Reminiscing

The following is my attempt at recollecting the events of last week. It's a rather long entry, but heck it's my blog so I'll do as I please.

Friday

The journey back was flavoured with the tinge of excitement and a screwed-up body clock that refused to comprehend the idea of appropriate hours of sleep. Pleading insomnia after a week of nights, I spent the hours munching away happily and walked the few hundred metres that made up the Manchester Airport Duty-Free zone. Bought a bar of Clinique soap for Sweetie (turned out to be the wrong one), a bottle of Wolfblass for my uncle and John Grisham’s latest, The Broker, which I devoured on the flight home. Somehow managed to watch the in-flight shows of Bewitched and Charlie & the Chocolate Factory as well.

Saturday

Touched down a tad early, and having had to endure a rather tiresome conversation with my neighbour, I was eager to get out of the plane. Not to mention the fact that my heart was pounding with anticipation. Sweetie slowed down a little by the heavy downpour, but our grins were miles-wide when we glimpsed each other and after a brief hug and peck on the cheeks, proceeded to walk hand-in-hand to the car park.

Naturally, it was wonderful to see her lovely smile, let my fingers link up with hers, hold her close and breathe in her scent. We spent the first couple of hours just basking in the presence of one another, before we set off for dinner at Jake’s, where I treated myself to some Wagyu steak. We met up with Armijn, Zareen and Shidi and naturally, it was great catching up with my former housemates. They looked quite happy and contented, evidenced by the fact that even Armijn, who has been stick-thin since I’ve known him, appeared a little tembam.

By the end of the night, I was exhausted and was ready to make up for my sleep deprivation. Nevertheless, my heart was beating happily and I was quite literally skipping along with joy.

Sunday

We spent the day at OU, and caught The Exorcism of Emily Rose, a part legal, part horror film that I’d recommend. Lunched at a rather unassuming place called Kluang Station (after the famous makan-place at the Kluang railway station), where I had laksa that had a nice ‘kick’ to it whilst Sweetie had a chicken chop, which was equally famous and equally delicious.

As we loitered about, we stepped into Zara, where I participated in yet another episode of spontaneity in my shopping. Having long searched for a long black coat, I chanced upon one that immediately took my fancy, and to Sweetie’s astonishment, I bought it after having deliberated for about 5 minutes. It is a rather nice coat though, and she does think it’s a rather worthwhile buy.

The rest of the day was spent huddling and cuddling and watching whatever the telly had to offer. There’s nothing better than lazing around with Sweetie and not having a care in the world. Gave Sweetie the gifts I got for her (I’m getting better at not buying weird/crap stuff) and it was a pleasure to see her eyes light up, although she did seem a bit hesitant when I pressed the bulky compilation of Bone into her hands for her to read.

Spent the night having dinner with Jason and catching up on all the gossip of my old Taiping mates.

Monday

Breakfasted together at Paya Serai, which is quite convenient since I tend to be able to have a taste of quite a few traditional dishes that I’ve longed for back in the UK. We went over to OU again, where we finally got to watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Even then, we got ourselves Golden seats, as the normal ones that were left were in rather contorting positions.

The movie itself was pretty good. While I doubt it reached the artistic heights of Alfonso Cuaron’s Prisoner of Azkaban, I think it’s the most enjoyable of the Potter movies so far and we were both grinning with the delight at seemingly silly things like the leprechaun dancing in the sky. The acting was fantastic as well, and Ralph Fienne’s portrayal of Voldemort was just perfect.

Tuesday

One of the advantages of having gone home at the end of November was the fact that I managed to catch my little sis during her hols as well. She had just finished her matriculation and was awaiting entry into the main UIA campus, where she’ll be reading law. She seems to be filled with a mixture of excitement and trepidation, but I guess that is normal for anyone entering tertiary education. Unfortunately, my elder sis remained rather busy with a rather important assignment due to be handed in by the end of the week.

The day was spent with Rina, with an equal mixture of loitering and completing mundane stuff e.g. getting my new IC, opening up bank accounts etc. The freedom of having a car to drive around was also renewed and made me think yet again that I should get myself one. Naturally, the pragmatic side of me kicked in within seconds with a resounding ‘No’.

Didn’t get to see much of Sweetie unfortunately, except for a brief hour at noon. Picked her up from work, and the 3 of us headed to A&W for lunch. Root beer float has got to be one of the better beverages that has been invented…

Wednesday

Managed to spend a little more time with Sweetie. Had lunch with her, before borrowing her car to go accompany Rina at the cinema to catch Potter. Rushed back to pick Sweetie up, as she had a meeting to attend.

Whilst she was busy with engineering talks, I decided to get busy with finding some flowers for her, which was a little difficult at 7 o’clock in the evening. It was worth it though, seeing her happy face when I gave her the bouquet. She doesn’t quite like the idea of fresh flowers (they die too soon!) but I give them to her anyway just to see her face light up.

We had dinner at Bella Pasta, which is a busy little establishment at SS2 which serves good Italian food. Munching the deep-fried calamari got us reminiscing about our time in Pisa, where we stumbled upon a little shop that served some great-tasting fresh deep friend seafood which we bought by the packets and took back to the hostel to munch through the night.

Spent the rest of the evening with Prav and EM, chatting over coffee and drinks at a pub in Hartamas. The band that played that evening was superb, with a couple of guys in sandals and bermudas playing some amazing blues which I think would put most M’sian bands to shame. And the guys were bellowing out tunes that were quite amazing to hear, although their portrayal of our request (Van Morrison’s Brown-Eyed Girl) wasn’t exactly what I had hoped for. Still, the guitar playing was phenomenal.

Thursday

Travelled to KL to have lunch with Sweetie as she had a meeting to attend over at Ampang. KFC was the destination of choice, and I couldn’t help but smile as after lunch, I came across a KFC advert asking ‘what’s your KFC moment?’. Marketing does work, apparently.

Rest of the day was spent with Rina over at Midvalley, where I tried to purchase tickets for Zorro, a movie Sweetie was quite keen to watch. Unfortunately, they were not showing it anymore and I decided to get tickets for Just Like Heaven instead. Went home to spend time with the family, and finally got me my usual dose of authentic chinese hokkien mee at our fav place in Subang.

Friday

Sweetie came over to my place early in the morning, and I proceeded to drive us along a winding path up to Bukit Tinggi, which has a resort that attempts to capture the ambience of a little French town. It succeeded to a certain degree – we were quite happy to play along and walk around in the rather romantic atmosphere. Walked up a watch tower (where we enjoyed a good half hour at the top), walked along the streets that were paved with cobblestones, taught Sweetie to play pool, and just generally enjoyed each other’s company on a slow afternoon.

The only downside was the fact that we had to take most of the pics ourselves (thus having lots of pics of either one of us by ourselves or rather skewed pics of the both of us), the overpriced bakery that wasn’t particularly impressive and the fact that the French restaurant that we were wanting to go to was only opening at 7 in the evening. We ended up having lunch at OU, a place we seem to frequent a lot during this visit.

Despite being a little tired, we walked up a little hill to wander around a Japanese garden and a Botanical garden. It was peaceful and quiet, with the unfortunate fact that the spa we were contemplating of visiting was closed. Either that or nobody bothered to answer our calls. All in all, it was a wonderful day (that was cooked up by Sweetie) and I was quite sad to part with her, especially with the knowledge that the week was passing by so quickly and my trip back to England was near.




After having dinner with the family, I went out with a few Taiping buddies (the same folks as before, plus LM), with the rendezvous point being Elaine’s Starbucks at BB. Elaine’s always a star and we spent a good half hour catching up, although she was a little disappointed that Sweetie had not come along (they had met before and Elaine’s been quite taken by her).

After a few drinks, we ended up at Planet Hollywood for some reason that I can no longer recall. Danced a little, made a fool of ourselves a little, and listened to the band belt out a few modern rock anthems. Shout out would be a rather more apt description. The instrumentalists weren’t that bad, but the female vocalists seem quite intent on making themselves hoarse with as much screeching as possible. It would appear that a high-pitched voice along with a few suggestive moves would translate to entertainment.

We had a good time, and by the time I got to bed, it was a little past 4 in the morning. I was probably asleep as soon as my head touched my pillow, especially with my tummy having just been filled by a helping of roti pisang.

Saturday

The dreaded final day of spending time with Sweetie.

Naturally, I left the house rather early to maximise the time spent with her. Was in for a surprise, ‘cause I was taken to her house in the morning, where I had breakfast with the family (some superb kuey teow) and was introduced to 2 members of her family for the first time – opah and Zahlia, angah’s firstborn. Spent a few minutes going over some medication with the former, and a few minutes making funny faces at the latter, which naturally made her screw up her face and cry. She’s a very cute 2-month old, with amazing cheeks that you can’t help but wanna pinch! I naturally get a little nervous when I’m in the presence of Sweetie’s dad, but it’s been a lot better since we bonded over sports during my previous visit and it was the same this time round as we chatted and joked about the latest events.

On either side of a lunch at San Fran’s (we were looking for a Chinese restaurant but they were all non-halal. My suggestion to plead ignorance went unnoticed by Sweetie), we caught Just Like Heaven and another sitting of Potter (yup, I’ve watched it 3 times!). It’s not exactly the best of ideas to catch a romantic comedy just before you say goodbye to your significant other for the next few months. It was a good film though, with a predictable plot but suitable for giggly, romantic outings.

The day was filled with our emotions racing from one extreme to the next. Whilst there were moments of joy and laughter, I guess we couldn’t keep our minds very far away from the fact that this would be the last day we’d spend with each other for quite some time. Depression did set in for a while, although it was momentarily kept at bay as we got each other gifts (a tie for myself and a cute set of pjs for Sweetie).

This was probably the most difficult goodbye so far. Probably ‘cause we’re so close now and we’re such a part of each other that it’s difficult contemplating periods of the other’s absence. I broke down more than once and it wasn’t very much different nor easier for Sweetie either. At the moment I’m racked with guilt for hurting the one person I’ve sworn to do everything I can not to hurt.

Oh, and for some reason which I once again forget, my mum decided to take us to the studio for a family portrait. Needless to say, I wasn’t smiling very much.

Sunday

Went back to England.