Four important ladies in my life and my little teddy

I need to spend quite a lot on Birthday gifts every January. Started with January 1st . My dear best friend chose to steal the limelight of a new year celebration, she was born some 38 years ago on the first day of January. Thru the long good 33 years of my age, I've encountered so many wonderful souls whom I called best friend although they carry that title from various phase in my life. Presently, as a mother , a career woman and a wife, I am blessed with this beautiful creature who sees me thru thick and thin. Her phone number is my S.O.S helpline, emergency department and phsyco department. As a mother, a wife and my immediate boss, we comprehend each other very well. I never met anyone as honest and caring as she is.

On January 16, my favourite cousin was born. Gulf War took place on her birthday , what a girl. Well, what can I say, she is the little sister I never had, the one I always wanted because baby brothers were not fun to play with. She was my mannequin during our play school age where my mind was made up to be either a supermodel or a fashion designer when I grew up (jauhnya tersasar, salah naik flight), I used to apply make up on her, dressed her up. I looked forward to every school break coz that would be the time for us to go back to my old man's hometown in Penang and she will be waiting for me jovially there. Some 20 years ago, communication was not as sophisticated. I need to call the public phone near her house, praying that somebody would picked it up and informed her. And some 15 minutes later I will called back and catched up with her. (Masihkah kau ingat????). Our activity in kampung would be various as well as hillarious. She was quite devil-may-care kind of girl where she would play boy stuff with boys. But whenever her dearest town girl -ladylike cousin went back to Kampung, she had willingly sacrife her play time with her rough play mates (whom were mostly our cousins as well because our clan invaded the whole area and live closely ) and play girly stuff with me. We would travel around the village looking for henna plants where we would be a lovely doll and asked the Tuan Tanah for a ranting or two of that henna. And the makcik2 will go " Ni anak Cikgu Chan kan, yang ni anak sapa (referring to me) and she will sweetly answered "anak cikgu Din" . Then we will go back and start our episode of tumbuk menumbuk.Later pulak adengan pakai memakai. Upon having a satisfied result, we would went and 'tayang' our reddened fingers to our younger cousin who will winked with jealousy. When hunger pangs attacked we will buy 2 packets of Vit's Instant Noodle at Kedai Wa and went back to cook them secretly in her Mom's kitchen. This will took place when her Mom was at school teaching, and mine was somewhere else.It will be such a big treat to a 9 (me) and 8 (she) year old since instant noodle was a taboo in my house and my parents had instilled a notion that Makan Meggi nanti 'rambut luruh' (Matila aku kadang-kadang masak meggi kat anak ku noks bila time aku 'rajin'). Sometimes we will went for 'mee kuah' still at Kedai Wa.Some other time we will went to 'accompany' (mengacau benornya) our Aunt to 'menoreh'. At one time I was wearing a ruffled white blouse (long sleeve somemore) with black swing skirt (macam artist giteww balik kampung) and we went to follow our Aunty to 'mesin getah'. Unfortunately the rubber milk spilled all over my black skirt and I cried like a mad banshee. She scolded me saying 'Tulah nak pi menoreh getah pakai macam Saripah Aini, sapa suruh" I was saddened with that because normally I was the one yang grumpy all the way.She has a little brother (the only brother in her siblings) whom was a big bully to her sister. I was always her knight in shining armour (walaupun takut gak kat budak kecik tu). She will always packed her things and wanted to follow me home whenever they had their crisis. When we grew up, we went to the same university but we could hardly find time to be together. Nevertheless, I swear she is the only person whom has the access to all my secrets , good or bad. We had never quarelled except for this one time recently which I will regret for the rest of my life. We had tolerated all the diffences all this while but the spark ignited during a bad time for both of us. I will always love her and cherish our moments together till I die. I think this the fifth time that I owed her a birthday present since she lives sooo far away now.

January 19 the most important woman in my life, whom I owed my life to , was born. My mother, the greatest mother on earth although a little bit eccentric.I strongly feel that her eccentricity and drama-queen syndrome is hereditary as I can hear and feel myself turning into her everyday. God! She was born to be a teacher, she dedicated her life to teaching profession, always turned down the offer to teach in Famous Schools but preferred to be located in rural school. She was super strict and fierce, I thanked God she was not my teacher. However, she will still received the most gifts during Teacher's Day and her pupils of some 2o years will still send her Raya cards besides countless of reunion invitation each year. She was famous too, and I was recognized in school because I am 'her' daughter. So I got to be real careful with what I did because there will be many papparazi friends of hers who will voluntarily convey the report of my behaviour to her (although she was not a teacher in my school).I was a rebellious teenager and mom was my frequent enemy. I will do things which made her mad on purpose (adakah aku kurang kasih sayang or desperate for attention??). Micro mini short skirts (she was a daughter of a Tok Guru), double ear piercing, Madonna (or Minachi) look a like bangles were never passed her approval.But somehow God has bestowed me His love by giving me a chance to change. Maybe my parents's prayers (my dad especially) were answered during their pilgrimage as I cleared my act and made a 360 degree change my life just before SPM. Alhamdullilah. And now that I am a mother myself, I really understand my own mother. What she really meant when she said that the reasons for her to be angry with me was because she loved me. At that time I only have this formula in mind, angry = hate. When she was hospitalised for 2 weeks, I took a leave from University and took care of her in the hospital. That were the days when I really felt her love for me. Quite often during that time she will hold her nature's call to the max just because she did not want to wake me up.I love her so very much that I secretly pray that I would die before her because I could never picture life without her. She has 4 children and she will, be it Raya or not cook each and everyone favourite food.She will go a million miles to ensure our cravings or wishes come true. Despite our differences (e.g she will labelled everything in the kitchen and her cabinet, me = ada aku kisah? she will fold clothes and tie them with rubberband to avoid mess in the cupboard and that will safe her time of frequent housekeeping , in short she is very systematic, me on the otherhand will call Bibik for rescue.Mom will and is able to do everything singlehandedly , me I will and managed things perfectly with a maid in the house , in short I die without my Bibik) I am still her daughter, perfect or not, she accepted me unconditionally. Of course we have our common interest as mother and daughter to prove the saying "ke mana tumpahnya kuah kalau tak ke nasi'. We share the love for cooking and fashion.At the age of 58 years old, she still maintained her svelte figure (part ni of course la tak sama) and she still looking fabulous without fail. She is still my stylist and me her doll. She will still buy me clothes although it should be the other way around.So isnt she great?? The word 'LOVE' alone is too insufficient to describe my feelings towards her and nothing that money can buy will suffice her sacrifice in bringing me up to the person I am today (Nooo I am not making this as an excuse not buy her present) .

On this coming January 23, my little teddy, my hunny bunny, my eldest son will celebrate his 8th birthday. My first born after a year of waiting. Rahmat dan rezeki yang maha agung dari Allah untuk aku dan Kanda. He has blessed us with a wonderful 8 years by being our son and I wish for hundreds more. Although he will grow up and be father and later a grand father, he will always be my baby boy, whom I adore and love every second in my entire being. I am not a good mother, I scream, I yelled, I pinched a lot but he is the greatest son any mother could have. I can scold him all I want, but he will hold no grudges against me but instead he will hugged me with tears streaming down his chubby cheeks, asking for forgiveness. He is smart as he knows that will surely melt me and brought me to my senses. I have all good wishes for him on his birthdays and my prayers will always be with him.He has a miracle pair of hands which creates artistic piece (on my wall when he was small). He has interest for food (making as well as consuming it) He loves it when I include him in my kitchen routine and love it even more when I asked for his help when doing wedding gift (hantaran) or prepare the table. Quite an artistic young man I pray for his sucess in his life and every road he takes.

Lastly , the only sister of mine will celebrate her birthday on January 29. She was brought up by my grand aunt since they were not blessed with children. My father was also brought up by them since his parents were so much in love they made a football team (with 3 more reserved players who died later) of children and just imagined 11 children is far from being handful, its a disaster. (rezeki dan rahmat Allah). I had 3 of my own and I am loosing it (my mind) bit by bit each day, 11??????. When I was born, my parents were transferred to a god forsaken place to teach.So my mom was helpless (read hopeless) with a cute baby (sempat lagik) and a toddler to match a new environment. So my grand aunt came up with a solution, she would help looking after my sister until the young couple settled down. However, when the time came, they were reluctant to let her go and they were so lonely without kids around. So my parents gave in. That was why I dont really have a close relationship with her. She was away most of the time, boarding school, college. Recently, since my grandparents passed away, we managed to start a new life together. I am learning to know her more. Mom tried even harder and I can sense that she is too trying to learn about us, me and mom. I love her with all my love and will love her come what may.

So, happy birthday my best pal Kak Mah, My dearest cousin Lyana Mauseth, My beloved Mama, My baby Amal and my lovely sister Kakak. I love u all and I thank Allah for all of U. May Allah bless u always.