Two Saturdays ago, was my first night without Nunu by my side. It's about time really, I keep hearing people say in utter disbelief, "You've never spent the night without your baby before? How absurd!"
What can I say, it's an unthinkable thing to do (though I've thought about doing it for so long :D)
OK, It crossed my mind before, but I never go ahead with the idea since she's still being breastfed to sleep, and I didn't think she could last for a night without her comforting binkies (binkys?). I have no solid reason to have her away from me anyway.
So, the invitation to the ADWAVE dinner was a good enough reason, and I think I deserved the treat of a night out & a hotel dinner (which is not necessarily great anyway, that's another story). Made arrangements with the nanny, who didn't mind taking care of Nunu for the night. The neighbours' kids were ecstatic, coz they could play with Nunu a while longer. She's Block E Miss Popularity, heheh.
I successfully talked Martian into driving me to Penang, but I didn't manage to get him to stay for the dinner. He wanted to have nasi kandar instead (sheeeesh!) and see if there was any 'ceramah politik' going on that night that he can attend.
A good friend bailed on me, citing exhaustion during the day's ADWAVE exhibition as an excuse. So I was pretty alone that night. No other seniors from ADWAVE 2002 were coming. Which is a blessing, because I was upgraded to the VIP table! Well, I couldn't stay in an empty table all by myself, right? I was chatting with my lecturers in the VIP section when they simply invited me over to join them. Sat next to Abang Razak, who is such a dear to personally call me up and invited me to the dinner, and a lecturer whom I harbour such a dreaded feeling when I was her student.
Now, don't get me wrong, I loved ALL my faculty lecturers. Frankly, I think they are the best and I rarely miss a class (hey, I still remember those 'hegemony', 'discourse' and 'ideology' topics!). But dear Dr. Hamima Dona, meek students like myself would rather stay out of her way and not cross her path lest you displease her in any possible way and risk getting brushed down. I admit, I tremble at her presence, because she made me cry once (story upon request). Haha, I make her sound like Prof. Snape, right?
How pleasantly surprised I was to find her a different person altogether, inhibitions aside, hers and my own. Fun and funny, cracking jokes through out the dinner. Even though some of her comments were made in her stern and formidable 'standard Dr. Hamima character', I still found her hilarious.
Like, once when I was confused at which ADWAVE year I was in (people all around me kept shooting questions OK, gimme time! I'm not used to having so much adult conversation happening all at once!) and told them sheepishly that I have a problem recalling dates and years, and names and faces - generally a memory problem, Dr. looked me in the eye & asked me in the most serious tone, "Eh, really? You must do something about it. Get your head checked. I know, I know the feeling, I can get worse you know. It could be serious. Eh, hangpa semua tak payah tanya dialah, dia apa pun tak tau!"
Okaaaaaaay, confirm kena chop 'minah blur' kat forehead!
And when Yasmin Ahmad made her entrance, she made her admiration for the film maker quite obvious too. She went up to Yasmin for a while, and when she came back with Yasmin's name card, she said, "Bukan senang nak dapat ni tau. I habaq kat dia, next time kalau ada movie role orang tua nyanyok ka, bagi la kat I."
And I was quite surprised too that all of my lecturers at the table were rib-ticklers. Here we were, a motley crew of nine not-so-VIP-looking VIPs, shooting brickbats in jest and making enough chatter and noise to earn wary looks from the busboys :D
Also, I shall remember the lovely time I had that night for these people - Dr. Adnan, our dean who joked about his inclination to be attentive to cute girls (read: casanova!), and his wife Puan Kamaliah, who feigned defeat at his 'womanising' ways but still came up with one-liners that sent us all clutching our sides.
Special thanks to Dr. Hasrina and her husband, who provided us with tips for a happy marriage, if you have a weekend spouse, that is :D - and Helmi and Yanti, the RTM newspeople and ADWAVEian 2001 who gave us an inside story of newsroom gossips but suffered the most ribbings that night.
standing: Helmi, Dr. Adnan, A.Razak, Dr. Hasrina's hubby, Dr. Hasrina, hantu lilin 2 orang kat belakang tu tak kenal :D
seated: Yanti, Pn Kamaliah, Yasmin, Dr. Hamima
I have no regrets whatsoever for being upgraded to the VIP seat, even though I had puny little ala carte portions of our meals on tiny little plates, and got to eat less shrimps and mushrooms while I eyed enviously at those less-important tables, but overflowing with leftovers because the exhausted ADWAVE students were too preoccupied with posing in front cameras.
Got home around 1 am and missed Nunu terribly. But I had a solid 8 hour sleep for the first time in 16 months that night.
And according to her Nanny, she slept through the night too :)
What can I say, it's an unthinkable thing to do (though I've thought about doing it for so long :D)
OK, It crossed my mind before, but I never go ahead with the idea since she's still being breastfed to sleep, and I didn't think she could last for a night without her comforting binkies (binkys?). I have no solid reason to have her away from me anyway.
So, the invitation to the ADWAVE dinner was a good enough reason, and I think I deserved the treat of a night out & a hotel dinner (which is not necessarily great anyway, that's another story). Made arrangements with the nanny, who didn't mind taking care of Nunu for the night. The neighbours' kids were ecstatic, coz they could play with Nunu a while longer. She's Block E Miss Popularity, heheh.
I successfully talked Martian into driving me to Penang, but I didn't manage to get him to stay for the dinner. He wanted to have nasi kandar instead (sheeeesh!) and see if there was any 'ceramah politik' going on that night that he can attend.
A good friend bailed on me, citing exhaustion during the day's ADWAVE exhibition as an excuse. So I was pretty alone that night. No other seniors from ADWAVE 2002 were coming. Which is a blessing, because I was upgraded to the VIP table! Well, I couldn't stay in an empty table all by myself, right? I was chatting with my lecturers in the VIP section when they simply invited me over to join them. Sat next to Abang Razak, who is such a dear to personally call me up and invited me to the dinner, and a lecturer whom I harbour such a dreaded feeling when I was her student.
Now, don't get me wrong, I loved ALL my faculty lecturers. Frankly, I think they are the best and I rarely miss a class (hey, I still remember those 'hegemony', 'discourse' and 'ideology' topics!). But dear Dr. Hamima Dona, meek students like myself would rather stay out of her way and not cross her path lest you displease her in any possible way and risk getting brushed down. I admit, I tremble at her presence, because she made me cry once (story upon request). Haha, I make her sound like Prof. Snape, right?
How pleasantly surprised I was to find her a different person altogether, inhibitions aside, hers and my own. Fun and funny, cracking jokes through out the dinner. Even though some of her comments were made in her stern and formidable 'standard Dr. Hamima character', I still found her hilarious.
Like, once when I was confused at which ADWAVE year I was in (people all around me kept shooting questions OK, gimme time! I'm not used to having so much adult conversation happening all at once!) and told them sheepishly that I have a problem recalling dates and years, and names and faces - generally a memory problem, Dr. looked me in the eye & asked me in the most serious tone, "Eh, really? You must do something about it. Get your head checked. I know, I know the feeling, I can get worse you know. It could be serious. Eh, hangpa semua tak payah tanya dialah, dia apa pun tak tau!"
Okaaaaaaay, confirm kena chop 'minah blur' kat forehead!
And when Yasmin Ahmad made her entrance, she made her admiration for the film maker quite obvious too. She went up to Yasmin for a while, and when she came back with Yasmin's name card, she said, "Bukan senang nak dapat ni tau. I habaq kat dia, next time kalau ada movie role orang tua nyanyok ka, bagi la kat I."
And I was quite surprised too that all of my lecturers at the table were rib-ticklers. Here we were, a motley crew of nine not-so-VIP-looking VIPs, shooting brickbats in jest and making enough chatter and noise to earn wary looks from the busboys :D
Also, I shall remember the lovely time I had that night for these people - Dr. Adnan, our dean who joked about his inclination to be attentive to cute girls (read: casanova!), and his wife Puan Kamaliah, who feigned defeat at his 'womanising' ways but still came up with one-liners that sent us all clutching our sides.
Special thanks to Dr. Hasrina and her husband, who provided us with tips for a happy marriage, if you have a weekend spouse, that is :D - and Helmi and Yanti, the RTM newspeople and ADWAVEian 2001 who gave us an inside story of newsroom gossips but suffered the most ribbings that night.
standing: Helmi, Dr. Adnan, A.Razak, Dr. Hasrina's hubby, Dr. Hasrina, hantu lilin 2 orang kat belakang tu tak kenal :D
seated: Yanti, Pn Kamaliah, Yasmin, Dr. Hamima
I have no regrets whatsoever for being upgraded to the VIP seat, even though I had puny little ala carte portions of our meals on tiny little plates, and got to eat less shrimps and mushrooms while I eyed enviously at those less-important tables, but overflowing with leftovers because the exhausted ADWAVE students were too preoccupied with posing in front cameras.
Got home around 1 am and missed Nunu terribly. But I had a solid 8 hour sleep for the first time in 16 months that night.
And according to her Nanny, she slept through the night too :)
7 comments:
Could this be the start of more regular outings without Nunu, I wonder?
Once a month pon jadi lah .... you and Martian deserve the break.
moby, us too. i dare say min and i almost never went out alone without the children.
i bet it's gonna be a habit once we go back for good. tok nenek jadi mangsa la nampaknya...
heh, same lah, simply dun hv the heart to leave the lil one overnight... but u made it! hurrah! and looks like she can do without 'tehteh' at nites too, see? ;)
yasmin A is so down-to-earth eh! saw her in person when she launched gubra at a drive-in screening once. can't wait for her nx film to come out! (eh, is it out yet? mukhsin right?)
moby, maybe, maybe not. I need a better reason that just going out on dates with martian.
mamasarah, it's inevitable. our children are stuck with us forevah! lol
hana, pikir mmg x sampai hati. Itu pun 10 kali call nanny!
yasmin is soooooooo nice kan? humble jer, senyum jer kat I yg scrambling to make a decent sentence :D
yay! you (and nunu) survived! the first time is always the hardest - to leave the babe behind. but once you get the hang of it, it's addictive :) time to rediscover yourself (and the martian) beb!
p/s: "He wanted to have nasi kandar instead (sheeeesh!)" this sounds like something MY husband would prefer too LOL!
beb! what's this about mesia bloggers having to register to blog????
sorry terkeluar ring sket. almost choked on my big breakfast when i heard it on our local radio.
we almost stopped by to pick her up at the nanny's that nite :) tak tahan rindu liao.
pinky, the ring is available *dingdingding!*
Post a Comment