The Feline Territory

Have u ever heard of a Little India in Klang?

Well, me neither, until i actually landed there last Saturday. Wow i felt like i was in New Delhi. Hehe.

Aziz Bakar’s family thought i should get a sneak preview of what i’m expected to wear on the big day i walk into their family, so i was introduced to the many theories of sarees and lengas. It was a da of window shopping and getting ourselves surrounded by bright colored materials… i’m so glad we had sunglasses.

Wow, they’re fancy! I loveeeeee Little India! They have outrageously all types of Indian costume that i’ve always wanted to wear and all the costume jewellery too.

As we walked down the streets from one shop to another, i could actually hear the song Kabhi Kusyi Kabhi Gham ringing in my ears. And i almost felt the wind too, like they also do in Hindi movies

Gosh i wish Aziz Bakar was here, then we would definitely force him to try out the Indie suit so he’d look like the impersonator of Hitrik Rosyan. Then, i’d pull a Rani Mukherjee in a bright red saree, swaying down the sidewalk. All thats missing now is a run-down train station…..

We went for lunch for the best Puree in town… loveeeeeed it. We got me few costume jewelleries to play around with, and then my favourite Ladoos for dessert. Wow, these people really do take weddings very seriously…. they actually wanted me to try out some henna on my hand, but i opted for a French manicure instead.

However, it was a wild thing to be trying out lengas and sarees all afternoon… I think i can survive in Delhi already!!

I’m so into spa goodies these days.

The best so far is this Harnn & Thann spa- yourself set i received from Aziz Bakar’s family the day i turned 26. Yup, they decided that an old hen like me deserved a present too.

I was utterly embarassed. However, because today is Saturday, it means i get to loaf around all day after shopping this morning for Indie goodies. Loafing means watching Hindie DVDs like a spoilt brat on the bed, and putting goo in my hair, on my face and bathing with these goodies…

Do check out Harnn & Thann at One Utama, its the most amazing oriental shop ever. Do try the bath mitt and milk lotion- it gets straight to your senses.

Its kinda pricey though, i’m only trying this set out because i got it as a gift, but now i’m seriously addicted to it.

I’ve decided. The best things in life are:

1. Having a cat like Snowy purrs on your shoulder to wake you up

2. Jogging by the beach with an Ipod in your last nite’s pyjamas

3. Visiting the diamond shop with your boyfriend when he has done something terribly wrong

4. Watching Grey’s Anatomy especially the part when Burke meets Cristina

5. Starbucks Cafe Latte on a cold Monday morning and you’re late for work and the boss is having a prime PMS

6. The massage during a good hairwash at my favourite salon

7. Laughing watching my niece laugh in her sticky pink shirtdress

8. Ebay shopping with an enormous PayPal account

9. Nine West shoes on sale with size 3 1/2

10. Standing in the middle of the road at Madison Avenue and get yourself photographed surrounded with a planet of buildings

Life is full of possibilites- people always say.

The possibility of becoming successful. Of getting a demotion. Of getting your heart broken. Of falling in love again. Of getting that dream job, or that dream girl.

Today i felt like the impossible is about to happen. Still, its just a possibility. But then again, the possibility makes me happy.

Aziz Bakar just got an interview with a Strategic & Private Equity Group based in Qatar- something that we both have been looking forward to for weeks.

I have always wanted him to embrace the Middle East, as much as i did when i first visited the beautiful desert kingdom- and it would also mean he will be a lot closer to home, just a mere 8 hours flight, and a Muslim country where he will be able to eat everything and not just Sushi and Indian Tandoori. But most importantly, i’m happy because this job is his sole ambition ever since Harvard graduation.

I remembered the time when he got the job in the Big Apple and i was lopsided about the offer- i wanted him to work in KL, and when that didn’t happen, i didn’t make any effort to try and create a possibility for myself in New York either. I thought i was a bit too young to abandon my motherland. I had my friends and i love my friends, i had a job and i love the fact that i was independent, i had my own financial resources, and New York is great but it just couldn’t beat that. However, I didn’t like the idea of long distance any longer. He didn’t like the fact that i wasn’t really thinking rationally.

So, we argued about who’s not being supportive and compromising- but we moved on and managed from there.

Today, i am a different person. And this is a different situation.

Aziz Bakar fell out of love of New York City and longed to come home only after a week being there.

The possibilities of things turning the other way around is simply unbelievable.

Today, he got his second major job interview and i feel like the wind of the Middle East is calling us already. Unlike last time, today, i pushed him to embrace his dreams- to put career first, instead of us.

And i realized that i have becomed the epitome of what i say- to put career first, instead of us. Not to mean it in a bad way, but in a healthy way- the way we should have supported each other from the beginning. Because when the career takes off, the relationship just falls into place, and progresses its pace.

Maybe this year, will be better than we thought it’ll turn out to be. A year we thought we would only spend to pay off student loans could also be the year we’d be able to purchase that dream house.

I’d say, raise your chins up to possibilities- it’ll happen when you least think of it. And when it does, remember the hard times, those conflicting days.. and you will feel on top of the world.

On our first official date, Aziz Bakar took me book shopping and purchased me a book that he foresee i would remember- forever.

I picked it up, read it and it never left me. The words never left me, the images became vivid visuals in my head, and the complicated plot made me reflect on how simple our lives are compared to those - who had to run away from their country.

The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini is the best most intriguing, thought-provoking book i have ever read in my entire life. I finished it, then picked it up to read all over again.

I thought Tony Parsons was a romantic, but Hosseini is simply metaphysical.

To give a review about it (i’d be honoured)- Afghan refugee story and its complexities- I would say, you would read it for the emotions of a little boy who lived with a secret he kept from childhood. A friendship he abandoned and his nationhood that he betrayed.

This is the best piece of literary work i have read ever since Moby Dick. Well, i studied Moby Dick- in depth, and lived with that novel for 6 months until i finally got a distinction in American Literature class.

For The Kite Runner- i didn’t have the time to study it, but i have literally been living with it for the past 12 months.

If you really want to read a book that moves you- read The Kite Runner.

If you want to be grasped by emotions and the language- read The Kite Runner.

It’s an absolute tear-jerker and unbelievably heart-breaking.

I’d quit for:

1. An opportunity to run a spa-cum-saloon-cum-beauty shop. All in one. It’ll be like this high-end beauty everything-you-need place from facial services to kain sarong imported from some exotic places.

2 An opportunity to run a cafe/diner. Yup, they havent had one of these in Malaysia. I’ll serve breakfast (menu- sunny side up with toast or the ultimate roti canai ghee).

3. An opportunity to open a Sephora franchise.

Sometimes you get so tired of working for a company. I wish to actually "run" a company one day. It doesnt have to be an automotive giant, i’m thinking of more like a classy beauty solution place.

It’ll be very welcoming with aromatherapy scent (my favourite is lavender) and its floors made of parkir and there will be lots and lots of curtains made from organza.

For the content, it will have an all in one spa package- the body fix, the hair fix, the face fix and the costume.

For the thought up that, i think i am already working out a swanky plan.

An email from Era last week made me rewind my uni days and the moment of inspiration i had when i was a nerd clad in jeans and pink lipgloss.

I was living in the library and wore heels to class even though the walk was a 10km marathon.

But, most of all, i loved my teachers. All of them. Maybe thats why i survived uni life, appreciates those years until today, and kept in touch with those who taught me.

To name a few, Prof Jalal was the tougest one of all. He eventually left for Qatar. I hope he has a happy life there.

I never quite kept in touch with Dr. Faridah, but she was the last person i met before i left the uni for good. I was deeply inspired by her air of feminism. I saw a lot of me in her.

Dina Zaman is the only person who i keep in touch with. We write to each other when i remember to send her an email. She pushes me to write- even if its junk.

Years ago, i used to see these people as those who led different lives. More fulfilling than me. More successful.

Now, as i am reading their blogs, stories of their lives, i see a lot of me in them. As if we are bonded one way or another. They no more lead a life which is much different than mine. Maybe theyre more contented than me, but not much different.

Those flashbacks brings back memories that i dont wanna lose.

Sometimes blogs can really make a difference.

Woohoo! Drumrolls please…….. and slide open the red curtains!

Presenting:

http://gorgeous-to-be.blogspot.com/

Blogs can light your day up. I mean, not literally.

But, just last week itself, i received 3 sms from friends whom i’ve grown apart with saying hello and how they keep themselves updated about me through this blog.

They light my day up

However, there are more things that blogs can do. They can advertise. And naturally turn you into an enterpreneur. I heard they make things happen for many young Malaysian writers and photographers.

But, i have never seen a blog that sells makeup services.

I have been urged by Aziz Bakar and many of my close friends and relatives to start a blog that shows my current portfolio, my works and my ideas.

Well, i’ve always wanted to do this, but due to very hectic corporate life, all those blogs that i tried to invent sizzled away.

Maybe now i could start anew and focus on this better.

Right now, i’m thinking of a name…. maybe something catchy and easy to remember like gonna-make-you-gorgeous.blogspot.com, or make-me-pretty-today.blogspot.com, or makeup-diaries.blogspot.com, or anything suitable.

Wow, this is fun I think i’m starting to de-stress myself already

For starters, here’s a pic of dramatic makeup which i produced:

Here’s to wishing for the two of us to meet.

I wish at this moment we could be walking to one of those diners at Midtown NYC and have those long conversations over an Americano or a Long Black.

What would be better is if he’s here in KL and we’re driving to our favourite Mamak stall for a Thosai and Nescafe Tarek.

It’s been almost 1 year since Aziz Bakar and i last met. On weekends, we both feels the pang and the difficulties of a long distance relationship. Maybe becoz of the extra hours that we have for ourselves instead of the fast-paced weekdays where office work takes the front seat.

Nobody said long-distance was easy. Most of it are doomed from the start.

Ours….. has a transparent glue called emotional support.

We both wish it’ll soon be different from this.

This is a relationship different from the ordinary. Its difficult to be the strange one among the others, as much as its sophisticated to be extra-ordinary, it is not that easy to be in my shoes. My exra-half inch high heels. Because being me means letting go of all your demands…… but at the same time getting all of your demands fulfilled.

I wish i will still remember today and how i’m reflecting about this in a year’s time. Maybe in a year’s time we’d be together. And when we do, we tend to forget about the things we used to miss, and we take everything for granted. We do not appreciate the walk to the diner or the drive to the kedai mamak. We might not appreciate the coffee or the thosai even.

Here’s to wishing we would remember the difficult times in our happy hours.

Here’s to today, and here’s to missing the beloved.