In London Again???

Yeah, I'm London again at my aunt's place. Wow, I feel so merdeka now after finishing and submitting all my 8 coursework last Friday. That's why I did not post up any post since the last one on Sunday. Insya-Allah, I will be traveling again on 23 January 2007 and this time I'm going to Belfast, Northern Ireland with my classmates. Another celebration for completing all those demanding assignments. To who ever thinking of pursuing his or her Master degree, please and please pick a programme which is longer than a year. One year is too pressuring and pack.

Zam, zam ala kazam. To Belfast, my flying carpet!

Last night, I followed my aunt and her family to a class called 40 Hadiths Compiled by Imam Nawawi. The class is conducted by Ustaz Fairuz and the students will take turn to hold the classes at their home. I enjoyed the gathering very, very much. It was informal and held in a homey kind of ambiance. And I met my old friends there too - Dr. Kamarul Rashdan and his wife. Yeah, they are still there, almost nine years now. I don't think they will come home, at least not in this next three or four years. He gave me the number for my ex-housemate, Addi Faiz who is currently working in Bristol. Dr. Kamarul asked me whether I still involved in the perjuangan. Oh, God! When was the last time I heard that word - Perjuangan. Wow... I love really like strong words. hehehe.

Before you guys making any wrong conclusion, hehehe, let me put the record straight. It has nothing to do with any radical movements or terrorism activities. Not long time ago, a couple of my friends and I subscribed to the idea that we need to be in a jemaah because as a human being and in order to function well as human being, we cannot live alone. So, we joined every single jemaah that we can afford. You just name it, I'm sure at least 75% of your wild guesses are correct. Malaysian Student Society, Kelab UMNO, Hizbi, ABIM, filmmaker wanna be, I-just-support-any-clubs-but-Man-United and of course, tabligh.

And that was how I utilised my stay in a foreign land! And I hope I did not scare you.

I still don't know where those enthusiasm now. After returned home, I just spent less and less time outside.

I remember when I used to tumpang berteduh with my aunt in Kepong. My routine was like got up at 6.30 and took my komuter ride to Bank Negara station at 7.15 am and stayed in my office until 8 or 9 pm. Arrived at Taman Bukit Maluri at about 10 pm for an hour or two chat with my aunt on her day and updates on those telenovelas from the Latin America or the Phillipines. On weekend, I helped my aunt in the kitchen, folded the family clothes, did my wonder with the compound in front of the house, ironed my own clothes and spent quality time with the family in front the 29" Samsung TV. If I'm not mistaken, watching Akademi Fantasia and I was rooting for Nija and Sahri.

When I moved into my own rented flat in Pandan Indah, I almost had a similar itinerary but this time with my housemates and my neighbours. Yes... you read it right. My neighbours! Even my housemates still cannot understands how can I spent 45 minutes to a hour talking to my neighbours - abang K, abang S, abang B, akak A, akak T, pakcik R and makcik M. Oh yeah, another two neighbours about my age who live on the first floor.

No... we did not talk about the weather, and not the politics too, thank God. With the abangs, we talked about football (hehehe jangan tak percaya, si kaki bangku cakap pasal bola!).

"Kenapa kau tak sokong Man United? Habis tu, kenapa pergi ke Manchester?", asked abang K.
"Errr... saya sokong Manchester City?"
"Team division satu tu?" asked abang S this time.
"Errr... saya suka warna jersey dia. Biru cair. Sejuk mata memandang."

I'm sure those kind-hearted abangs still can't comprehend my rationale. My God, what a stupid answer from stupid guy pretending to like football. hehehe.

Chatting with the kakaks were conducted in a more personally way, always one to one chatting in our corridor. And the topics were diverse. About the rising costs of living, life as bankers (because akak K is a banker too), the arguing couples at wee hours (siap polis datang, ok! And I had at least 5 couples during my 4 years there.), and of course my all time favourite, the tangkap basah episodes!

Talking about tangkap basah, there was this case, where the group serbu a house on the second floor on one find day, they were surprised to death to find out that those weekend couple was legally married. The visiting husband came to the house (the wife rented the 3-room flat with another 2 single ladies) from Kuantan every weekend. The next day, an announcement was up on our notice board, which I guess from the family of that poor couple, stated their disappointment and anger about the incident.

"Apa perasaan tuan-tuan dan puan-puan kalau anak perempuan anda diperlakukan sedemikian!"

Two months after that the couple moved out and five months after that sad but kelakar (well no offence to the poor couple, but my kelakarness was directed at those caring 'neighbours') incident, I moved into my own place, which is about 2km from the Pangsapuri Inai. At Graha Residen, I tried to revive my jemaah enthusiasm, but I was short of time - those people in the office really, really made me 'suffer' (I'm exaggerating this part in case you need to know) before I could go for my sabbatical leave.

And here in Manchester, with those piling up journals to be read (I can't understand why these journals have to be at least 30 pages, when everything can't be written for about a tenth of those pages!) and the fact that I'm too old for to be a perfect buddy for the undergrads and too young for most of my classmates, I guess those spirit of perjuangan will be disappeared at least for another year.

At the end of the gathering, Dr. Kamarul and I made a promise to keep in touch to do some catching ups. We arrived home about 30 minutes after midnight and I straight away went to bed hoping for a chance to meet Joe up tomorrow to watch the Kite Runner. I hope I will enjoy the film as much as I enjoyed the book.