Merdeka

Merdeka eve:
Drove into town to visit my aunt. Thought we might get stuck in the traffic jam but alhamdulillah, Jalan Tun Razak was absolutely clear! After the borak -borak session with her and exchanging our Ramadhan gifts, A and i finally left at about 10.30. Again the road was clear. I guess everyone was already at Dataran Merdeka or KLCC or Bukit Bintang or... mana mana lagi lah yang tengah dok berpesta. Girl and Abang were still up and asked us if they could have pizza while waiting for the fireworks (this is beginning to turn into a tradition since we did this for Merdeka last year and also while waiting for fireworks for New Years) But DP's toll free line was so busy, we were put on hold for about 5 minutes and still didn't get to speak to a human. In the end we decided to stop by the outlet in TTDI and ordered take out, which only took 15 minutes. Looking at the stack of pizzas waiting to be delivered, it's no wonder the delivery number was unreachable! At the stroke of midnight, Girl, Abang, A, Kak P( our helper) and mama stood outside in the driveway and enjoyed the fireworks from the Curve. This year there was no competition from 1U.

Merdeka morning:
Joined Chik and J in front of the tv. "Let's watch the Merdeka celebrations today okay?" "Huh? No cartoons ke today mama?" "Nope" hee hee hee. Managed to get them to watch for a while before the lure of the PS2 became irresistable.

I remember when mama was part of that throng, marching along and creating formations. When mama was in form 2 and form 3, we were part of that "largest ever marching band" show. We had to endure months of practice, first in school, and then in Wardieburn camp for the regional rehearsals and the final national rehearsals were in UM. The band girls at that time were so tanned and berbelang, we looked like zebras (this was in the era when we still wore short tunics and boots) It was loads of fun though. We got to travel out of school, stay in the nicest hostel in UM at the time (Zaaba college) and got to meet lots of people. Some of us even struck up some pen-pals along the way. : ) But it was also a lot of hard work. The marching seemed endless and a few kids fainted from the heat and exhaustion. At the end of the day though, it was one of those experiences you're glad you had. A chance to be part of a celebration for our country's independence. To this day, I still sing along to all the old songs, Berjaya, Barisan Kita...etc. The kids think mama's nuts!

I hope that the precious 4 will get to live in a country that is forever free, in every sense of the word, and that Allah blesses this beautiful country of ours always.

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!