with friends like these

Part 1 #

Last two weekends, my highschool organized a ten-year reunion. Was contemplating to go or not to go. Ten years! Honestly, has it been that long? Ten-years..hmm. The reunion e-forum was filled with half of the class having migrated abroad, another half happily married and spawning little versions of themselves. My heart was inclining towards going but since my high school partner-in-crime went off marrying a sultan of the neighbouring country, i couldnt figure out anyone i'd likely be engaging in an interesting conversation with. So that night came and went.
Received numerous criticsm on my lack of school spirit and support of the batch. :(
Judging from the photos, im sure it was one hell of a reunion. Yang kena buang sekolah pastu masuk pusat pemulihan akhlak pastu pregnant pastu lahir anak mase 16 tahun pastu buang anak kat jiran sebelah pun ada datang jugak. Pastu flaunt her latest baby (die baru je kawin) as her "eldest child". As if.

Part 2 #

Was at my worst state, greasy spotty face, hair like a bird had built its nest and wearing slippers two sizes too big since the heels i wore to work were killing my feet. Long day at work. Was having a drink with A at Hassan's cyberjaya. About to sit down opposite A when i noticed this dude from college years sitting away from our table. he has the world's biggest mouth and cud talk till your ears fell off and still wouldnt realize it cos he would be too busy talking. i had manage to avoid him for six years already.

shit. thats my friend. i totally dont want him to see me. shit camne ni A?
meh la sini. dok sebelah A.

So i did. was so dumb. huge table for four and two of us was sitting side by side so that big mouth couldnt catch me.

"SHA!!"
fuck la.
"HEY, SHA!"
no,no u got the wrong person. stop calling my name.
"SHA! SHA!"
dammit la. the whole shop cud hear him so it was pretty impossible to pretend that i didnt. i slowly turned to him and smiled meekly. then i turned to me friend and said 'hey look my friend is here..'
she smiled that pitiful smile and continued to dig in to her thosai telur.

i thought smiling was sufficient. no. apparently that was not the case for big mouth. no. no
he came over and plonked his ass opposite me.

"hey. ko dah nampak aku ko tukar tempat duduk eh? ko nak lari dari aku eh?"
damn this dude.
"hehehehe. mane ade." what would be a better answer?
"ko buat ape sekarang? dah kawin? ada anak? kerja kat sini ke?
told you he had a big mouth.
"kawin? takdelah. ko dah ade anak ke?"
proudly takes out his motorola 3G and shows off pics of his wife and son. i really dont know what to say in situations like this.
"oh. macam muka mak die" thats the best i could come up with.
big mouth went into a looooong speech on how when the kid was a baby he looked like the daddy and now he looked like the mommy bla bla bla..
"ko ade card"
i hand him over my card and ask him the same question.
he pretends to look into his wallet and then tells me "aku takde card la. dah abis. tapi ofis aku kat kelang"
ohok. i really needed that last bit of info.

when he finally left our table, A told me,
"well, at least you can feel good"
"sigh. and why is that"
"cos he doesnt have a proper job"
"and what makes you say that"
"sbb die takde name card. dgn sbb ofis die kat kelang. mane ade org ofis kat kelang. i think die kerje buruh ke drebar je camtuh. die buat2 la carik mase mintak namecard"

haha. thanks A anyways for attempting that lame joke.

Part 3 #

Big mouth and about three others are the people i avoid like plague since law school cos they gossip way too much, meddle in other people's business way too much and if they know even a single detail about you, you can bet tommorrow the whole class would know. i avoid them and they are still on my friendster list waiting to be approved for almost a year now.

Monday was Christmas. Me, D and Y went to KLCC. we havent been there in like, centuries. i was never really fond of the place anyways. but since D baaaadly wanted to get books that were not available in borders, curve or popular, ikano or mph, curve we decided to brave klcc to take a peek at kino. then i remember why i hated that place on weekends. it had that tendency to turn into a family outing kinda place, and i hate bumping into bratty kids. (i remembered the day before, we were going up the escalator when some stupid kid push me trying to down when the escalator was going up. D snapped at him, "hoi! lempang karang. mau ka lempang??")

anyways. we were at the foodcourt walking around deciding what to eat when suddenly
"SHA! SHA!"
i turned. believe it or not it was big mouth's closest ally, J carrying a strange looking kid.
i fucking couldnt believe my eyes. two times in one week. god, i mustve been someone really bad in my past life. i fucking do not deserve this.
"hey". i mustered every strength i had to look excited as she was.
"ni anak aku. name die tina. salam auntie"
auntie? what the fuck? i hate reunions like this.
i decided to take -off before she started probing into my personal life.
"bye. i really have to go. nak beli bende jap"

i left her looking bewildered. she mustve felt the lost of not being able to get anything remotely juicy outta me.

Part 4 #

i passed in front for the escalators trying to get to the other side of the foodcourt when i struck out again. i noticed J's best friend coming down the escalator, husband in tow pushing a stoller and she was pregnant. she looked at me and had a flash of recognition across her face. i took off. i didnt want to stay long enough to small talk or whatever. how come that two of my married classmates are in klcc at the same time? its fate playing tricks on me innit. dammit la.

i vow to stay away from family friendly malls ever again. i will from now on sit at starbucks and smoke. not a very family friendly place is it that starbucks? honestly. they shud have singles mall where kids arent allowed. i cant remember how many dirty looks i gave the parents of screaming kids at klcc. im sorry kids. but u guys are annoying.

dammit la.

Part 5 #

Me and D attended a wedding of a dear primary school friend of mine. this was one reunion i did not cringe to go. we were at the singles table which was totally awesome. i met friends from waaay back in primary and secondary. these people are the kind i like to be around. single, very successful and witty. nobody was interested in when anyone was gonna get married. D was amazed by my Subang friends. One chick was a successful architect and equally beautiful though a bit uptight. D told me "cantiknya kawan awak tu, tapi tak colorful. i like you better" hello? arent you suppose to?
One was a stockbroker with KLSE. One had set up her own NGO to care for disabled people. One had set up his own automobile business. These people actually wore pearls. None of the funky jewellery kind.

D remarked to me how different our friends were. I told him my Subang friends were the type of people who came from families of professionals. They had good education, never been broke and never lived away from their parents. They even looked clean.

Oh well. better them than big mouths.

its here

11.05pm

09.12.2006

depending on what the future holds for me, that above moment will go down as one of the single, most significant moment of my life.

prays hard.

"cinta itu unggul, harus tulus, abadi, romantis dan perlu dalami sepenuh jiwa..."

d says:
last saturday i was in a bad mood when i stepped into the cinema hall. the fact that i've already promised her to take her to see the flick 'Cinta' (and the long queue, sigh) doesn't really much help the situation either. i kept silence the entire cinema ad reels, trying to calm myself down while s already playing with my face and fingers trying to agitate me. grr.

i'm not a big fan of malay movies. call me of being unsupportive of our flick industry. but i dont wanna waste rm10 for some mamak who makes budget movies to get millions. fuck you. the last time was puteri gunung ledang which i really wanted to see and i forced my mom to buy kfc just because i wanted to buy the original cd. :P (shadap u...)

the minute the show started i was amazed by the cinematography. hell, this was not as i expected. very lomo like with bright contrasting colours. more or less wat i wud portray kl in my mind.

the cast was good. the married couple (that dead mushroom dude and rita ridaini) story kind of moved me the most. u'll be surprise to know eizlan yusuf and rita ridaini can act. sharifah amani sux though. like big time sux. never even watch sepet or gubra before, so grateful for that.

i didnt really talk much to s during the show. was total focus on the screen. some moments i was nearly in tears because the stories told was a little bit unbearable for a 'mecho' man like me. huhu.

all in all, the movie was awesome. the shots were great, the casts were more than the average, even the soundtrack was ons. i totally listen to belaian jiwa and ikhlas tapi jauh (daoh...) in a different point of view. if was the director this is how i wud portray cinta in the malaysian way. i wud take out sharifah amani tho... she really does look stupid speaking malay. hehe.

i love u baby. thanks for the movie. :)



s says:
someone emailed me the preview for the movie cinta. i was sceptic at first. people give rave reviews about any malay movies as long as its not from the mainstream directors (yusof haslam, professor something etc). i came to think that these kinda people would support anything 'alternative'. after all, gubra and sepet were huge disappointments. i mean interracial relationships? didnt yusof haslam already lightened us on that in sembilu 2005 or something. duh. like i said, people would support anything 'alternative' cos its, just cool to do so. anyways, the review got me kinda interested and plus i wasnt in for watching casino royale.

so i had to twist d's arm to go and watch it and by the time we were in line for the tix, seats were selling fast. d told me the worst he'd put up with was four seats from the front but somehow i manage to get the tix even though it was two rows from the screen. d sudah tarik mukaaaa...hahahha.

and also he was hungry and we didnt have time to queue again to grab a bite. so with a big sigh, he followed me into the hall.

im not gonna blab about the movie here, but i was such a good show. i loved it! and the soundtrack was good too. the kinda songs that replays in your head together with the scenes you just saw. best la. (but dont take my word for it. i enjoy lotsa movies that some people think are just lame. haha)

i mean i didnt think rita rudaini or eizlan yusof could actually act. i mean common, i even thought rita rudaini was just a cleavage bearing chick who could only throw decent punches to her co-star (really. did you see that clip of her catfight? damn!)

the only disappointment was sharifah amani. she was the worst among the lot. ever notice how she always over-acts a particular emotion? in this flick, when she was sad, she was overboard. when she was panicked, she was too gelabah and panting until it seem so fake, when she had her typical wide-eyed confused looked, it was overboard, she reminds me of erra fazira, always over reacting an emotion. no natural in that. even the kid in the movie was a class above her. that kid was amazing. too bad they were too busy coaching the kid til they forgot about that other kid.

or maybe im wrong. maybe it was just because she spoke malay the entire time so she just well, sounded stupid. :P

d was smitten. i was happy. i didnt cry though there was definitely tear jerking scenes when i, the hopeless romantic almost wanted to. shame.

i would recommend it to anyone who thinks yasmin ahmad is the GOD of flicks. movies like these might just send her and her little muse packing.

or maybe not. since she has hell a lot of supporters who would support anything she comes up with. she could come up with a movie about cats and dogs and everyone would be raving about how different/unique/untypical/ her movie is. no offense to the big fanatics.

se7en jeans. for all mankind.

yesterday i spilt orange juice all over my laptop. seriously.

there was a bottle of leftover from the department's hari raya thingy and somebody put it it the fridge. i didnt know why but that darn thing froze. so i let it out for a while, got impatient and started to shake it violently. shake shake shake. it was really thick, not-so-pure juice with the added sugar kind.

then i unscrewed the top and water just sprayed everywhere. mostly on my laptop. dude behind me came to the rescue. we now shook the laptop vigourously and wiped it with a wet cloth. seemed fine.

come afternoon, things were getting a tad too sticky. the juice had totally dried up leaving sticky bits here and there and the keyboard feeling more like a touch-pad thingy rather than the usual soft-clicking sound. dude behind me pulled my keyboard apart and told me to run it under running water. i did. can you believe i did that?

well, it fine now. really. i just got bits of mee-hoon on it now. but no worries they're easy to pick off.

my boss said for me to apply for a new laptop when she walked in on us pulling the thing apart. ha-ha maybe i will. D will be soooo jealous.

oh. by the way, thanks for everyone who wished me on my bday. gifts would be nicer but thanks for remembering anyways. ;) oh, well i got myself some nice gifts. a pair of levi's, two pairs of se7en jeans (yes! im excited too), a leather Mango wallet, two guess? bags, four esprit shirts, a pair of zara loafers and an armani top and eight pairs of nike socks since i wear socks at home. all in one day.

i know im waaay too old to use guess? bag which is really high school, but i dont care. until i can afford luella or marc jacobs or miu miu, i'll live with my faithful guess? bags. unless D is kind. doubt it tho'.

ms. twenty five three years in a row.

twenty five 2004
twenty five 2005
twenty five 2006

i stopped counting since then and the numbers have not change. try it. its good for the self-esteem.

im about two hours away from being yet again twenty five.

d presented me with a huge silver box tied with a white string. 'happy bday sweetheart'
my heart fluttered and already i felt excited (who wouldnt? d-uh!).

see, one of the advantages of having a boyfriend in the creative line (and who use to be in advertising) is presents are never ever ever predictable nor boring. i can safely say that i have never or will never receive a store-wrapped package of perfume/watch/or whatever other uninspired gifts men give to their gfs with a typical hallmark card that lets the card do all the talking.

no. i dont receive stuff like that.

i received five packages inside the box. individually tied with a string. from small to big, all numbered. and the best part was the handmade card attached to it with a poem, handwritten. and little drawings by the side. and the nice part was all the gifts was in the theme of pink and black. how sexy is that?

the gifts will remain confidential as D can get a tad too imaginative at times. hmmm.

anyways, earlier during the day, we attended the solemnisation of my primary school goodfriend who got married to D's high school friend. it was like a ten-year reunion for a bunch of girls who now are married/mommies/or like me, just single and fabulous. the ceremony was tasteful and elegant and the bride and groom were equally gorgeous. while we watched from afar their photos being taken, D remarked, 'beres. designer kawin ngan designer.'

well, excuse me. i think i probably marry one too. its not such a bad thing is it? life is pretty interesting and uncoventional. ha-ha.

sigh. i hate being away from you. loveyouloveyouloveyouloveyou.