Saturday, August 19, 2006

Reminiscence

Reminiscence


We parked outside the hotel at a major shopping complex and waited. The car jockey service came over in a very unfriendly manner to ask why we stopped there, so I told him we were waiting for a friend. He asked how long we were going to be, and so I retorted that she was coming right down. What an arse.... the service industry in Malaysia seriously sucks. There are much nicer ways to say the same things.

He could've come over and said: Excuse me, sir, ma'am, this is a non-parking area. If you stop here, you might be obstructing traffic to both the hotel and the shopping centre.
To which we'd reply we were waiting for a friend, and he could have said: Oh! In that case, would you be long? Would 5 minutes be enough for you? Any more than that and I'm afraid I might have to ask you to move.
And, SMILE, GODDAMIT!! Does it take that much effort to stretch your mouth upwards?

Anyway, back to the main story. We waited and speculated how she'd look like. We haven't seen her for at least two years. Then we spotted her bouncing towards the main entrance, smiling as though her face would crack in two :D Yeah, apparently she STILL bounces when she walks, and she STILL smiles till her eyes were almost slits.... hehehe.... some things never change.

We got out of the car in excitement, and when she saw us she started running to the door :p and then she stopped as we went to her one by one to give her hugs :) After the hugs, she screamed and ran towards the car to 'molest' (in her own words) the poor boy who was driving :p Yes yes, she still says the most outrageous stuff!!

I suppose the thing about friends is that we remember the little things, especially when it comes to good friends that grow up and move away. When we meet, it's as though the years seem to fall away, and we regress to childhood. :) It happens during every CNY gathering when there's a big group. We're not 25, we're 18 and exciteable again. 'Oh! Look at you!! Oh wow.... that's changed! But u're still the same!!' :)

She's still the same. She's streaked her hair, put on a bit of weight and lost it again, but she's still outrageous, still funny, still bubbly. She's still the same girl to me as when she had hair past her shoulders a couple of years back, and she was currently single then, as the rest of us still are :p and we were all crammed into a little white kancil, and she made a shocking statement about 'frozen hotdogs...'

She's still the same girl to me as when she was class monitor and holder of the sacred toilet key. She's still the same girl to me as when she'd burst into loud laughter in class and start shooting staples at poor innocent victims.

She's still the same 'gila' girl I know who had a heavy fringe across her forehead and sleek long black hair. And she's still the girl I remembered from primary school whose school T-shirt I borrowed once during sports day because something happened to mine.

She's still the same. And yet she's different. And so am I. She's gone through some stuff, I've gone through some stuff, and we're both older now. Hopefully, wiser and more mature, too.

But when we meet up, we shall regress back to childish behaviour and childhood :p Because sometimes there's happiness in memories, especially the ones seen through the slightly rosy-tinged portraits in sepia.

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