wish she could do the same, bang her stick to tame the equally misbehaved MPs of ours! ;)

Life's greatest Lesson.

"Without a doubt, Everything in this world, every little experience which we undergo or even merely read about, is intended to teach us something, to equip us for the battle of life".

Now that's Philosophy, read in Greek as the love of wisdom.

Feel free to disagree.