My Last Day As A...

…‘facility maintenance worker’. Friday morning 5.30am was my last day at work. Yes, you read that right. For the last month and a half I’ve been working the graveyard shift cleaning the university campus. The 1.30-5.30am hours is perfect since it leaves my days free, and it’s quick cash to supplement our meager student income and help pay for my course.

At first it was damn scary lah…I was doing the whole of the level 2 of a building alone. Hence I always welcome fellow owls who stay on in the computer labs finishing their assignments. At least then I feel like I’ve got ‘friends’ and not so alone. Filzah asked if I’m sure they are ‘friends’ or you-know-what (given the time of the night). But I guess so, since they guzzle down cups of coffee and blast Pink from from their i-Pods. you-know-whats don't do that right? hur hur hur.

It has been a very interesting experience for me. I meet people I won’t otherwise meet in my normal course of living. My work-mates are friendly chain-smoking (and some foul-mouthed) oldies who speak with very foreign accents and have names like Noumka Sikorska and Vlado something (i then found out Noumka was from Macedonia...now where in the globe is that?). I’ll sure miss Noumka who does Level 1 below me and is loud and makes me feel not alone. My supervisor Beryl, who’s got to be at least 65 years old but walks and works faster than me. And another guy who said goodbye and wished me luck, saying he’s been to Singapore 17 times (god knows for what) and that he loves it there (hmm?) and would like to live there (kidding, right?). didn’t catch his name, but said he was from Morocco/Spain.

It was both humbling and enlightening. There are students/owls who look through me like I’m invisible, while there are others who smile and say ‘good morning’. I learn that you can tell a lot about a person from his rubbish bin, and how most professors have very messy rooms. *Well actually the same goes for my table back in the staffroom in school*. And my pet peeve is a classroom left tunggang-langgang, cos I was one of those teachers who went “Excuse me, tolong susun semula kerusi meja semua eh, jangan terus jalan saja,” after class cos I am very mindful of the next class who uses the classroom.

And most of all, I think all institutions should set aside a Love Thy Cleaners day, cos really, these people are too often underrated and undervalued.

Hey why don’t I start this as a tag. A My Last Day As A _____ tag. go on, share your experience with us in your next entry.

Zaqy, Filzah and Afrina in Perth

aaahh...such welcomed company from home. Zaqy and The Hasbern go way back since secondary school and i've known Filzah since our dating days and look at us now, dah jadi makbapak budak...haha...

they were here for 5 days, bunking at our humble place. we went on a short road trip to Karri Valley in Pemberton where we stayed at a cottage and did country stuff. like (non)trout-fishing (really. i don't GET fishing at all).

but perhaps what was most fun was in the car listening to the 2 guys having their makmur-style conversations peppered with kebodisms. as pilot and co, they agree that they takboleh make it in The Amazing Race.

lhan conveniently called Afrina 'Aminah' and they had a love-hate relationship where, confined to small spaces like the car they'll fight and hate each other, but once freed into open spaces they are so cute together. Ilhan's trying to learn this 'Dalam satu minggu ada tujuh hari' song that Afrina's always singing.

where are we?

really! to Karri Valley with Zaqy and family. will be back with photos soon!

My Son the Sinetron Addict

Latansa Cafe counts as one of our favourite eating place. we normally go there after The Hasbern's soccer session (with Haryo and the boys...and with me going ngaji with the ibuk-ibuk kita ni betul lah anak angkat indon). it is Acehnese, and somehow makanan aceh/sumatra is spicily familiar. the other day i asked for nasi goreng "pedas banget", and pedas banget was what i got. but best of all, it's got ilhan's approval.



why? because it's got a huge tv with indon channels which shows sinetron. and, yes you've guessed it, Hikmah's youngest fan is a sinetron addict.





you can't fool this guy. he watches the sinetron intently for about 5 minutes and then declares "Ini bukan Hikmah yah. Ana takde." but he watches it all the same, eating his nasi and sup buntut and washing it down with teh sosro.

i went for my CELTA interview a few days ago, and had to write a short essay in 20min . had a chat with the course coordinator after that. my preliminary research tells me that this 1-month full-time 9-5pm course is going to be a gruelling one, with lessons/discussions in the day and teaching practice in the afternoon starting from day 2. hope this brain of mine's not dusty and rusty.

it felt nice walking on the grounds of curtin uni; got reminded of good ol' nus days. i'm excited about the course - well basically cos it puts me back in a classroom as a student and then insya Allah as a teacher again. CELTA's this cambridge-certified qualification to teach english to foreigners, and it's quite exciting to think that soon i'll find myself in a class ala Mind Your Language like the exasperated Mr Brown with his Ali and Ranjit Singh and Ingrid and Giovanni and Su-Lee.

did some baking the other day with ilhan. cheese and chive scones. real easy, and ready in a jiffy. we doubled the measurement for the cheese, of course. try it.

'We're Just Doing Our Job'

these past few days, i open the door and i'm greeted by this wondrous sight first thing when the sun rises. Like Ilhan says, "Look Mum, it's a wainbow!" two parallel rainbows, at that. for about 3 days in a row. beautiful, isn't it? it finally feels like autumn, with the wather a balmy 20-23degrees in the day with rain every other day.
and, i just realised that the tree in our garden is starting to flower. i did not quite realise when this happened, but suddenly there they were, fresh bursts of bright yellow flowers. sweet.

now, about the title. Kak N called me the other. she got a call from singapore at 1am about her nephew passing away. she scrambled to get on the first available flight back to sg.

a quick intro to Kak N - she's married to an Aussie (who became a Muslim 3 years before meeting her), has 3 kids, and wears the tudung labuh (big hint here). she's been living in Perth for 10 years and naturally is a PR.

as usual she cruised through Perth Airport and reached singapore soil. now that's where the issues began. she was detained at the passport counter and brought to a room where she was asked ridiculous questions for about an hour.

"Are you married?
"How many kids do you have?"
"What does your husband work as?"

i would say these were the more sedate questions asked. she told me there were more ridiculously probing ones. and when she demanded to know why she was questioned like that, she was told it was because she has a common name. i know.....like "HUH?"

Kak N was getting really mad cos she had a funeral to go to, and there they were wasting her time for over an hour. the only answer they had for her was "We're just doing our job." standard civil service reply. the lady officer questioning her kept going in and out of the room, operating from some order from some higher being somewhere.

when they finally let her go, she asked if this will happen again the next time she comes to Singapore (her birthplace, she still holds the red passport and IC), they said they can't promise that.

and get this - this is not the first time it's happened to Kak N. the last time she came to singapore about 3 years ago with her whole family and her Aussie mother-in-law (a sweet old lady) to get them acquainted with her side of the family, they all got detained and subjected to about an hour of questioning - why were they there blah blah blah. her kids (Muhammad and Aiman were 6 and 3 that time) were tired and cranky and she was told to keep them quiet. that did it, of course, she went ballistic and kicked up a huge fuss. she felt so bad for her mother-in-law.

why eh? the 'common name' is a bodoh excuse. is it the tudung labuh? atau sebab dia kahwin mat salleh? but then again i don't think a chinese SPG kahwin mat salleh gets subjected to all these nonsense, right?

why eh?