a death in december

Have you attended a funeral and thought, no.. I am not going to cry because the person who passed on does not have that much emotional impact over you.

And then you thought wrong and you ended up bawling as if that person meant the world.

Well I was at one of those funerals today. It was my cousin's funeral. A cousin whom I haven't seen in years. He was my uncle's eldest son. And this uncle's family has not been attending Raya gatherings, relative's weddings, or even my late grandmother's funeral. Yes, estranged would be the word to describe it.

My cousin died of drug overdose - a concoction of sleeping pills and God-knows-what. To make things worse, they found his decomposed body, alone in a hotel room, sitting up, with the TV and air-con on. Doctors estimate that he has been dead for more than 10 days. He was 26.

When the talkin was recited, it seemed that my mind went back to the days when I used to babysit this little innocent, baby cousin of mine. We were nine years apart, and his parents used to send him to my grandparents' house for free day care. And I was the one who had to help my aunt take care of him, put him to sleep, prepare his formula, watched cartoons with him.

And today, he's bundled up in white cloth, lined with plastic - the condition of his body too horrific for me to even describe here.

I sat behind his wife, near to his mother - they tried to hold back tears during the talkin but only ended up crying until their whole bodies shivered. And I did too, silently.

Goodbye, Azlan. I hope you did not die in vain.

My friends, dear readers, this is not the way to die. So stay off drugs. You think you're in control, but don't play with fire. I beg you.

it's the most wonderful timeeeeeee of the yearrrrr

Today is my Dad's birthday. Just a piece of useless trivia to start me writing again.

I've always told people that December is my favourite month, and NO.. not because it's my birthday (on the 27th) but because everything just seems soooo festive in December what with the Christmas decor, the school holidays, the New Year anticipation AND don't you just notice that people in the office tend to be more laid back in December? And especially THIS December because of the many public holidays.. I mean, what's a reason not to LOVE this month???!!

Well in spite of all that, December has been a long month for me, and it's only the 17th today. First off, we finally moved in to our new home this month, a move that has been long overdue to both The Diver and my hectic schedule. Well mostly HIS schedule. To make things more topsy turvy, our Bibik went on leave for more than a week right after we moved in. But she's back now and I have recovered my sanity somewhat.

The first two things I made in our new kitchen are these two:

Banana Bread & Butter Pudding

Roast Chicken with Lotsa Veggies

I am elated beyond words that tomorrow's a public holiday and so is every Friday in the next couple of weeks. Didn't have much planned as we still need to fix a few things at the house and of course, decorate the Christmas tree. We left the ornaments at our Kg Warisan home, so for now we only have lights for the tree. (note to self: drop by Kg Warisan to pickup ornaments tomorrow!!!)

The Diver and I will be going to our usually monthly respite from office stress - The Comedy Club thingy at Zouk tonight, and looking forward to that. For those of you who haven't been to the Kuala Lumpur Comedy Club, I highly encourage you all to go, it's just a helluva blast.

My parents, my brother and Medina are in Japan right now visiting our lovely sister, Zaza and brother outlaw, Kazu-san. Medina seems to be OK with the wintry weather except for the occasional nosebleeds. They've been there for 5 days and coming back on Saturday.
Zaza, I ciloked your pics :)

And on the 26th, we'll be having a post-Christmas do at Gombak4Life's home in where else but Gombak County...Ah! So many things to look forward for....

Happy December y'all and joy to the world!

art imitating life, or vice versa?

Right now, as I'm sitting here at the office while waiting for The Diver to pick me up (gosh, I'm just too lazy to drive meself to work nowadays!), I'm reminded of the Malay dramas that my grandma and aunts used to watch on TV.

You know, the evil stepmothers, the cheating boyfriend, the deadbeat husband, the GRO wife, the wicked mother in law, the weepy dumped wife, the secretary-boss affair, the screaming bimbo catfights... all those stereotypes you can ever think of, is there in the Drama Melayu.

In my teens and twenties, I'd go... Man!!! All these are crap that some overly emotional jilted scriptwriter conjured up in his/her screwed up brain. I didn't know that in adulthood, these Drama Melayu scenarios will pop in your life as often as The Diver goes to the toilet after whacking sambal belachan.

As I grow older, nothing shocks me anymore. I'm sure most of you agree on this statement.

When I was in the twenties, life was such a euphoric phase of seeking perfection. And at that age, especially in my early twenties, I thought that adulthood was simply, people being ADULTS.

But boy, was I wrong.

In our lives today, scenes of Drama Melayu pops up every now and then. I sometimes stop to think, "I thought these things only happen in movies." And now I believe that art does, in a strange and perverted way, imitate life.

a note to polygamists

I personally do not think a man can ever be fair when he marries more than one.

Yes, in the Qur'an it says that polygamy is allowed, but many ignore the BIG ASS DISCLAIMER that comes with it. It says that you are only allowed to marry more than one if you can be fair upon your wives. The question is, can mere mortals living in the 21st century ever be fair to two wives (or more)? My answer would be HELL NO.

Oh well, to each his own.

The past couple of months have been rather psychologically stressing me out. Hence the need for the dive trips to calm me down. At times, I stepped out of myself and float up and look at the bigger picture. No, it has nothing to do with my marriage or The Diver.

It has something to do with polygamy and a family member. Let's just say that I am happy for my family if they're happy with the path that they've chosen. But, an advice to polygamists and wannabes, if you have the balls to marry another, please also have the balls to tell your wife that you've married or are going to marry. Be a man for God's sake! I once told a raging abusive ex-husband that I was not in love with him anymore, and that I was in love with another person.

He could've killed me at that very moment, but yes dear readers, I HAD THE BALLS TO DO IT. That's all that matters.

Now this polygamy issue in my family has caused severe distress to some parties and awkwardness to some, and this all stems out of a marriage that was kept secret. You don't know what trouble you give people ... it's so menyusahkan.

I picked out a new journal for 2010 at MPH the other day (which The Diver paid for, thank you!) - I was thinking of a Moleskine initially but settled with this from Peter Pauper, it has more meaning in life now:

double whammy tioman weekend!

Monsoon diving.

That was what we did last weekend in Tioman. Being an avid diver, The Diver loves it because according to him, you get to see bigger stuff. And yes we did see a big reef cuttlefish. And another group saw a frikkin whale shark too! But aside from that, I also suffered a gash on my knee while climbing up the jetty stairs after surfacing during the night dive.

Sakit!!!!!

The Diver kata .. "Biasalah.. Diver..." apa2 injury that I sustained semuanya dia cakap macam tu... "Biasalah... Diver..." Dulu he was a bit sympathetic la... sekarang mungkin dia nak train aku jadi Commando...maybe by the time I hit 40 boleh masuk askar...

And oh, I also did my first ever night dive last Saturday. It was scary cuz viz was super teruk but fun nonetheless.

I did the unthinkable before we left Tioman last week, I told The Diver, "Jom diving lagi next week?"

Remind me to never ask that question in November, December or January next time please!

And so we left all our dive equipment there at the dive centre and decided to return again this weekend.....

For more monsoon diving! The weather's gonna be crappy, the sea is gonna be choppy, and The Diver has bought me a seasick band (I pray to God it works)... and we are off to Mersing again, tonight to catch tomorrow morning's ferry to Tioman!

God speed, I told myself. And please dear Sea, be kind to me....

And these pics were from last weekend...
This ugly mama posed for us... and we got real up close and personal...


The Diver and I, and Tioman in good weather

My stepdaughter Farhanah, who's sitting for her SPM very soon!

My first night dive. Entah apa yang aku suluh. Viz was bad!


We found this guy during our night dive. It ran away as soon as I thought of Chilli Crabs.

BOO!

Bukan Boooooooooo!!! untuk pasukan Manchester United (kalau perempuan takde breast bolehlah dipanggil Man-Chester jugak)!

Boo! It's my second favourite non-Islamic celebration after Christmas - Halloween! I categorise my celebration between Islamic and non-Islamic, lest people think that I am pagan and don't celebrate Islamic celebrations. This year is the second time that The Diver has made our Halloween celebration a blast. Well last year, he carved Jack o' Lanterns out of tomatoes. It was a last minute thing okay...Halloween Express 2008 - we also had The Devil's Omelette!

But this year, oh this year, we had REAL pumpkins, although not the shiny orange ones that are sold at dirt cheap prices back in South Bend, Indiana. We had local pumpkins, the one that's sold in Jusco and it was affordable. That will do lah aku bukannya la hard up sangat kat pumpkins kan.
Thanks to The Diver for painstakingly making the Jack o' Lanterns...

We had a Halloween do cum Gombak4Life's birthday party at HRH's residence last week, and it was fun for all.
Yunus was a "Pirate VCD" while Juan was.. err.. a reluctant pirate...

Mwahs to the pumpkin!

Tengok kat belakang ada Momok dok sibuk cakap telefon...

And tonight before midnight, we shall leave for Mersing for tomorrow morning's ferry to Tioman. Amidst the Annual Report, I'm taking time off for a bit, only a bit, of diving in Tioman.

Happy Halloween people! Trick or Treat!

blaming Facebookery

This blog is almost dead, but not quite.

I've willed every ounce of my being to keep it alive, although barely. But I shall keep it alive, because I do need to write, or else I'll completely lose it. And when I say IT, I don't even completely know what IT is...

And no, I didn't start a blog just to "be part of the in thing" or "because everyone else has one" unlike SOME PEOPLE. Siapa makan babi terasalah babinya.

Anyway, write I shall. Since I have not been updating this baby for close to two months, I shall write about the reason why I had stopped updating.

I blame it totally on this evil, evil social networking thingy called Facebookery. As of today, I am a complete Facebook Bitch married to a total Facebook All Star. Status updates, photo comments, Facebook Notes, plus all the games that I'm hooked on like Restaurant City, Barn Buddy, Farmville, Pet Society and of late, Cafe World - those are the things to be blamed for my non-performance in the blogging department.

This has also resulted in several bouts of writer's block that has kept me off blogging.

But I shall continue to write. I promise. Only until I finish serving up my meals on Cafe World!!!