What Friendship Means To Me

I love having friends. There's a Malay proverb, Kawan biar seribu, Musuh jangan dicari which means have thousand of friends but never look for foe/enemy. I have my bestfriends, a few really good friends, friendly friends and civil friends. There are also friends which I prefer to call acquaintances and lastly the used-to-be friends.Friendship, just like relationship is a two-way thing. You must both be in it. You can't ignore your friend and yet expect them to always be with/for you when you need them. Friends would laugh and cry with you. Basically if you invest in your friendship, you will get good friends.

As a Muslim, I believe that everything we do/say depends on our 'nawaitu'/'niat' or intention. If our intention is good, insyaallah we will in return get good things too. If you start a friendship with the intention of getting something from that person than most likely that friendship will not last long. And when that happens, you have no one but yourself to blame. Although this of course is not always true since people like that will always put the blame on others instead of looking at themselves.

Living in SoCal for the last 5years have been great for me (and our marriage). There's a huge Malaysian/Singaporean community here that I don't  find myself missing home too much. Of course it's not the same but we immediately become instant family to each other. And I really mean like family, not just friends. We may be different in what we like or how we live our lives but we respect each other. And it helps that we don't have to walk on egg shells with each other! If/when we're not happy with something, we voice it out because that's what friends do. You can't be too sensitive about every damn thing and criticism is not an insult unless it's meant as one. If I insult you, you will know it. I hardly sugar-coat my insults. :P

In My Perfect World

In my perfect world;


1. There is no war
2. People don't shove their religion into others
3. People actually respect other religion and/or culture
4. There is no poverty nor drought.
5. People live together in peace and harmony.

How would things be in your perfect world?

Can't Believe It's 2011 Already!

2010 came and went. Time sure fly faster nowadays. Or maybe because I turned 40 last year so time seemed to go faster for me. But a lot of things happened in 2010. For one, I finally get to go back home to Malaysia after 6 years living in the US. Yup, ever since we got married, we never had the chance to go back so I was really looking forward to seeing my family and celebrating Ramadhan and Eidul Fitr with my family. But things didn't turn out quite the way that I was expecting it. Just because I was excited in seeing my sibling and their families to celebrate Eid together, does not mean the excitement would be mutual. That I will never forget. But I am glad I get to spend time with my mom and seeing my nieces and nephews. It is sad that I don't get to see them grow up except through skype. Unless I get to persuade my little brother Rizal and his wife Fara to come visit with the kids. Hah!

Anyways, now we are already in 2011. A new year and hopefully a better year too. God's willing, we don't have to wait another 6years before we go back to Malaysia again. 

Ramadhan Mubarak

Wishing all muslims Ramadhan Mubarak.

The Counting Down and Shopping Dilemma

We are already on the 4th day of August. Just a few more weeks before I get on that airplane and fly home to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I have done almost all of the shopping needed for my long list of nieces and nephews. I have learned that it is so much easier to find stuff/clothes for babies and toddlers but not so much for teens and young adults. It doesn't make it any easier that I haven't seen them for so long that I don't know what they like and how they dress.Or if their parents would like their daughters to wear dresses.

1 of my nieces wants a dress and upon checking with my older brother, he told me the mother might not like the idea. I feel sad that I can't get her what she really wanted. She never asked for anything before and not the type who would ask and ask and ask and be pesky like some other kids. According to my brother, she does wear dresses but not her own. She would sometime wear her aunty's (her mom's sister) dresses. What a dilemma I am in right now!


But I am not going to let that get into my head too much. I haven't been back for almost 6yrs for goodness sake. I just want to be with my family to celebrate Ramadhan and Eid for the first time with my husband next to me. Yup. We have never celebrated Ramadhan/Eid in Malaysia before. That is 1 of the reasons why it took us so long to take the trip. Because I wanted our first trip home to be for celebrating Eid. After almost 6 long years, we finally decided this year is it. And now that we have bought the tickets, it feels even more real. So let the count down begins!