This is another long one... Sapa-sapa yang tak larat, tak yah lah baca... Sorry...

I am soooo exhausted today.

Late night yesterday. Buka puasa at home was nice as mum had to cook in my kitchen because hers is being renovated. Kelmarin was meehoon goreng Singapore which hubby commented after the first bite, “Ini baru meehoon…”. He hates my meehoon goreng. Ibu ku yang sungguh baik itu jawab, “La… dok sibuk belajaq… mana nak sedap meehoon dia…” Thank you, Mummy… But my laksa, and mee kari and mee bandung good you know… Just my meehoon goreng ntah apa-apa. Hubby said dalam bab goreng-goreng ni, aku memang fail. Poodah.

Yesterday Mum cooked mee goreng which was superb. Hubby said my mee goreng sucks too. Ian apparently had never had mee goreng, gave his thumbs up. It was lovely. Tia, my cousin who also was present yesterday, yang tak suka mee goreng pun suka Mak Long dia punya. She and Makcik Idah joined our club yang tak makan mee goreng, tapi makan Mak Long/Mummy/Aunty Norli punya saja.

I baked butter cake with chocolates which didn’t exactly turn out as how I imagined it should be.

My siblings all came of course. Ha ha.. Makcik Idah, my mom’s maid however refused to come. Merajuk ke ? Entah. She usually buka with the family so mum is fretting, worrying about her. I suspect she just wants to clean the house as she is a clean freak. I am sure she hates the thought of all those dusts that are scattered all over the house. Tackling that is more important that eating. Ha ha..

As iftar goes, it was a noisy one but I am used to it, coming from a big family. The kids buat perangai, refusing to eat what was offered and insisted on cabanora. My fault that one really as I promised them I would whip out a mean one since last week. Adik started the revolt and Anna and Esya followed happily. Abang luckily just ate whatever although I could see he was sulking a bit.

After my family left, I quickly prayed and got ready. “Let’s go…” I ordered, pointing to my husband. That is the only way to get him to follow my orders. Catch him off guard so he could not refuse. I was on a mission okay to find a piece of furniture. Nothing big, just a small cheap one to make cooking easier for my mammy.

Went to sek 9, then the other side of sek 9 then Tesco Extra where I found an okay piece. Bolehlah.

Then 7-11 sek 11, 7-11 sek 3 and then finally at 7-11 sek 2, I got my Slurpee. New flavour people, Dragon Juice. Yum-mee.

Funnily enough, Ian had never ever tasted Slurpee. So he was a bit excited, asking questions as he made his cup. Large, pulak tu. His verdict after the first sip ? “Feels like sex for the very first time…”

Hmmm….. I really should get him to prepare my Slurpee next time.

Going to sek 2 always makes me feel weird. Weird is just putting it mildly. It is more like a rush of a myriad of emotions. Happy, love, quesy, sexy but I think lost and sad are the most poignant. For my youth ? For carefree days ? For one hell of a good time ?

As I walked to 7-11 (Hubby pulak pegi park depan sekolah), I felt like I was tracing my steps during my youth. As I crossed the small drain, I saw me, Zaza and Amelia giggling while making our pact. Oh the pact was stupid. Shows what kind of a mind we had when were 14.

Our pact was that if ever any of us fell into the drain (jatuh longkang yang kita orang risaukan... ntah apa-apa ntah) while everybody who was anybody was in plain sight, the victim will crouch as low as she could to avoid recognition, or even better to avoid notice; one would stand guard to ensure minimum crowd awareness (do not know how to achieve that) while the other one would go and organize transportation. Discreet lift off from the longkang is of utmost importance.

However since the three of us were joined at the hips at that time, I am sure people would have guessed who was in the bloody longkang by doing a simple deduction. Kah kah… Tak payah deduction pun, one look and the masses would know.

Ha ha… bangang.

Standing on the sidewalk next to the shop reminded me of another incident that showed how stupido de dodo I was at that age. You see, I love Ginger Ale/Beer. My absolute favourite. Usually after school right we would troop off to 7-11 to hang out or be seen and socialise. Me, I just want to get my drink. Sometimes I go alone. I don’t care. Other kids would be going with their mates and their cliques, well not me. I just want to get my hand around a can of Schwepps’ Ginger Beer.

Don’t know why yeah, most of the times when I open the can, some bubbly liquid would burst out and hit my face. Hai... Why me ?

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I always, always forget to pull it away from my face. Amazingly though, I always got away with it as nobody ever saw me. Or I would like to think, since it is so bloody impossible for people to never witness it since it happened like a lot of times and in plain view, that people did see but they like and respect me enough not to make a fuss about it. Ha ha.. Allahualam. Perasan… Okaylah.. Maybe I was that lucky..

Apart from this one day, really. The last person that I want to witness me in my wet face glory actually was in the vicinity and saw everything. Everything ! He saw my tightly closed eyes when I realised what was happening, my expression as the cold liquid hit me right in the middle of my face, me colouring up while my eyes still closed, me looking tentatively around to make sure nobody saw me. As I wiped my face, I heard a hoot of laughter and looked up and my heart sank when I met my brother’s widen eyes. And very much amused face which turned into uncontrollable sniggerings. My mortal enemy, my eldest brother.

He was there with his cool friends and I was so mortified. I couldn’t think of a way to look nonchalant. I was at fault. I never learnt ! However I must say, the worse part was not his mirth, my friends. It was his pity.

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Arrrghhh ! After laughing, he came over to me, took out his hankie and wiped my face for me. And took a huge gulp of my drink. Damn ! Him buttoning up on the incident from my family didn’t help my monstrous ego either as I didn't want his pity. Him re-enacting the incident in front of my puzzled family and refusing to share the joke was well, what made me jumped on him to scratch his eyes many, many times. Those were dark times indeed.

Sigh… nostalgia.

Went home, slurping my delicious Slurpee. Watched a bit of telly while cooking for soq. Hubby was too knackered to wait for me so he bid his goodnight and went upstairs.

So alone in the kitchen, watching the telly at 11.30 pm, waiting for my pasta to cook. Not 5 hours ago the house was filled with people, I had to turn my 6 seater dining table to accommodate 8. Even all the seats at the kitchen table were taken up.

The house feels so empty.

Come back, family !!! Even you too, big bro.