Wishing

I've tried (desperately) to hang on to my age but yesterday came and despite me being thankful I'm alive and well, the life calendar now shows a new page. 2-8. *Cue* you may now sing me a birthday song and bring in the cake. Clap! Clap!

Yes, it was my 28th birthday, just in case you're still curious. Unfortunately, the date that has just passed really didn't mean anything except for the part where -

(a) there's only one more birthday before I turn a decade older. But then again, as a friend had helpfully pointed out, we grow older every day (and since we're at it, by the seconds and minutes too) and not only by the year or even decade;

(b) I'm now officially a year older than Mama's age when she gave birth to me. That's another feather to my cap after I turned 25 and still no signs of the other half (much less a walk down the aisle). You see, Mama settled down at 25. And if I'm to consider myself really accomplished, I just found out from Mama that my late maternal grandmother had given birth to 7 kids by the age of 28. So if the world puts me, Mama and Tok Mak on the same timeline, I would definitely know where I stand;

(c) even when I'm inching closer to my third decade, there are moments when I feel like time has not passed by at all. I will always be my parents' daughter, the one whose expressions remain unchanged from her toddler days. Like Abah said, I'm blessed to be able to turn milk into yoghurt just by staring at it, haha. And despite the steady increase in age, my parents will always be able to see through my mood swings, sorrow and heartache regardless of the masks I tried to fool them with. To them, I think I will always be the little girl who moved together with them into our present (and only) house. Back then and before the birth of my sisters, I was alone and the only friends I had were our neighbours' boys who are of the same age as me. My parents, especially Abah, enjoy recounting (and perhaps embellishing) stories about how I would sit by the drain and call out those boys for conversations through our then wire-fences.

And even if I'm earning my own money right now, no amount would be sufficient to stop Abah from reminiscing about the day I had offered to treat both of them with Nasi Ayam. I believe I was around 4 years old and had with me, a crisp 10 ringgit note. According to Abah, he asked me whether I was ok in treating them lunch and I said yes. When it was time to pay, the little girl gave her 10 ringgit and had a crestfallen look when the Nasi Ayam seller didn't return the 10 ringgit to her. What she received instead was loose change, a fact which she could not comprehend despite agreeing to treat her parents earlier. So Abah had to fish out his own money, return the crisp 10 ringgit note to the daughter and the story became a permanent fixture in my history. Some say it's a story of plain cheapskate-ness. I prefer to see it as appreciation of economic reality at a young age. To my credit, I would always emphasise that when my special day comes (if any), I would personally foot the bill for two plates of Nasi Ayam for my parents!;

(d) I received gifts from my sisters and friends. Like today, I received in my mail, a canvas print from Syazwina who's still in Tasmania for her architorture course (pun intended). She didn't mention she had a gift in store for me but Abah had spilled the beans the day before, haha. Before you say it's just a canvas print, let me point out one small but very significant detail. The photograph was taken by my own sister! Impressive, eh? And note the cute grey card, also handcrafted with love, hahaha.


Syazana, on the other hand, had passed my birthday gift to a friend who had visited Korea, in advance. However, despite her reminders and my friend's reminders (must be weird for him to keep on holding to a girl's accessories), I never did manage to retrieve my birthday present. I think now would be a good time for me to give my friend a tinker.

And thanks to the generosity of two friends, I will be watching Chris Botti performing with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra on 6 December 2011! One of them tried to fool me by saying they got a ticket free but hey, I could not be expected to fall for that, right? Since I knew there's nothing free in that part of the world (I should know, I've been a subscriber for quite some time). Anyway, YTS & TGG, thank you!;


(e) friends and acquaintances remembered my birthday and left me with birthday wishes. While I'm never one for reminding people of that 1 day and harping on presents, I do believe technology has eroded my faith in the age-old saying 'It's the thought that counts!'. Before facebook came into our lives, I knew for sure only my immediate family and a super small group of friends actually remembered my birth date. While the number of wishes may be minute, I knew that when they wished me 'Happy Birthday', they really remembered it was my birthday. Now, I would receive a staggering number of birthday wishes from people on my fb list but with it, comes this nagging sensation. Do they wish 'Happy Birthday' because they really remembered someone's birthday? Or is it a mere glance at the 'Events' column of their profile showing which friend is now turning a year older. To be honest, I'm guilty of the same offence too. Apart from close friends whose birthdates are stored in my handphone, my online postings of birthday wishes depend on whether or not I had the chance to go on facebook for that particular day. So it's no longer about having the thought that counts. It only counts if you're an active facebook user!; and

(f) I had the chance to meet up with two sets of friends, both important in their own ways. The first was those I had known since 6 years old. We had travelled the uncharted path of primary school together for five years, went separate ways but somehow reconnected after a lapse of almost two decades. It was with this group of friends that I had a buka puasa gathering last Thursday and it soon turned out to be an impromptu early birthday party for me.

The second set was my faculty batchmates who I had studied with during 2003-2007. We were strangers at first but after years of being baked, grilled, roasted and panned by our law lecturers, it was surprising that we ended up as friends. It was with this group that I celebrated my birthday in a quaint restaurant along Jalan Yap Kwan Seng yesterday.

That's all for now. I'm still reeling from the fact that I'm now a year older. So forgive me while I run elsewhere for a breather.