Yang buat aku tersenyum:
1. Remember the pak cik at the pasar with the baritone voice? He’s still there, cheerful as ever. I pointed him out to Ummi last Saturday morning, and she reckons he’s probably as old as the Pasar Tani itself. Another amusing thing I’ve noticed from pasars is that the menfolk take up the exact same station as they do in malls - away from the stalls and the hassle of shopping. It was the funniest sight seeing these men stand apart with all sorts of plastic bags draped on them, while they let their wives do the buying and bargaining. Eventually some of them would slowly form small chat groups and start gossiping right there in the middle of the lanes! If I wasn’t draped with plastic bags myself, I would’ve taken a photo of these gossiping husbands - the role reversal was just too cute.
2. Ummi and I were in the kitchen organising the groceries from the pasar. I chose the task of peeling and cleaning up the prawns while Ummi was pushing satay sticks into the sotongs to bake them for lunch. We were doing this side by side. Just as I stuck my hand in to peel off the prawn’s shell, I pricked my finger on one of its…tentacles? I don’t know what its called, but it was sharp. So I let out this one big yelp and Ummi gave a shriek of her own right next to me. I thought it was because of me, but it turned out she pricked her finger on one of the satay sticks she was holding at exactly the same time I pricked myself.
Like mother, like daughter.
3. Widad. You know, I could write a whole book on Widad and her episodes.
a) It was 10am when I found her stumbling out of the toilet. I started reprimanding her on the importance of waking up early when she indignantly replied that she woke up at 8am. This is how the conversation went:
L: So you woke up at 8. Then apasal baru sekarang mandi? What have you been doing since then?
W: Adalah…
L: Were you reading my magazines? (I had just bought Newsweek and Time, and told her not to read them til I did myself.)
W: No! (Suara makin indignant)
L: So what were you doing until 10?
W: …sleeping.
L: (Terkedu kejap) What? I thought you woke up at 8?
W: I did!…Then I went back to sleep.
L: (Terkedu terus)
b) I should tell you my sister is a huge Michael Jackson fan. I cannot stress this enough.
L: Widad, if MJ was still alive today, would you marry him?
W: Well, if I knew for sure he was Muslim, then yes.
L: Really? But don’t you think he had severe psychological issues?
W: (As-a-matter-of-factly) I do too. *shrugs
L: . . .
c) Luqman was attempting a scientific trick of some sort involving two glasses and a spoon. Ummi, Widad and I were his audience, watching with rapt attention. Something obviously went wrong and as he tried fixing it, he said “Darnit, it’s not working lah” to which my sister responded “I can see that, I’m just waiting for the right time to laugh.”
And then she laughed.
Rumah ni memang topsy turvy when she’s home. Sunyi je when she goes back to her campus.
4. Watching my siblings do perfect impersonations of Abah and cracking stupid jokes, one after the other, and laugh til their faces turn beet red over the weekend made me look around suspiciously to see if Hallmark’s secretly filming. I’m sorry, but I always get wary when I have too perfect moments. I’m trying to learn how to enjoy them unrestrained.
5. I don’t tell them, but random text messages from Saraa and Kak Ateq now and then are uplifting. Saraa just says the oddest things at the oddest hour, and Kak Ateq, for all intents and purposes, is still my ‘roomie’, though we don’t share a room anymore. =)
6. I had my first breakfast outing with my cousin this morning. It was something completely spontaneous, the “eh, jom breakfast kat kopitiam esok nak?” “ok!” variety which goes to show that if I want my dates to happen, I can’t plan them. For some sad reason, my plans never seem to fall through, so spontaneity it has to be.
Breakfast was delicious, catching up was eventful, laughing and crying were involved and having a heart to heart talk after so long was relieving, because even though we meet regularly at our monthly tahlil, talking with so many family members around is an impossibility. The fact that she lives 30 minutes away doesn’t make it easier. This was a first in ages.
By chance, we bumped into our uncle and aunt who were happy that ‘us cousins were staying in touch with each other’. But of course!
7. This deserves a special mention.
I’ve known Maddie for roughly more than a year now, though not in the usual context when people say they ‘know’ someone. Knowing someone is so subjective, depending on individual levels of comfort. On my level though, it still adds up to more than a year.
Having said that, I only got to meet her in person last Friday for the first time. J and J’s adik Najah also came along for a bit of brunch together, since they also met Maddie in the Internet world. (I should remind you that J was my online friend too before I met her in person, just like Awin and Afiq. Blog-stalking should be listed as a point of similarity between all of us here, haha. Oh God, we’re scary people.)
Admittedly I was nervous. I mean, how many ways can something go wrong? Awkwardness and silence were my biggest fears, but Alhamdulillah those evaporated the minute I realised we were all hammering away sampai lupa nak bukak menu and order at first. I don’t know whether the other girls realised that, but I found it hilarious.
I wish I could sum up the experience somehow, but some things you just can’t put into words. Seeing J again was awesome and finally meeting Maddie in 3D was surreal, and even saying this isn’t enough. It was something lah, a mix of utter madness and explosive in a quiet sort of way, like a heart releasing a bullet. Yep, that’s what it was. 
You know, despite listing all the above in numbers, I bet you have your own happy thoughts and know for a fact that the real values behind every story can’t be captured numerically. They just are, and you take them as they come, grateful for seemingly small things which in fact really are far bigger and immeasurable in magnitude.
Alhamdulillah.
Enough said here.
