i guess we are not that different afterall

i had done a little different for my 2014's birthday. initially, i thought i just don't want to receive messages from people who wish it out of obligations since "everyone is doing it."

my goal is very simple: i just hope you wish me because you remember. you don't have to remember it, seriously but if you did, thank you.

fortunately, i have at least a person who remembered. thank you. it means one thing to me: i made a friend who is caring enough to remember. personally, i have a list of friends who i remember their birthday by hearts. some might be just months, others are up to the date.

then during this hanoi trip, i happen to remember a friend, who is travelling with me, has birthday in july roughly mid of july. when i asked, he did mention ya. which is on the last day of the hanoi trip.

i quickly plan something up: bought a hand-made carved card, bought a birthday cake and created a plan to surprise. it was done in a haste mode considering he is always travelling with us all the time. we were playing poker cards in our room for a bit. the birthday was supposed to be tomorrow. initally, i wanted to celebrate at 12am but he told us he wanted to sleep earlier before that as our flight is 840am check-in time. the golden opportunity stroke when he went into the toilet for a pee (it was meant to be a surprise celebration).

we rushed to get the cake, lit a candle and switched off the light. when he came out, it was dark until we started to sing birthday song. i hope he had fun and a happy surprise. little did i know that this friend of mine has removed this birth date notification similar to what i did this year, which he did few years back.

i hope by doing something for him, it makes him a little happier. i understand some people are a little shy or embarrassed about their birthdays. what matters is you have a good time and do know that someone remembers. hope that your birthday wish comes true.

happy 25th birthday!

Happy Birthday again, Ivan (friend since first day of year 1 in SK Tengkera 2).

25

This year. I am 25. A good number I would say. As I started off with a few celebrations. Back in Sydney days, I would celebrate with close friends. Fun and memorable.

When I started working, I celebrated with family. After 2 years of working, this year marks the year I have friends in the work place whom I celebrated with. Usually, I would be discrete about my birthday. Don't want to cause a scene. This year I hinted to a close friend at work place. And I got two pieces of cake. Good strategy. Not that I want to eat cake, I would like to spend time with people I care about. A week before that, I had a memorable dinner with my family. And on the same day as well, I had another slice of cake with a friend. She is my best friend, or I can safely said, my pasar malam kaki.

I told my sister. Birthday celebration is not something i am used to because we don't celebrate birthday at home. It is only recently that I had birthday celebration since college days. She said, of course la, house financials were not that good. Now that we are finally better off, then can splurge a bit. I agreed. But I yearn to have this day with people who matter.

With these celebrations etched in mind, I think it's one of the birthdays that I will always remember. Not only the time spent with loved ones and also a hand phone as gift from brother and sister. I feel blessed. Thank you, 2014. You have made me a very happy birhday boy.

Here are some of the photos:

age is just a number

i met up with a good friend, two weeks back. the friend has found a gf. good for him. i always got this aura from him that he is lonely. glad that he has someone for company. as conversation flows, he commented that the parents are a little opposing towards this relationship.

my first reaction: why? oh, the girl is a few years his senior. hmm. but it is not that much really. i guess the parents are annoyed. i can see where the parents are coming from. they might think that they girl is at the age suitable for marriage while their son has only started working for a year. i feel like telling the parents, "do you know how hard it is to find one person you like nowadays?" the parents mentioned any girl will do as long as she is local (malaysian) and younger than him. the fact that the girl breaks the two rules makes them hard to accept. i wonder why they object to begin with. my friend used to have a gf who is younger and local and they objected. now he found another, still object. haih... life... life... it is hard to please everyone.

luckily my friend is standing on the positive side. he believes that the parents will eventually accept her as she is. i have yet to see her but to me, it doesn't matter. as long as my friend is happy. that's all that matters. she will be the one walking the rest of his life. the least they can do is give their blessings.

i wish him all the best and the little devil in me hopes that he achieves success because i think being defiant in love and obtaining acceptance in the end is so much more romantic than the plain old vanilla, non-challenging relationship.

wish him the best of luck, and partially myself too in finding one.

age is just a number, really.

you're leaving too.....

ohh...now that another colleague is leaving, i was initially tempted as well. mixed emotion. should i go? by now, i would have get used to people who come and go. but no, i was still the same old, same old emotional self. i feel sad when someone leaves the company. haihh.... part of my weakness.

at 24, i thought dealing with separation should be easier. nope, it still makes me feel sad a little. but the duration of getting affected is shorter. this is what you get when you start to have weekend activities with your colleague like watching movie, playing badminton and having dinners.

with you gone, who is there left? another journey in search of colleague who happens to be a friend at the same time. i only have 1. with one leaving, i am left with zero. one positive note, at least it makes me go out there and befriended another colleague. it is out of my comfort zone, but who knows......

a good friend is not easy to find, a colleague who is also a friend is harder to discover.

time goes

in the blink of an eye, we have come to oct 2013. i am now having my study leave for the preparation of upcoming exams. chance upon two friends back to uni days. we seldom chat now. we used to meet,dine,play and chat regularly. come to this year. i have worked for one and half years. and all those moments disappear to almost nothing. this year, it is considered lucky that we get to cycle at shah alam.

i miss those moments a little bit. because that is when i can chat freely and connect to to the past. they are my dots to the uni days. two are still alright. one is definitely worst. not even a single hi. i wonder is it because of the conflict that he and another girl has. they are both my very good friends. but somehow, i feel like i was caught in between of the conflict. i decide not to take side and just listen to stories. due to geographical reasons, i only hear one side of the story. but i refused to form an opinion. it has nothing to do with me.

life is challenging. i want everyone to live happily with everyone. but not everyone shares the same ideal with me. i hang out more often with the girl now because we live close by. is it one of the reason they got conflict in the first place. hope not. at the current moment, i feel life is good. it is going through a straight road with sometimes a few potholes here and there. i think i learn how to handle them now. i avoid them.

the besties in uni. where art thou?

how do you restart a conversation

i have found out news about my friends around me for these few days. some moderately important news. but at one point, i start to think. since when i had started to lose touch with them. it used to have an automatic update from them. since i begin assuring other people's acounts, i have less such update. probably the fault is on my part for not taking the initiative.

in my defense, i always thought if our friendship is strong enough, this thing is a friend would normally do. perhaps i am wrong la. maybe it is time for me to try catching up on them one per day. that way, i will feel better.

i am now trying to devise a non-awkward way to start a conversation to friends who i have lost touch with since high school and university days. will it be just a hi or what have you been up to? or should i start by teasing. i don't know. my ability to converse has been impaired by the fact of number viewing days in and out. time to sharpen my communication skill again.

Maybe I should send a card with this instead.

blogger feels it is timely to update from friends for real, and definitely not through the blue wall updates.