I'm the eldest of 9. I have 6 younger brothers and 2 younger sisters. At the age of 40, I gained another sister, who is a year younger than me, when I married her brother 😝
Bet you thought it was a baby sister, huh? 😝
Anyway, I've always been known to talk non-stop about my siblings to a point that all my friends know about them. Sometimes when I start a story with, "Adik sy kan..", when I end the story, some friends siap boleh teka which adik I was talking about 😂
So since I don't want to bore anyone with recycled stories of them, I wanna talk about my other set of siblings. These are the siblings I got to choose 🥰
During my postgrad years, days can sometimes be a bore especially when it's repetitive. For the first year of my MSc, I stayed in the RO room upstairs since it was easier. However, one day we got news they were revamping the current postgrad room to make it more organized with personal cubicles for us. Erwan, a fellow RO turned postgrad, told me to go choose a cube quickly so I won't get the unwanted ones. At first I refused but when I realized we were gonna have to give up the RO rooms, I reluctantly went down to choose my own space.
I didn't know anyone in the postgrad room (except Erwan) and wasn't really sure where I wanted to sit. In the end I chose the 2nd cube from the front door. Why not the first cube? Sbb nnt kene jadi tukang bukak pintu for those yg lupa bwk access card 😝
My cube was near abg Fadzil & Choong's cube. Beside me would one day be taken over by Yee (tp dia masuk lmbt skit) and around her cube would be Abdullahi (Somalian) & Ramadhan (Acheh) .. And an Iranian student that I just can't remember his name 😅 But like I said, I didn't know them but in no time did they make me feel welcome 🥰
Itu yg abang², yang adik² pun ade a few but they were further inside the large postgrad room. There was Farah, Pojie, Puga & Ramlah. There were others more like Lie, Rashwan & Fared but they had rooms upstairs.
We were are like a big family. Literally ketawa bersama & menangis bersama. We got nervous collectively when one of us needs to mengadap SV 😂 We rejoiced together when someone's paper got accepted for publication. We would not be able to sit still or even do our work when one of us was doing their viva.
We got to know each other's family. We were close to kak Nor, abg Fadzil's wife. I met Choong's wife jugak since he always helps me send old newspapers & coffee tins to the recycle centre. He told me his wife said I was cute & I blushed. Then he said, "You tau kan selalu org panggil cute sbb dia tkmo tipu kata you cantik?" Kuang asam 😂
I had lunch at Quazzi's (Bangladeshi) house once and we met Wesam's (Palestinian) family too when they came to Malaysia to be with him for a while.
We celebrated everyone's birthday complete with cake and other food. Any excuse to do something fun during our mundane postgrad days 🤭 Sometimes even rushing of to Kulim to borong Nasik Ayam Periuk Besar for everyone 😁
When I needed help with my data collection or Prof Meor's project, they were the first to volunteer (since I need A LOT of people to do this). When Farah needed help at her concrete lab pun, ramai would go help provided we weren't busy lah. Then we'll go have lunch ramai² after the heavy work done together.
When someone vandalized my cube by splashing coffee all around it, semua jadi investigator wpun semua dh boleh agak sape especially when we realized Iz's printer was full of coffee too. The guys confronted the said person who of course denied everything. But then, we also didn't have proof except the day before, me & Iz both had separate unpleasant interactions with this person but Yee got afraid sbb this guy was disturbing her too in a creepy way jugak so we all bought pepper sprays. I didn't know how to use it so Iz took his girlfriend's (now wife) pepper spray to demonstrate. Silap besar laaaa sbb the postgrad room is an enclosed space. Berlari keluar kitorg semua pakat pedih mata pedih tekak semua 😂
When we all got bored with our daily routine, someone would suggest an activity. From serious activities like a colloquium (Yes! We actually decided to organize one because we were bored 😂) to fun BBQs where everyone chipped in 😁
Then when any one of us graduated, we'd all clear our schedules for the day just to drive beramai² to the main campus for them 😁
When a second wave of juniors came to register for the postgrad program, we gained new adik² too. By then we had 3 postgraduate rooms dh, so 3 times the fun? 😁
Most memorable was the River Rangers Camp we did together 💕
Ini belum lagi cerita the juniors I got to know earlier. Yun is the friendlier one between us so she knew these juniors early on. I was still delaying my MSc registration when she asked of I wanted to join these juniors 10 day program at Lenggong. I was reluctant at first sbb I didn't know a single person here but after the program, I felt as if I had so many adik² that I didn't know before 😁
Lily, Shitah, Nanie, Alem, Amer, Jutie, Salimin, Ajha to name a few. In reality, too many to name satu² here. Among the things tk boleh lupa was when we went to Lenggong prior to the project to meet with the schools and org kampung. It was Alem, Amer, Lily, Hasni & me. They knew I was waiting for my Atos then but also that I was scared of driving. Jenuh Alem pujuk suruh practice drive (I think we went in his car kot time tu) but I refused.
Tau ape dia buat?
When it was time for Jumaat prayers, we had agreed that us girl would wait in the car after he parked it near the mosque. Instead, he stopped the car tengah jalan and tarik Amer keluar while they laughed and lari masuk masjid. Mcm, oiiiii, ape ni? 😅
Nak tanak I had to take over and drive the car lah. There was no parking available dh masa ni so I drove slowly to a surau we had seen earlier. Sabar je lahh.. 😅 As my revenge, we went to pick up the guys after 2:30, biar diorg tunggu lama² 😝
I stayed close with them till they graduated. I could never forget the day we went for last dinner together ramai², Alem said to me, "Tu la kak Ayu. Sape suruh sayang kt kitorg. Skrg kitorg dh nk grad, dh nk keluar USM. Nnt kak Ayuuuu jugak rindu kt kitorg"
Banjir oiiiii lepas tu tanpa sengaja.. Pastu budak Alem tu gelak je.. Cisss
Tu tk masuk lagi cerita diorg ajak main mercun kt Lembaran. I was friends with kak Yun, penggawa Lembaran time tu so was a bit reluctant nk join tp Lily siap ckp, ni tahun last kak Ayu nk seronok² ngn kitorg so tertewas jugak laaa.. Pastu kantoi dgn kak Yun.
Then next time keluar dgn kak Yun with my housemates, dia siap perli lagi 🙈🙈🙈
Ooooohhh.. Then my housemates. My accidental kakak² 😍 Kak Shima & kak Kathy. When I first rented with them, I didn't even know them. Just one day kak Kathy saw me at the hostel & asked me if I had found a house yet. She told me the house they had found kosong satu bilik so if I hadn't found a place yet, I was welcome to it.
I don't really know why I said yes wpun I never really talked to them before but it was one of the best decisions I had ever made 😁
We stayed together for 3-4 years kot and its still among the best things in my life. Who would've known. We'd go watch movies together, try Ramadhan buffets together and since both kak Shima & kak Kathy were from sch Bahan, they took me along to their activities jugak sampai I kenal laaa kakak² lain kt Bahan 😁
They taught me about how good pekasam was. They took me along to their kampung and all. And when they both wanted to watch Tamil/Hindustan movies, they tell each other I was the one yg nak tgk sbb masing² tkmo ngaku hantu film Tamil/Hindustan 😂
When I was heartbroken, both of my kakaks here did their best to cheer me up 🥹
I missed them so much when they left. They left the same month. Kak Kathy sbb dh nk kawen and continue her studies in the UK and kak Shima sbb she had finished her MSc and had gotten a job in Intel, Penang.
Then there were my adiks jiran 😁
Salleh, Arep, Rashid, Sepul, Duwe ngn Faizal 😁
When there was a Mr K in my house, Salleh came to save the day. When there was a place we both needed to go, Rashid was the one who would volunteer to drive. When PFK masuk workshop I didn't have sny transport to go to class, Sepul yg tlg hntr. Siap pesan suruh tunggu dia lepas class so dia boleh bwkkn balik.
When there was a huge Mr K right in front of my front door that refused to budge, Arep came to the rescue. Tp kene tahan telinga skit la bila Arep yg dtg 😝 Ini juga adik yg sama² sukaaaaa jelajah bazaar Ramadhan. We went to almost all bazaars yg dkt² sini. Paling jauh (and kerap) was the huge one in Perda. Siap boleh remind each other next time dtg nk beli ape 😂 Pasal gossip tgh² mlm jgn ckp laaa.. Sbb our houses were so near each other, we'd hear the same sound. One night, my neighbour gaduh ngn sape tatau.. Tk lama lepas tu masuk notification Arep nk bergossip pasal tu 😂😂😂
Never a dull moment 😂
So you see, I might have 8 siblings related by blood tp yg tk related by blood ni ramai sgt sampai I can't even write about all of them. Yang pasti, all of them are responsible for making my heart bigger just to make room for them. I pray for only happiness for them 💕
Sayang semua 😘
