2012 - The Memoir of the first four months in the life of a novelist in solitude

Saje je bagi ayat poyo nak mamp.

I should be writing something, should I?
Something about 2012 closing its curtain and all that jazz.

So okay. Let's do this shit.

January 2012 - "The Beginning of an Era"

Started the year with a fizz, not with a bang. Because I was already 28 goin on 29 at the time, any attempt to be pretentiously cheerful and motivated will just be the act of... denial? pretension? desperation?... maybe all but none of the above. But I started 2012 with Karnival Karangkraf, which I guess, MAY be the only interesting thing in January because my journal said nothing about anything else except the word "27 Jan - Karnival Karangkraf".

I was not there as adult writer... (sounds as if I wrote porn), but as a member of the MCK group. I think the whole thing was a bit blur to me. Firstly, I didn't wear the official colour. Secondly, I spent quite a lot of time gossiping with Kak Sha (Shahriah Abdullah), whom I have not seen since 2010 and her involvement in "Masterchef'".

But our booth is extra pretty and I love all the details of the characters from the projects that was illustrated as the wallpaper (as you can see behind us in the pic).

February 2012 - "The Vacation"

Vacay at Grand Lexis, PD. Usually extremely expensive, but was on hot deal at the time, so Dinie suggested that we took it. Was the best decision ever. You can see the water and fishes swimming from the glass floor (okay,not whole floor, just a segment of the floor), your own private pool and all that. We ended up didn't go anywhere (except dinner at a seafood restaurant) and spent the whole vacay in the pool. I mean, the sea was not at its best, anyway. 

I kinda miss this kind of impromptu vacay. Afterwards, the year has been filled with lots of weddings and wedding preparations (not mine though). Have to do it again next year (not the wedding, the vacay!).  

Other than the vacay, we spent most of February in our lawyer's office, having heart attack over claims and counterclaims. Want a real adrenaline rush? Don't try bungee jumping. Try suing!

March 2012 - "The Engagement and the Loss"

March was a week of everything and nothing. I had a booksigning at UMW, Shah Alam with Kak Kamsiah Abu and Damya Hanna. Nobody actually approached us. Not even for Damya Hanna. It made us question the reason we were there and ended up chatting among ourselves in the end. Ahahaha. My cousin Dila got engaged to her beau, Khairi in an engagement event that was held at granma's house in Sri Menanti. It was me, her and Ikah to deal with all the work, since my sister was doing umrah at the time. But that was a few weeks after Tim's engagement.

Now, Tim's engagement to Ustaz Adnan was a quick one. They met each other around November/December, decided to get engaged in March and married in May. Why the rush, you asked? Heck, at 29, that is not a rush at all.

That month, I also had a lepak-activity with Zara Amani and Liza Nur at Liza's house in Ampang. In just two days, we planned a new novel, slept through the afternoon, had a karaoke in Semenyih, watched skydiving at Dataran Merdeka, and entah mana tah lagi.

Phibun in his heydays

But it was also a sad day for me, mainly because it was the same day I lost Phibun, my snowshoe buddy since 2008. Phibun was diagnosed with jaundice and there was nothing that we could do because it was already too late. I just regret the fact that I was not there to say goodbye.

To tell you the truth, I have not been browsing Phibun's pictures in ages, since it kinda makes me sad. I think that is why, Allah has been very kind to me when He gave us Koyon two months later - a personification of Phibun in various ways. Albeit weirder. I mean, the cat suddenly came to our house and made it his own dengan muka tak malunya.

Koyon, the stupider, sillier version of Phibun

April 2012 - "Being 29"

My birthday. And KL International Book Festival on the same day. I went to KLIBF four times, buying nothing. I don't like buying books at KLIBF. The queues are too long. I consider the extra I have to pay for the books at the store to be the amount of patience I have none, to be waiting in line.

Met a lot of readers, including Hana and Maryam (who wrote the first review for VN last year), Mia Kaftiya, also Moon Leya Zafrina, who will be making her debut early next year.

I was there again as one of MCK members instead of my individual books. I mean, the last book I wrote was Valentina Nervosa and that was in 2011. I wrote a lot of things in 2011 that I already planned for a break in 2012, but somehow none of them made it for 2012 publishing, and delayed to 2013. So, I guess we'll see about 2013, aye?

Then my besties for life, Nad and Mun decided to throw me a birthday celebration, which consists of lunch at San Francisco (the restaurant, not the city/county with the bridge on its merchandise), a plate of my favourite choc volcano cake (has ceased to be my favourite since its effect on my weight) and three different types of Secret Recipe cheesecakes. Nad also gave me a khat illustration thingy and a new tudung from Baheera.

I guess, being 29 has no definite meaning in my life. I have long stopped counting my age (I stopped at 23 and couldn't care less about it, until people kept asking me "What do you feel now that you're 29?".... "Err... like how I normally feel? Or should I start panicking about life in as dramatic way as possible?"

I mean, I consider myself blessed. I have great friends (I mean, we have been extremely destroyed by our business together, and yet Alhamdulillah, we're still together), I have a great family, I am already doing my dream job, I escaped bad relationships, I have my readers and I have never regret ever resigned from my permanent job. At 29, I already half way through my dreams. It's easy for us to overlook all the nikmat and talk about the things we have yet to achieve, but if you look back, everything was meant to be and I would not want my 29 to be anything less.

Except for the court case, I guess.

To be continued....