Days of our lives?

Got a meme from Che Wah but unofficiallyâ€ï¿½

20 years ago (1985, 7 yrs old)

Just moved to Subang Jaya from Bukit Ledang. Dad finally bought his own home. Reason: next door to a palm oil plantation (kononnya suasana kampong) that lasted about 16 months before being cleared to what is now KESAS highway and USJ (ulu Subang Jaya). Well the 16 months were enough for me to venture into the hutan playing bandits on bikes as well as enough for a couple of snakes to venture into our home. Because we moved in August, I remained in SK Hishamuddin until the end of the year before retiring as the best standard 1ner in school historyâ€ï¿½hip-hip-hooray!! (and I beat a TKCian at that!! Hehehâ€ï¿½boy that’s gonna get me in trouble)

10 years ago (1995, 17 yrs old)

All my glory days in primary school grounded to an abrupt halt when I took my first step on the decaying grounds of the Malay College. Wild and free was the motto, away from the ever-glaring eyes of Dad, yours truly went about trying to find every definition possible of fun on two legs. During form five all I new was life was about relationships and how you managed them determined your success. Knowing that and actually doing all the necessary stuff are two different things. I just cared for things and people I did, and didn’t for those I didn’t. Scraped through with good enough grades to make the A-Levels programme as well as win the cricket state championships. Also came out with the best times of my life and the best set of friends I could have.

5 years ago (2000, 22 yrs old)

After the collapse of the economy in ’97 I got booted to Uniten. JPA promised that after two years of hellA-levels, we’d get into the 2nd year of a 4-year degree programme that took in SPM holders. What a loada crap. So at the 2nd-3rd year juncture, after the non-event of the millennium bug as well as the non-event of actually doing any studying, I immersed myself in joining Kantat and Gorrocke in stumping up and organising the RM70k 15-event Kejohanan Sukan Mahasiswa. Also got my hands on the hockey club, squeezed about another RM20k from HEP and set the team on their way to the KLHA Div 3 title. And yeahâ€ï¿½ also started thinking about what to do with my life post university. Eventually decided, yes I need to do a wee bit studyingâ€ï¿½ Also were still very good friends with seven lads I knew and lived with since PPP days.

3 years ago (2002, 24 yrs old)

Finished my degree. Organised the first CoBM graduation dinner with reasonable success. Then skipped graduation day to merantau to Dublin. Started my first proper job with Ernst & Young as an auditor and started my ACCA exams. Basically started a new life, made new friends and made a mistake I swear I’d never make again! Also saw my first game at Stamford Bridgeâ€ï¿½everything was absolutely wonderful: the view, the atmosphere, the chantingâ€ï¿½everything bar the scoreline which was a dismal 0-0. Also met the bane of my life for the next two years.

Last year (2004, 26 yrs old)

Felt old since I passed the quarter century mark. Time flew; things went by in a blur. If ever there was an unremarkable kind of year this must’ve been it. What did I do? I can’t really remember. Saw the cliffs of Moher and went to Northern Ireland. Got introduced to the blog world. Spent Christmas in London for the second time in two years, saw Chelsea for the second time in two years albeit with a slightly better scoreline (1-0, hopefully the next several times would yield an exponential increase). Oh yeah how could I forget, I also blew almost all of my money away shoppingâ€ï¿½

This year (2005, 27 yrs old)

Still haven’t finished my ACCAs, hopefully this December would be my last sitting. Went home after two years of being away. Met the love of my life. Completing my three years with E&Y and moving on to greener pastures. Possibly spending Christmas in London again!

Next year (2006, 28 yrs old)

Hopefully happily married, relocated to London, season ticket holder at Stamford Bridge, working in corporate finance or if not that, deciding on something to do for the next five years of my life.

10 years from now (2015, 37 yrs old)

Big family, own company, house with a yard, grey hair on the sides, Chelsea European powerhouseâ€ï¿½

As I don’t pass meme on, whoever needs an idea for a post, knock yourself out!

tinted

KL is a really cool place to be… either if you’re pretty successful or you’re on your annual trip home with Euro-denominated plastic to burn. I’d love to come home and make it big because that’s where the sense of achievement is. Bang Per reminded me that he went through what I’m facing now a long time ago and it didn’t really matter to people at home what you’ve achieved abroad, its what you can deliver when you do come back that counts. Now he’s a London-trained-CA CFO so I guess that must be true. But I keep asking myself this: is that what I really want? Is that the best route for me?

For now what I know is that I’ve been tinted. Like a souped-up Satria with its chassis barely holding on to a 1.6 Mivec bought from a junkyard in Kajang, the truly cool finish to it would be a top-notch V-Kool job. I’ve found my V-Kool and yes my life is almost complete. There are some finishing touches required but all the essential ingredients are there. That’s why the next few months are so critical so as not to botch things up as I don’t think I could easily recover from further severe setbacks. I can only plan and try very hard all everything else I leave to God.

Micasa

It’s been 8 weeks since my last post, if you could call that a post anyway. I promised myself when I started this blog business that I’d post at least once a month. Well, I’ve missed August 2005. What a month August had been. It began while I was stil back home in Subang Jaya and it ended on a very fateful Merdeka day back in Dublin. Fateful for possibly 2 life changing events of my young adult life.

The trip home was good; a refresher, an eye-opener as well as a bridge built for the future. Dad had aged visibly, that was the first thing that caught me when I first laid eyes on him when exiting the arrival doors. Had two years been that long? Was it all the treatment finally catching up with him? All I knew was I couldn’t bear to stay away that long again, it was all too much change not to be part of on a much regular basis. After being home a few days only did Mom’s changes became visible. She looked the same, but she was a tad less ‘active’ if you get my drift. Of being told all of this, friends reminded me that it was all natural progress, that they were looking at the same thing.

I witnessed a dear friend bury his father. Managed to sedekah tahlil and went to kubur. That was the least I could do for someone I spent about six years of my life with, pretty much growing into our adulthood, from the decaying dwellings of PPP to the cramped luxury of Palm Gardens. I realised while listening to the talkin that one day I would be doing the same, and I can only pray to Allah that I’d be good son that would bring joy both present and in the afterlife.

There was a different feel to home. Dad is retiring at the beginning of the New Year and on the day I arrived we discussed about the impending event and the changes that were needed to be made to a few daily stuff. That made me realise that I couldn’t be too nonchalant about life anymore and that there will soon a huge reliance on these shoulders. At the beginning of the year I honestly felt that 27 was going to be a difficult year but I didn’t imagine this. Bibi has this theory that I constantly berate, that 27 is actually when one experiences mid-life crisis, and not 40 (possibly due to the increasingly shortening lifespan of man?). Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. All I know is that I’ve got to sort myself out quickish. Ayu’s finished school and is now working. She feels she’s finally grown up now, own job own car and all. I tell her it’s a different world now out there and she needs to be stronger than she ever was before. Deep down I know that she’s a survivor.

The last time I was home it was for a measly two weeks and even that was laden with Dad’s coursework and my quick sneak to Janda Baik. Four weeks seems like a long time and during the first days I felt that I could possibly be a mite bored at the end of it. Boy could I have possibly prepared myself for the whirlwind final days of it.

Managed to meet the regular Joes... actually started with Joe who came over with Mimi. Recently hitched, Dude and I promised them a wedding gift and he duly collected. He seemed happy and I wished him happiness. Then there was the old Dubs flying squad that turned up for Berg’s do. Mud, Jijan, Rasyid, Izhar, Iky, Shahnaz, Che Wah, Pak E, Penew, Alan, Botak, Wyre, Sawdee, Syamil, Kantat, Mancak, Farid and Adri followed suit one location or a few. A gathering at newly hitched Mre also yielded quite a nice line-up.

After missing my 10-year reunion and a few OBWs, went back to Kuala on the second weekend with Botak and Alan. While at Koleq, hooked up with Kutub & spouse, and with Berg, Todd and Smuque who arrived in the afternoon. Koleq looked different with all the facelift for the centennial celebration. By saying different and not better it didn’t really agree with me for some reason. The buzz wasn’t really there anymore. Being sentimental, I suppose I didn’t enjoy the fact that my memory of Koleq when I left didn’t fit into the show horse it is now. Arrived too late to watch the hockey game. Walked through East Wing to find that all the blue glass windows were replaced with normal clear ones to in order to match those that was broken earlier.

The cricket store had broken locks. The mat was torn and there was no one who was interested in replacing them. There wasn’t even an U-15 state tournament anymore such was the degradation of the game. That was immensely sad. There wasn’t a proper coach nor a proper team. Hope I’ll be some day well-off enough to bring things back to life.

Had lunch in New York (the Kuala Kangsar version) and lepaked at Pakcik’s before watching the Vaji matched in the evening. Well at least that bit didn’t change; we got a severe thrashing, as usual. On the way home we stopped in Tapah for some coffee. Conversations were flying upon the day’s trip when questions were raised as to the changing scene of our peers where there would almost never be a repeat of the heyday uber -slacking road trips. One magnanimously suggested that as one was free as a bird, those requiring a fellow uber-slacker during my time at home would almost instantly be granted a big fat YES! Kutub’s better half, sensing this was all poison to her ears, sharply enquired as to my possible plans for settling down, where one replied that although the idea sounded splendid, where one came from the nice ones lived in caverns. A name was suggested and after that everyone (including yours truly) lived happily ever after.