The melting pot at 47CJR...

It has been six months. Six months of me staying at this flat – and I realized that I have never really talked about my flat-mates! Alright – maybe in one of my postings in March, and also a mention in passing in one of my earlier entries.

I have to say that over the past six months, I have got to know them better, and they are not a bad lot at all…I guessed I learnt to just accept the different ways they look at life (coming from four different countries!), the different ways they let loose (mainly by going pub-crawling), the different ways they wash their dishes (normally once in three days!) and the different ways they clean up the kitchen and their rooms (if they ever do, that is!)…. and I feel that today is a good day for me to write about them.

You see – yesterday was my birthday, and two of my flat-mates, Paulette and Eva, threw a small BBQ dinner do for me and another flat-mate, Jani who had her birthday on 5th May (she just came back yesterday from a field trip in Phuket, by the way). And I was touched because they went all out to get vegetarian sausages, burgers, and pizzas for the BBQ because they knew that I’m a Moslem, and that I don’t take anything that comes off the meat/poultry shelves from TESCO, or ASDA (and other hypermarkets of any sorts). And last night they did not consume wine or any other alcoholic drink as they normally would during previous BBQs…

The BBQ was just for the four of us as our fifth flat-mate, Kat is now in Birmingham undergoing a work placement as part of her Masters Degree requirement. But, when it was time for the cake-cutting ceremony (or rather a Giant Cookie for Jani, and nine pieces of diabetic chocolates for me!), Kat joined in via Paulette’s mobile – to sing the Birthday Song for Jani and I...

I thought that was really sweet of them…But, I knew they would not enjoy the vegetarian quorn BBQ as much as they would have enjoyed a proper carnivorous meal, and so I just dumped some Halal chicken sausages onto the disposable BBQ pit, which made everybody happy(ier?) ….And I guessed they, too, must have thought – “Aaaawwwhhhh… that was really sweet of Sharina…” Hahaha!

Anyway, a bit on my flat-mates.

Paulette hails from Toronto, Canada – and is one of the sweetest and friendliest girls that I have ever met. She’s 28 years old - pursuing a Masters Degree in Heritage Management at the University of Newcastle (her second Masters actually), and she’s the one who tells me which websites I should surf to get good TV programmes and movies whenever she sees that I’m in need of double dose of entertainment when I’m all stressed out. She has been going out (on and off) with Paul (a Greek guy) - a junior doctor at QE Hospital. She spends her weekend, either at Paul’s, or if she’s at the flat – baking. And boy, can she bake! She once baked a huge loaf of farm bread for us, and there were other times when she baked Cherry Strudels, Chocolate Chip Cookies and Peanut Butter Cookies, to name a few. Suffice to say, I now know how bake some of the cookies – which is a miracle, because those who know me would agree when I say that baking and I – we just don’t go together!

Eva is a 25 year old Taiwanese lass – very sweet, demure and soft-spoken, and I think the one I get along best amongst my flat-mates. She reminds me of those petite Hong Kong movie stars who always act in those sad love stories. Eva is pursuing a Masters Degree in Translation and Interpretation (Chinese-English), and it is funny when sometimes when I pass her room, I could hear her talking to herself, practicing and honing her interpreting skills in front of her notebook. She has a French beau by the name of Yves, who, unfortunately, had just left for Japan for a one-year job-stint there. Most of the time, when Eva is at the flat, she would be on Skype with Yves. And sometimes, late at night when I see her online on my YM, I would buzz her and we would chat for a bit on our YM – which is pretty funny considering our rooms are barely 5 feet away from each other!

Jani is a 26 year old Singaporean-Indonesian girl who is a marine biologist by training, now pursuing her Masters Degree in Marine Management. She’s going out with an English guy named Robin, who happens to be Paulette’s and Kat’s course-mate. I have to say that Jani is the loudest amongst the lot, and the most happy-go-lucky girl I’ve ever come across in the whole 39 years of my life! She is someone whom I would share most of the hot Malaysian dishes that I cook, and it gives me such great satisfaction when I see her devour whatever food I offer her. The way she would sigh and roll her eyes when she tastes my cooking (which she says reminds her of home), you would think that I was Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson and Floyd – all rolled in one! Hahaha!

Kat is a 24 year old American – from Denver, Colorado. I could still remember the first time I met her, I thought – “Wow…she’s tall!”. She is – she stands at 5’10” and she would be the one who would reach up the top of our lockers whenever we need the tin foil, or the cling films or the other stuffs which we keep up there! I think I only started warming up to her when I saw a paper cutting which she pasted on the wall in her room which read – “BUSH IS CRAP”. I felt so endeared to her after that! She’s now undergoing a placement in Birmingham as part of her Masters in Art Management Degree, staying with Ed, her English boyfriend. She comes back to Newcastle every now and then for short visits, but she calls Paulette nearly everyday! I guessed her Birmingham flat-mate is no fun to live with?

And then, there’s me. I guessed some of you somewhat know me. But, one thing which I’m sure you are not aware of is that - while Canadian Paulette is going out with Greek Paul, Taiwanese Eva – with French Yves, Singaporean Jani – with English Robin, and American Kat – with English Ed, to add colours to the varieties, I (Malaysian me!) am now going out with a hunk of an Italian boyfriend (a James Franco look-alike) named Fabio…..(Hahaha! Just kidding, Ayah…just kidding!) Winks* Phew….

Hmmm…It has been a pretty interesting 6 months for me - living with these young girls, and I know that I will miss them when I go back home in June. But, it’s good to know that I will have a place to stay and friends to show me around if I were to visit Canada, Taiwan, Singapore, or The U.S of A with Ayah and the kids one of these days, Insya Allah…

Being in a melting pot, wherever you are, is not a bad thing at all when you stay true to yourself, your identity, your values and your beliefs, while respecting and accepting those of others…

Wassalam…

Greenfingers? Me? Errr...NOT!

Eva is back from France!!! And I am SO HAPPY!!! Hmmm…you guys must be wondering who this Eva girl is, and why am I so happy that she’s back?! A brief introduction – Eva is my Taiwanese flat-mate, who had gone to Lyon/Paris to visit Yves (her French beau) on Thursday last week, AND she had asked me to take care of her plants while she was away.

And why exactly is it that I AM SO HAPPY now that she’s back? Well…I don’t have to take care of her plants anymore!!!

It has been quite a stressful few days for me – taking care of her plants. It’s a known fact that I can’t even take care of a cacti, let alone a proper plant which needs tender, loving, care, talking to (?!), the right temperature, not too much sun, not too little water, and God knows what else?!

I still remember when I had to take care of my sister Lala’s plants way back in 1995 when she went back to Malaysia with her family for three weeks. She left specific instructions with me on how and when to water them, how many times I need to give the plants their ‘food’, etc. And I followed her instructions to the letter, and yet, you guessed it – the plants wilted away, died and went to heaven…(Sorry, sis!)

So, you must understand how concerned I was when Eva asked me to take care of her precious plants! I kept checking the plants every ten minutes or so while they were under my care! The first thing that I would do when I woke up was check the plants. Every time I left the room and came back, I would check the plants. The last thing that I would do before I went to bed, yep, you guessed it – check the plants! Ayah was with me last week, and he was laughing away every time I asked him to check if the plants were still breathing, or whether they were in a coma, or barely having any pulse, or whether Ayah needed to perform an emergency angioplasty on them to make sure that they get enough supply of water to every part of their stems!

But, I did take the responsibility seriously, and I was praying hard that the plants would still be alive by the time Eva comes back from France. And it wasn’t helping much when I noticed that the plants were actually wilting away right under my nose, in front my own two eyes! I just didn’t get it (still don’t!) – I did EXACTLY as I was told, and yet the plants were dying on me…

So, when I heard Eva opening her room door this morning, I immediately gave the plants back to her (before the plants turned brown – which they were about to, I think!). I THINK I could just see her giving a “disbelief” look when she saw the condition of her precious plants, but I just didn’t want to discuss it with her…LOL! Well, I DID warn her about my past with plants : me…plants….we don’t go well together, and all that! And I feel so ‘free’ now that there are no plants shackled to my conscience anymore!

And Ayah, I think I agree with what you said the other day. When we move to the new house, we should either tile up the WHOLE green area around the house OR hire one Bangla gardener to tend to the garden at least once a week. And it’s not just because plants and I can never live in perfect harmony, or go hand in hand, but also because I can’t see Ayah mowing the lawn….EVER!

So, to those of you who have the same track records as mine when it comes to plants, wherever you are, just take my advice : next time somebody asks you to tend to their plants, just say “No, thank you!”. It saves you a lot of hassles, BUT more importantly, it is just not worthed getting grey hair overnight looking after the green thing…

Wassalam…