Kata Pujangga

Betul sangat what is said above… and it goes both ways.

Kalau kita tak suka orang tu… kita jauhkan diri juga. Better that way, daripada terpaksa berdepan² dan berpura².

Tengku Chombi (TC) and I may go quite a ways back, but rasanya tiba dah masanya I jauhkan diri demi keamanan hidup dan keinginan untuk menjadi seorang yang lebih di-RedhaiNya.

Panjang juga cerita pasal TC ni, mungkin bila datang angin moyan adalah tu nanti dia disebut dalam posts kat blog maha sendu ini….

Purak² Buat Bingai?

.. or memang bingai?


Ke..kau jenis yang bacak tajuk aje? Or just the first sentence of the first paragraph?

Nampak sangat kau tak pernah kisah nak baca all that I write in the Whatsapp group because your sense of self-importance makes you think that I have nothing of any significance to say. Like Awin told me lah, “You siapa Lumree?” with tongue wedged firmly in cheek 😏. Kaaaan. I have never won any Cameronian Awards but at least aku bother to read a whole paragraph (at least!) before I weigh-in macam aku tau everything 🙄

And to answer your question wahai 🤡 of the first water, YES… the prime suspect (not actually a suspect anymore but 99.99% proven!) of the giver of sweet ain on the poor child is YOU. Siapa lagi, wahai Tengku Chombi? Sampai screenshot video anak orang and tengok berulang kali? 🤷🏻‍♀️

#BaruFriendFriend

Today, I went out to brunch with my #BaruFriendFriend (she coined this term, which I think is brill! 😂) Awin before she leaves for her home state after completing her stint at a Bank where they have chosen not to make her position permanent. Rather sorry state of affairs, if you ask me, she is very highly valued and appreciated by all the Bank’s clients. However, the Bank chooses to ignore the glowing reports and testimonies from the clients who are very happy with her professionalism and good service.

Apaaaaaaadah…

Awin and I were introduced by a mutual friend of ours, Tengku Chombi (let’s call her TC). We would go out to the parks around the city on weekends with Awin’s cute little toddler, Edin (‘E’). We adults were supposed to get some exercise in, whilst E would play at the playground but that never happened. We aunties much preferred fawning over and playing with E, rather than berpeluh² pusing satu park tengah² panaih menggeletat, ya know wot I mean?

There was certain “topics” and “agendas” that Awin and I wanted to discuss before she leaves KayHell this Sunday. It was lovely spending time with her, although our original meeting place was a flop (no parking and no tables!), we adjourned to a nearby café that was quiet enough for our chinwag.

I will miss her and adorable Edin. Even though I have only known her for these few months I feel very comfortable with her, as if we have known each other a long time. TC and I belong to a cov…🧙🏻‍♀️, 😅 eh no…. a group of female friends who have known each other for 17 years. I have opened up to Awin things I have never even told TC and the other members of this group. Rather strange how we can just… vibe with certain people immediately and with some others it never happens, not even over a long period of time.

Awin is a very warm, honest and open person. WYSIWYG. I like people like that, they are easier to deal with. No drama, no smoke and mirrors, no cloak and dagger stupid games that people sometimes play. I appreciate her straight-talking, her intelligent sensibility (despite all the stories I heard about her before I even met her!) and her positivity. I hope Awin and I will remain friends for a very long time to come, انشاءالله .

Aameen!

The Correspondent

Today I received a Whatsapp message from Ben, the boy who used to write me every day when we were both in the Sixth Form in our respective boarding schools in Ol’ Blighty.

He was a nerd of the first water, with thick Coke bottle glasses but me and my nerd-fetish had the greatest crush on him. He was my classmate in that preparatory college in DU, just months before we left for Londres in August 1988. We barely spoke to each other when we were classmates except for the time we both worked on the batch’s newsletter. I’d ride in his car with eight (❗️) other chaps to the pizza parlour after a particularly harrowing day trying to beat the deadline. Once we reached Blighty our friendship blossomed even further.

Everyone thought he was the Harry to my Sally, in fact we went to watch that movie together. We went to watch more than a few movies together, actually.. I remember “Silence of the Lambs” being one of them and I hid under his jacket during the gorier scenes. That was at the Empire at Leicester Square, just a hop, skip and jump away from my uni. He studied quantum physics at Imperial and I was at that old Leftie uni on Houghton Street.

We were always together, until I met Wes. I don’t know how he felt when I started dating Wes seriously. Ben and I were never boyfriend and girlfriend, I actually saw him as rather.. asexual. I never felt any sexual tension or anything with him… he’d hang out in my apartment till late and I’d yawn and say goodnight and retire to my room. That was the kind of relationship I had with him.

Ben was a witness at my nikkah with Wes. Wes used to take to him quite nicely those days. When Ben met his wife-to-be, he brought her to see me first, before he brought her to see his parents. He eventually married her (she happened to be my senior at that school on Bukit Merbah). I wasn’t even invited to the wedding… which I thought was rather strange. I always felt that she was never very comfortable with Ben seeing me, even in our large group of friends… the batch of students who were all sent to Blighty straight after the SPM results were announced.

I recently heard that he is now divorced (separated?) from his wife. He has 3 daughters, all grown ~ 2 have graduated and one is still in university. The last time we really spoke was after our Haj. Coincidentally, we performed our Haj in the same year ~ 2010. He took the muasassah package and I was on THTS’ Nilam package with Allahyarham Brix, so our paths never crossed whilst there.

He has run into some rather hard times now and needs some … help. Even though it is not easy for me now either, I feel I must do whatever I can to help ease his burdens. May Allah SWT make it easy for my friend Ben and open all paths of rizq for him. May Allah SWT makes things easy for me each time I try to lessen the burdens of His Creation.

Aameen 🤲🏻

Purify

The stepmum is going to perform umrah tomorrow. I was supposed to go with her and her group of mengaji friends but someone said, “Wait for me to come home, I’d like to go with you..” Hmmm yalah… always putting a spanner in the works. Waiting for him would mean I would need to fork out the cost of an entire umrah package for another person. And the way I travel for umrah, it would mean more than a pretty penny.

I am too damn old to rough things out. Everything aches, I need comfort… may the Lord Forgive me and my “excessive” needs. May the Lord provide sustenance and rizq to me to be able to afford all of my needs ~ from the smallest to the biggest, from the simplest to the most luxurious. Aameen.

I wanted to go see her and say goodbye after Maghrib just now but she said she was going to go out for an early birthday dinner for my youngest brother (which is the day after tomorrow). I will see her tomorrow morning subuh sepi’ee, انشاءالله , because I had already made the intention, the niyyah, to pass some money that I would like for her to give to the cleaners/workers in the Masjidil Haram and Masjid Nabawi on my behalf. It’s not the largest sum but it was something that my heart told me to do. Benda baik jangan kita biarkan, dak? We act on it… and may Allah SWT accept. Amen!

Mizuage

I don’t know how many cherries I have popped across the innernutz, starting new blogs… that is. Those who have read my blogs before will know it is me writing this just by reading the title of this post.

I don’t know whether I am going to be bothered whether people know that it is me or not. Whatever it is, this is my space to moyan and record things for posterity.

We will see how long this “jaunt” will last.