Archive for August, 2006
i just wanna share with you the best Merdeka moment i had this time around. it beats seeing little Msian flags waving happily from the roofs of usually-jaded malaysian citizens, it beats seeing the guards at my apartment building pasting flags and ‘We Heart Pak Lah’ stickers all over the guardhouse, it beats the lady at the photocopy place shyly wishing me a Happy Merdeka on the 30th, and then when i reminded her that Merdeka is tomorrow, she said “we should celebrate Merdeka everyday”.
so i was walking into the airport, that cold sterile place with too many perfunctory overhead announcements and overpriced Mcdonalds (that said, i actually love the airport). the moment i walked in, i heard the ending vocals of ‘Keranamu’ being played. i started laughing and said to no one in particular, wah damn semangat!. memang. it put a smile on my lips to know that KLIA was making an effort, albeit one that was fairly giggle-worthy. this is very nice, i thought.
then suddenly, Keranamu faded away, and Negaraku started playing. i was tickled beyond belief - the national anthem was playing in the airport! it was the exact same version we sang along to every Monday morning back in high school, and i immediately thought of Kezanne reciting the Rukun, and i thought of that cute junior prefect who raises the flag during every assembly. everytime he does that, all of us would follow the flag with our eyes until it touches the top of the flagpole - it was like an unconscious habit that everyone subscribed to. either that or you’ll be staring at Mr Kenny and thinking, eh actually this guy is quite buff wan.
i was interrupted from my nostalgic highschool reminiscence when someone behind me suddenly said loudly, “woi, Negaraku ah!”
i turned around to see who said it, and it was this gangly gawky teenage boy who was sitting in the lounge area. he is elbowing a boy who is younger than him, presumably his younger brother.
“so?” the younger boy asks.
“so stand up lah!” gangly gawky teenage boy says with a big grin, as he stands up and hauls the younger kid to his feet as well. he’s only kidding around, good-naturedly making fun of the situation - but when he and his younger brother stand up in mock stiffedness, something cool happens. something great.
the people in the nearby seats start to stand up as well. newspapers are folded away and handbags are set on the floor. coats are adjusted and skirts are smoothed out. people are standing up in acknowledgement of our country’s national anthem.
at this point i am very awed. a couple of people are smiling embarassedly, but they are standing nevertheless. people who are walking past, upon seeing the people at the lounge area on their feet and with their arms by their side, stop mid-step as well and stand up straight. there were all these businessmen with briefcases who were standing still in such seriousness, i couldnt help but gawk. i couldnt help but stand up straight as well.
i hear Negaraku a lot. usually it’s just something we just wanna get over with as quickly as possible. but this time around it sounded different. it felt warm and personal in its out-of-placedness, it felt lively and energetic against the professional crispness of the airport. and standing amongst people who were also standing in honour of the national anthem, people who werent forced to stand … it was something else altogether. it was very cool.
and when the song ended, we all shared a little smile and a little tilt of the head. then we continued on with our lives - checking in luggage, getting a book from the airport bookstore, playing games on the PSP. we all went our separate ways to do our own individual things, but for that brief moment in which we stood up together to sing the national anthem, we remembered that we are Malaysian.
August 31st, 2006
in true merdeka spirit, here are some reasons why i think it’s awesome being malaysian.
pisang goreng
diversity
bangsar
pasar malams
bulan ramadhan food markets
easy let-offs when committing road crimes
getting a driver’s license is easy
you can be ignorant and no one would think that’s weird
you can speak bad english and no one would think that’s weird
being able to say lah!
open houses
starhill
movies here are released on time
good clubs
good indie music scene
good jazz scene
booming performing arts scene
curry puffs and onde-onde
bargaining
cheap taxi fare
air tebu + coconut flesh
lotsa public holidays
entertaining conflicts between prime ministers
entertaining members of parliament (close one eye ok)
free wifi in starbucks
char siew pau
air asia
we can brag about our totally cool island getaways
as well as the towers that used to be the tallest building in the world
traffic jams that facilitate long conversations
mamaks that open round the clock
teh tarik that does not cost rm3
chatty cabbies
sun and rain
cheap electronic stuff in low yat plaza
pirated dvds
carmen soo
golden screen cinema’s caramel popcorn
KLIA
dear thelma
pretty saris in jalan tar
coliseum
ang pau
cool nights
cameron highlands strawberry milkshake
melting pot of races and cultures
MPH
kit kats hidden in ice cream cones
good raves
petaling street hokkien mee
laidback attitudes
carding is almost unheard of
dota culture
ramli burgers
there’s more. but im so sleepy. gonna go sleep on my made-in-malaysia pillows now..
(something cool about malaysians : they know the exact age gap between siti nurhaliza and datuk k, the entire background of datuk k’s previous marriage and even the exact age of his kids from his first marriage.. but they dont know that pluto is no longer a planet. and then when people try to tell them, they dont believe.)
August 30th, 2006
everytime ivan and i go out, we have so much fun!
today we had lunch in this place called Sweet Bean (must go back! must eat there again! must blog about it!) somewhere in this new residential area of OUG. the whole area had this newly-developed-suburb look to it, very crisp and nice! so much so that we, er, decided to take pictures of us jumping in the middle of the road :P here’s one i took of ivan, after almost being killed by 209580 passing cars -
nice anot this pic :D
after i took it, it was ivan’s turn to take one of me, but no matter how many times we tried (and after another 209580 cars tried to kill us), we just could not get a nice pic. so either i’m a lousy jumper or ivan is a lousy photographer. i have a bad feeling it’s the former, sob. anyway i was very TAK PUAS cos ivan had a nice pic and i didnt. and so! i! decided! to!
camwhore on ivan’s car!
it was soooo fun, and everyone should do this at least once in their lifetime!
sitting atop a car is a great feeling - once you’re there, you just dont wanna get down. so i made ivan take me for a ride around OUG while i stayed on the roof, hahaha. it was awesome - sitting there and just babbling away into my camera while trying unsuccessfully to record a decent videoclip, and at the same time trying my very best not to fall off the car everytime we hit a roadbump or sped up. and also fanning my butt every now and then cos it was so bloody hot on the car roof!! i swear there are burn marks on my butt now :(
ivan is fucking cool. ivan, i fucking love you! even though you made fun of my taste in mooncakes and burped in my face =(
after that, we proceeded to get lost around our own city for about an hour before we found Bandar Sri Damansara. met up with the kakicucuklangit at Green Cow Studios then. oh i so miss that place and the lounge area with the No Smoking sign where everyone goes to smoke anyway! so what we did there was rampas kakicucuklangit’s ID, extort his money and watch a gay cashier flirt with him… kekeke fun times.
while driving back to KL, we got lost again. but it was great - everytime we missed a turning we screamed nooooooooo! and we were just attacking each other while arguing about directions. then we put on the High School Musical soundtrack and sang really loudly to the lyrics of What I’ve Been Looking For. if i could videotape those moments i would. i would also videotape the part where ivan leapt out of his seat excitedly and yelled “OMG YESSSS I SEE KLCC!” upon sighting our beloved phallic twin towers. he was so cute. our day was so cute.
i wouldnt trade it for anything at all.
tried to take a pic together but it came out looking like something from Ju On
ivan and i <3
August 28th, 2006
during the massive downpour that KL experienced yesterday evening, i was one of the many angry and irritated leg-shaking, finger-tapping people stuck in the Jalan Ampang traffic jam.
my cabbie was pissed off too and i felt very apologetic about it, like i was responsible for his angst. the moment i got into his cab, my mom called me and warned me not to go out cos traffic everywhere was really bad due to the rain. wet from the rain and impatient from the cold, i chose not to heed her advice. ‘KLCC very near only lah,’ was my dismissive reply. and so as i sat in the unmoving congregation of vibrating cars with windscreen-wipers furiously at work, i felt regretful. why are mothers always right?
as a result of my stubborn disobedience, i was severely late for dinner. my date was late too but not as late as i was. today the same thing has happened, but of a slightly higher degree - because of the rain once again, i am not only going to be late for my dinner date tonight, i predict i am going to be so late that by the time i get there, i will have to leave. so i am now sitting here in Delicious at Bangsar Village wondering what i’m going to do for the next couple of hours. thank God for wireless internet and banoffee pie.
speaking of God. one of the waiters at Delicious sat down to talk to me earlier, and we find out that one thing we have in common is our religion and our mutual dislike for the modern church establishment. it seems that nowadays holier-than-thou christians are sprouting like mushrooms - the average person would admit to having encountered at least one or two or ten of them in his or her lifetime.
in my conversation with Waiter, i tell him how disappointed i am with myself when it comes to my failed attempts in trying to blend in with the church community. it never works and it never happens. i must admit that this is partially due to the fact that i give up upon first sight of any reason why i should. suddenly all the memories of tumultous and bitter friday afternoons at CF (christian fellowship) come rushing back, as do those of TMLC days.
my tete-a-tete with Waiter has long ended, but i am now in possession of a note from him. it is written on a piece of paper from Delicious’ order notepad, and it tells me not to lose focus of Jesus despite the odds. this is a piece of advice that i hear a lot, but never loses its meaning each time.
the fucking rain has still not fucking stopped. even the infamous crows of Lucky Garden are nowhere in sight. where i am seated now - at this wooden square table in front of the cake display - i can see a lot, but i am very far away from the rain. yesterday in the cab, i was very close to it. i could trace the paths of the raindrops on the cab windows until they died into the rubber lining. i could press my cheek to the windows, feeling the cool of the rain even if i could not feel their wetness. but right now and right here, sheltered in this homey cafe, i am detached from the rain. we are not in close proximity, and because of that, it has lost its romance. i dont feel for it today the same way i do when i know it is close to me. you know what i mean?
rain is so fleeting. i would like to ask it a lot of questions. like why do you fall? and why do you fall on me? and why such big downpours? cant we go back to the drizzles?
i asked the rain once why it fell it on me. the answer i got was that because it just does, and it couldnt put into words why it did. that answer is just as good as none, i thought in annoyance. see, if i were the rain and i chose to fall on someone, i would be able to give a hundred and one reasons as to why i picked that person to fall on. but then the more i think about it, the more i think those reasons would be answering another question altogether, and not the question at hand. perhaps the rain is right in its deficient answer.
may i just say that the caesar salad in Delicious is not very good? isa, i miss you and our Delicious day. hehe. you owe me banoffee pie. i dont know why but you just do.
August 25th, 2006
it is a little bit chaotic. the sounds of DoTA crash and bang (killing spree!) from my brother’s computer while his printer chugs out the latest football odds in mechanical rhythm. my mother’s hairdryer is wooshing heat and noise. the sad piano and drums of The Fray’s Look After You is playing from my laptop. the other bro is watching mindless tv where the blonde characters in bikinis overabuse ‘like’ and ‘oh. my. GOD!’. and someone just dropped a drinking glass - one of these days i’ll have to go to Ikea and get another set of drinking glasses, cos we break so many. now the phone is ringing; i didnt even know we had a housephone. i suppose it is new. the housekeeper is yelling at us that lunch is ready and doors are slamming as the people in my house move about. this is all happening at the same time.
very confusing, very comforting.
August 24th, 2006
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