Boo hoo...

Changed my blog song. Going 'Home' already innit. Sniff.

Okie, shall look ahead. Focus. Breathe in and out. Family, friends, MTV, food...

Sorry for the maudlin posts.

Two days and counting...

It is two a.m. and I am waiting for the CORS website to login and check on my modules - the perils of working from a different time zone. I am quite sleepy and tired as I have been packing, unpacking, repacking, tossing things...good God, I have bought quite a lot of shoes in 11 months.

I am trying my damnest not to think of the impending separation from Nazir. Ok, I may seem blase sometimes, and not given to public declarations of love. Sigh. Silly me. It's only two months, innit? But two months is quite a long time, especially when one has spent every waking and non-waking second with a fella.

I remember crying at Mauritius (ooh, secret's out) because I missed my mother so much. It was the first time I had ever been away from home. Given the lack of attention I pay my mother when at home, it is surprising that I cried so much. It was my bloody honeymoon too! I guess one can never know when emotions will hit.

Double sigh.

The only good news of the week: I got four of my modules and am waiting for the final one. :D

Countdown...

A truly blur friend of mine messaged me yesterday asking if I was coming back that day. Ha ha. I guess this is a good time to announce:

I am arriving (Insyallah) on Sunday, 31 July at 7.45am.

(Err...there's no need to be at the airport. Too early, yah? Except my family...kalau takde, macam mana nak balik??? Taxi!)

So, there. No more blur messages, eh?
But I didn't really mind - my year's absence has shown me those who miss me, and those I miss. Happily those two categories coincide.

I have to start packing today. Seems like I have accumulated quite a lot of things in less than a year!!! Books, CDs, clothes, things for as yet non-existant house. But I can't seem to get off my butt to do it. Because if I do, it means leaving London behind. And husband. *howl* I don't know how I'll get through university without him...he's my freak-out guy. I.e. I freak out and the guy listen. I suppose I'll muddle through with my sisters, TV nights and pots of chilli crabs, prawns, mee rebus, sate, rojak (being PC!!!) India, mee kuah, mee bandung, rendang...did I mention chilli crabs?

Hee hee.

Back home....

I arrived in London last night, at about seven. And it felt like home. As the taxi wound around the crazy, narrow London roads, every place was familiar and loved. I regret so much the little time I have left - to explore every part of London, to know more about this strangely familiar foreign place.

Strange how a place one had lived in for less than a year can feel so much like home. Perhaps it is because it is my first home with Nazir - a proper place for the start of my life. While Singapore is the place I grew up in, London is the place I settled in. Finding the same brand of humour around me. A love for art. Finding...if not quite myself, some part of me.

Yet, at the same time, the homesickness for Singapore that had been plaguing me these past week is still there. The need to see Singapore, the sights, the smells, the food, the cleanliness. Beyond my family, there is still something about Singapore that calls me its own.

I will miss London, but I greatly anticipate coming home.

Hola from Barcelona

All right, I know it's hokey and touristy to say hola just because am in Spain....but it's fun nonetheless. Hee hee. Have found an affinity to the hokey and touristy. It's my last day in Spain. Our latest hotel - Hotel Amister - is fantastic. V nice decor, clean and has a separate CD player, flat screen TV and (much to Nazir's delight) INTERNET. Hence this blog. We have just arrived and Nazir already checks out the Internet. *eyeroll*. The toilet is nice, clean, the toiletries nice smelling. Yum! Am such a toilet girl.

(n b. : Nazir says to mention that the Internet is very fast too! Sigh. What a geek.)

Am waiting to go out again so decided to type a few lines about my one week trip in Spain. Right now, am listening to Juanes while writing this. Just bought "Mi sangre". V nice.

Let's see. Madrid was fantastic! I love Madrid (more than Barcelona - though Nazir and I have been arguing about it since we got here. He prefers Barcelona infintely). It's huge, sprawling with neat orderly buildings. Tends towards huge buildings - v grand. Had to speak Spanish cause a lot of the people here do not speak English. Not that I mind. And most are quite nice about the stuttering and slow speech.

I had been quite sick these past two days in Barcelona - so have not really been enjoying myself. Went to the Perfume Museum (v. nice. Lots of gorgeous bottles) on the first day - alone, as Nazir had to attend meetings. The second we went to Gran Via 2, a shopping complex. The next day, we went to Port Vell and Barceloneta. It was quite nice, but as I said, as sick so did not enjoy much with a dripping nose. And of course, was sick because of the weather! Which is so much like S'pore, no wonder I do not like it. Ha ha.

Yesterday, we went to Montjuic. There's the Palau Nacional (that's in Catalan. Bad enough with ONE language! Now a second!), Olymipic Staduim and most fun of all, the fountains. They switched on the fountains one at a time, down the steps and down the walkway. It was fantastic. Then, the fountains were lit up slowly, with the central fountain finally bathed in pale blue and pink lights. Half an hour later, the music bit of the musical fountain started - it was ok, not very synchonized. S'pore's much better with the dancing water. But this is the sort of fountain which spurts out water and stays put. More beautiful overall but not as a musical fountain.

On Barcelona itself. It's huge and sprawling. There's the sea/port bit on one side, the hills (Montjuic), and the city itself (around the Placa Catalunya area). A bit too messy for my taste but Nazir likes it.

Okie. Time to go. :D

Eight hours on...

London is coping quite well given the circumstances. Within hours, the public transport has re-opened for some areas after a total shutdown. The reconstruction of events are also swift. A carpooling website had been set up to help those stranded - an admirable display of kindness amongst Londoners.

What I find most heart-warming is the obvious attempts by some public figures, such as the Mayor for London, Ken Livingston, and Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick of the Metropolitan Police to deflect any backlash against Muslims here.

Mr Livingstone said: "This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at presidents or prime ministers. It was aimed at ordinary working class people." He also stressed that the attack did not discriminate race, creed or religion.

When asked by a reporter whether it was the work of Islamic terrorists, Dep. Asst. Com. Paddick responded that those two words did not go together, and went on to explain that Islam does not support the use of violence on civilians.

I do think all these comments will help to stem the backlash. At any rate, it is very much appreciated and will do lots to foster relations in the long run. Warm fuzzy feelings all round!

If it were the Al-Qaeda or whoever who did it, especially if over Iraq, I think they had done a gross injustice as a lot of Brits were against the war and protested against it. Then again, anyone who attacks civilians are...sorry, words fail me.

Statement and Commentary

There had been explosions on the London Tube and a bus.

We are both fine. We were both at home when it happened.

The scary part is that some of the explosions occured near Nazir's school. He takes the bus/Tube to get there. But, alhamdullilah, he decided not to go to school today cause we had returned home late yesterday.

It is quite strange. Surreal. All public transport has been halted. Everyone is advised to stay put. Those in Central London can't go in or out. And I'm at home pecking at the computer, watching the news. It is no different being here than in Singapore.

Within hours, all fingers pointed to Al-Qaeda. Bugger.

Non-events

It is 1 am in London, and I have just finished watching Sex and the City (although to be strictly accurate, I've mooched around, did my prayers etc since watching the show). Carrie had just gotten shoe-shamed - a (Smug) Married [ref: Bridget Jones's Diary] made her take off her shoes for fear of contaminating her babies. Carrie's Manolos got stolen. Sigh. The woman offered to pay for the shoes (eventually) and was like, Are you joking, when Carrie mentioned the price. Kind of funny since the Married used to wear Manolos herself. Anyway, Ms. Married went into a spiel about how there are more important things in life than expensive shoes. (Hence, shoe-shamed.)

Carrie pointed out sth interesting- why is there no celebration of singlehood? It is a perfectly acceptable lifestyle choice.

Rather than being married to Mr. Wrong and then divorcing him. Or not divorcing him. I don't know which is worse. Still, how do you celebrate a non-event? Because, for most, singlehood is not a choice they made but something thrust upon them - an off-chance that they were the ones unlucky in love. It's quite a simple matter when it is a concious choice - one can pull a Carrie and marry oneself (which she did if just to register for the shoes. ;) Smart trick). But how can one celebrate what is in essence a non-event? Singlehood as the absence of being married, as opposed to being single. It would be nice if I had one of those when I was single. Maybe we should declare a Singles Day. And wear rings on our right, or was it left, hands. Ha ha. That's just too corny.

Nice quote: She'd gotten three Caesareans and a lobotomy.

On a more personal note, I hate Smug Marrieds, and even more so, Smug Parents. If I ever become one, someone smack me. Really. Hard.

It's not an achievement to get married (staying married, hmmm, that might be). Neither is it a great achievement to have babies (rearing them to be good humans, that it is!). I don't see what there is to be smug about.

Trip of a lifetime!

Yes!!! I got my tickets to Madrid yesterday. I am over the moon. Nazir had been 'invited' to join the President of Muis on a trip to Spain, and Nazir is bringing me along. Yay! (Err...he'd better!) All sponsered by Nazir, Inc too. ;P As a result, my return to Singapore will be delayed to the following week (31/7). Insyallah, we will be going to Madrid for three days and spending seven days in Barcelona. Joy to the world. Am finally going to Spain. And finally I can ask someone, Donde esta el bano? Ha ha. (Missing a punctuation mark and diacritic there - an inverted question mark, and a tilde.) Where is the toilet? Probably the most important question in the world. Really - I actually did have to ask someone in France. Heh.

Well, that's all the updates on my travel plans. Am overjoyed.