Cyclic life

I asked a friend, why are you so anxious to get married? Where does the pressure come from?

The answer is not as bizarre as I had thought it would be, coming from someone like that friend of mine. Parents edging, society’s expectations and stigma. The normal wohoos of todays world I guess.

What got me thinking is how absolutely cyclic things really are, and yet some of us would feel like we’re the only ones who’s been through it, and goes “oh woe is me”.

Ok, let me guide you through my train of thoughts.

You know how now that you’re working, you’d tend to gaze fondly back at your student life days? And then you go on telling your juniors to appreciate and enjoy the carefree days that they have now. They never listen do they. They’d go through the same cycle, worrying about studies and the petty stuff, and when they grow older and get jobs, or have bigger responsibilities, they’d get into the holier than thou shoes and start preaching to their juniors about greener pastures in a students life.

That’s cyclic for you. That was the first carriage of the train of thoughts.

The second carriage is this: The marriage question. I don’t know how rampant this is in other cultures and ethnic groups, but amongst the Malays (or maybe I should say Malaysians….because I have experienced the questions by non Malays as well), “Bila nak makan nasi minyak?” is almost like the rite of passage for all girls and women ripe of age. And the questions goes on and on, at every dinner place, lunch date, family gathering, street party , OTHER people’s weddings and so on and so forth, until the person finally gets married. What I don’t understand is why people continue to ask, without fail, every. single. time. Not that I care much.

But this is classic example of cyclic, because it happened then (our parent’s days) and it is happening now. I don’t see why it doesn’t continue to happen in the future.

What aptly follows, after the person gets married is “When will we be hearing the pitter patter of little feet?”. Ah, the skill of being subtle. Then when you do get your first child, they go on saying, “Bila angah nya nak datang pulak”. You know, if I had a ringgit for every sarcastic answer for these questions, I’d probably be a billionaire (maybe).

The third carriage is: When we realise that all these are very much cyclic, and we get the fact that Malaysians are people with nosy-ness making up for the lack of hidung mancung, why do we need to be depressed, or angry, or plain annoyed at such situations? Is it so bad to not conform to society’s take on what is the norm (of course, I don’t encourage anyone to go against the law [natural or otherwise]) and just be happy. I wonder if we were to delve into our parents thoughts back then, we’d probably encounter the same sentiments. They just didn’t let the whole world know of course.

Out outlets

Saya ban ban ban ban Pizza Hut Alamanda.

Seriously, their service has been bad since they opened, and I am not one to be sweet and demure when my food is being messed with or when the waiter is being super rude.

Saya ban ban ban ban BAN juru jual menjadi ekor saya

I’m in a shop selling home furnitures. Big bulky home furnitures. Heavy ass wooden chairs. Gigantic stainless steel stove. What am I going to steal? A shiny knob off the counter tops? Bleh. Any sales promoter tagging along within 4m of me will cause me to scramble out of the store faster than Neo stopping Mr Smith’s attack.

Saya ban ban ban ban BAN promoter linguaphone di pesta buku.

“Akak, ni guna ajar anak akak, bagus ni”
“Saya tak kawin lagi”
“Akak, guna untuk akak sendiri pun takpe. Boleh cakap bahasa inggeris dengan lancar”
“It’s ok, I think I can carry myself around amongst English speakers fine”
“Oh…takpe-takpe, akak nak faham Qur’an kan? Boleh belajar bahasa Arab”
“Wallah?”
“Errmmm…bahasa Jerman….”
“Nein, ich BIN Deutsch” (ok, I’m not really…..haha)
“Bahasa Jepun antara bahasa yang pali….”
“Nani? Wakarimassen” (and shakes head furiously, looking confused)
*Promoter turns around, walks off with shoulders hunched…fail*

• Me: D'you think they'd last?
• Her: Who? Noob and Noob2?
• Me: Yeah
• Her: Doubt either will.
• Me: *sigh...we really need people who are/can be passionate about what we are doing*

Azam

Today, while driving to work, I made a vow. That is to be nicer and friendlier to the new crew on board, for I have been a bit standoffish before.

At 10.00 am the noob conveniently shattered my faith in being un-prejudice against people, by loudly claiming, “I’m going off to company ABC soon after this!”

The noob has only been here for 40 days, and day in day out, has been complaining about boredom. My advice, enjoy the free time you have, make friends, be friendly, learn and read lots, because soon, you’ll wish you’d savour those free moments and taught yourself a thing or two during the free time.

So there goes my azam out the window. Pffth.

I smelt memories of Ncastle today

Ibu cooked Chicken Biryani Pulao for dinner. Served with chicken madras and home made salsa-ish sauce (I have no idea what its called because I just swished some ingredients together).

And the aroma of this spread jolted me back to the Ramadhans I had during my 8-11 years of age. I can almost see flickering images of the siblings, friends, running around after iftar at the masjeed. Then picking up half emptied coke bottle, then sitting in a corner to pool together our catch of the day, and fill up bottles so they look like brand new.

The power of scent.

I love how this girl planned for her memories in scents.

…..we decided that each of us would buy a new fragrance that we’d never worn before, and use it during the weeks leading up to our wedding, on our wedding day, and then on our honeymoon — after that, we only used them as decorative pieces. We did this so we’d be able to recall all those beautiful moments that the human sense of smell has the power to recreate. ….

Would love to do this some day.