Facebook-ing

"Based on a popular social networking site, the term "facebooking" has emerged as a verb to describe the activity of logging in to Facebook in order to create a profile, share personal information, and meet other members...." -- netlingo (www.netling.com)

I would simply call it as an 'addiction'.

It began during last semester break, after the exams were over. Naturally, a couple of my friends and I had made plans to celebrate our so called 'freedom' and would reward ourselves by going for a mini-break to Kuala Selangor to see the "kelip-kelip". Unfortunately, due to some 'oversight' on the finances department, our planned trip to the homestay did not materialize. We all ended up 'staying at home' instead, confining ourselves to our own rooftops, forcing ourselves to discover our creative sides and fulfilling our time with activities which preferably, does not include much spending.

I took this opportunity to check on my long, and much neglected personal email account. You know what they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder. In my case, my heart skipped a beat when I saw the number of unread emails that I had only to realise after that most of them were only spam mails (and there I was thinking that it could be mails from my fan club, sigh...). As I did some maintenance work cleaning up the account, I found a few invitations from friends to join Facebook (hereafter known as "FB"), all dating back as late as October 2007. I have heard of this new phenomenon, from other friends and advertisements on the television, but I have yet to try it out for myself. Looking at that moment, as I had some time on my hands, feet and brain capacity to use, I told myself then, "Sure, why not?".

And I have been hooked eversince.

I find myself going crazy over the many applications that FB offers. There are quizzes to take (most of them are more ridiculous then another, but still fun to take though), games to play and you can even listen to music online. There is even a application called Flog Blog that links FB to your existing blog so that everyone in your list is notified whenever your blog is updated. Also, one could send pets, plants, beautiful roses, teddy bears, starbucks coffee, donuts, chocolates and ice-creams, birthday cakes, versace goods, coach handbags, even sexy 'dudes' as gifts to their friends and it is all for FREE!! WooHHooo!! I like, definitely!!!

Look, you can call me a cheapskate if you want, but hey, it is the thought that matters, right? ;)

However my most favourite activity is re-discovering "old" friends. Former work colleagues, my housemates during my overseas days, friends from uni, college, high school, tuition, the "mafia square" pasar malam gangs and even the "play-badminton-at-gina's-house-to-see- abang-uitm" gangs. And through the "6 degrees of separation" theory, I even found my old primary school girlfriends whom I last saw them 17 years ago. To my pleasure, they all remembered me still. Well, actually most of them remembered me as "Siti" the girl who liked to draw a lot, but who cares? All that matters is that they remember and that they did not mistaken me for a crazy nutcase who wants to add every tom, dick and harry as their friends in FB!!!

Seeing all of them here, makes me proud to know that I have had the pleasure of being in their company once upon a time. To see all of us grown up and have been successful in many ways in our life made me realize just how far I have come from whenst I came. The journeys I made. The people I have met. The good times. The bad times. The memories.

I say, Kudos FB!!! Without it, I may never have found all of them again.

The girls from both primary and secondary school are planning for a re-union. I do think that I may have to re-look at my diet plan again. Thank god Ramadhan is coming. Need some 'trimming' here and there, if you know what I mean ;).

The Reunion

Hubby has been away to the eastern cost for almost 2 weeks now in the name of work & professionalism and also to the possibility of a promotion (Yiippeeee!!). During his absence I have been keeping myself busy ( frankly I could not sleep at night without my other half with me. So the plan is to exhaust myself tremendously until I drop dead rather then forcing oneself to get a decent shuteye when all other attempts failed). A friend of mine is back from 'London-bridge-is-falling-down" for 6 weeks to attend to her wedding preparations. Coincidentally, I have just moved back to my hometown and currently on semester break. As fate seems to be on our side, the girls and I decided to get together to catch up on current breaking news, updates and hot gossips on who's doing what around the neighbourhood.

The initial idea was that for everyone to meet up at Starbucks at 9:30 pm. Somehow, along the way there was a change of plan and I ended up picking up everyone in my car instead ( thank god we live nearby each other). Gina (short-message-service provider), Dianne ( Lady D )and myself got there first and made ourselves comfortable. We shared drinks and a slice of blueberry cheesecake while waiting for Cynthia ( Digi - I-will-follow-u-yellow-toyol) to arrive. We interrogated Dianne on her new man and husband-to-be and of her wedding preparations. I was so happy to see Dianne talking to us about her love life and to see that sparkle in her eyes with the look of utter happiness and bliss. It was just wonderful to see her this way. To see all of us - together after all this while - just enjoying each other's company. A girl's night out.

After a while, we received a lovely surprise when my aunt, alang and her inseparable husband, paklang, who dropped by to get a frapp for themselves. This is what happens when you live close to your family. Sooner or later you are bound to cross paths and bump into each other. (Although I suspected alang just wanted to check on my whereabouts while her Friday Boy is away from home just to make sure I am not gallivanting all over the place with a good looking 6 feet something tall, tanned bloke and looked just like Clive Owen draped all over me ..WooHHOooo !! :) ). The girls and I are very close so much so that we knew each other's family right down to their aunts, cousins and etc. So it was sort of a wonderful mini reunion when we all met up. To alang's delightful surprise, we all apparently grew up, managed to get out of those bloody hideous school uniforms and survived to tell the world our story.

Wondering how we got close to each other? Let's see now.

Cynthia, Gina and myself were classmates in high school. Dianne was in the next class. I knew Gina way back when I was in primary when we attended the same tuition class in section 10. Cynthia and Dianne were from the same primary school. Dianne's mother and mine are friends and used to attend the same religious classes and high teas/functions together. We all attended to same tuition class for accounts at Cikgu Tengku's. We used to ride the bus back home together and since we resided along the same bus route, Gina usually goes down first at her stop, followed by Dianne and myself next and lastly Cynthia. We used to do study group and play badminton at Gina's house. Also since the pasar malam (night market) is near Gina's house, naturally her crib would be a one stop center for all of us to hang out(although frankly speaking, the main reason why its always Gina's place and not any of ours is because there were a group of young men ( Uni boys ) renting the house next to Gina's. I can't very well remember whether they were good looking blokes or not but since we were young high school girls back then , I guess you can say we were all teenagers with raging hormones and anyone that is male, older and drives a satria is basically a heartthrob!! :) ) .

That night we talked for hours. We talked about everything that we could just think of. Friends. Classmates. Gossips. Family. Work. Future. We were one of the last customers to leave Starbucks. Even when they were already switching off the lights and arranging the seats, we were still sitting there, our butts glued to our seats , talking and talking and talking - trying to get as much information off each other as we could. Finally it was time to go. On my drive back, after sending the girls back to their homes, I mused to myself.

Amongst us, only Dianne and myself left our hometown. Dianne pursued her studies in London and eventually built a career for herself there. Myself, left after tying the knot and have since been to few places due to work commitments. Cynthia has always been here and Gina returned home after completing her studies. We have all been buzy with our lives, doing our thing, achieving our goals. But it seems that now, at the the end of the day, we are all back here again. Back to our hometown.Back to our roots.

Back to where it all began. Sixteen years ago. Plus minus here and there, of course. (Calcalus has never been one of my strong subjects) ;P.

p/s: More pics can be viewed at my fotopages.