This week and next...

Let's see what I can pack into one entry.

It has been a hectic week - a kind of pay back time for the week that I spent hibernating.

Last week saw me dragging myself to the city - not a place I would normally go but fellow blogger, author of legal thrillers, podaster, Yang-May Ooi was launching her new book that she co-wrote with Sylvia Cambiè. It is called International Communications Strategy. In a nutshell, it is about the emergence of the internet and everything that comes with it; blogging, Facebooking, Twittering, skyping, teleconferencing and many more online activities. And more importantly, it is about you and I - about how this new tool has empowered us as writers and readers, interacting with one another, crossing all kinds of boundaries - age, race, culture.

People turned writers overnight, writing about their life and along the way, they touched the lives of like minded people from all over the world. Who would think that my woes about my missing Tabby would get sympathy from people like mekyam in the US and Shahieda in Cape Town? And my rants about my culinary skills and the lack of it would get the attention of so many? People are interacting like never before and the interesting part is that, we don't care who they are, what their religious beliefs are, what age group they are in. We just share the same thing, And the internet afforded us this luxury.

What Yang-May and Cambiè also noted amongst other things was the effect on mainstream media. Journalists and journalism as we knew it changed dramatically. Then there's the emergence of citizen journalists. Ordinary people without any training in journalism or broadcasting suddenly found themselves reporting on events that touched their lives. Reporting on landslides, tragedies, the tsunami and many more have become more personalised and that made more interesting reading.

I often go to Lilian Chan's blog otherwise known as Obnoxious 5xmum - a blogger I met during my trip to Penang some time ago. This mother of five has become a citizen journalist, going out with her camera, interviewing politicians and giving us another side of stories that we read in the mainstream media.

It is such an exciting time, I think and Yang-May reckons it is going to be more exciting.
You can read it here.

Well, closer to the home front, I would like to report that I am now the proud owner of a brand new oven and hob and as a result the small kitchen of mine has never been a busier place.
Again, the internet plays an important role in this. I surfed the net for recipes and after a visit to several blogs, I attempted some biscuits for raya. Well, I need more practise. That's all I can say for now.

Sabira Sheik as Lady Swettenham
Last night, it was raining cats and dogs but nothing could stop me from going to Asia House to watch the very talented Sabira Shaik's portrayal of Lady Swettenham. For 55 minutes Sabira had us glued to our seats, taking us through a gamut of emotions; giggly light headed 19 year old bride to be exited about life in the east, frightened and dutiful wife of the colonial officer husband who frequently left her on her own, bitter and senile 80 year old spending her last few days in an asylum, where her dark secrets kept her company, haunting her to her death.

In between, the versatile Sabira cleverly transformed from brother Cecil to overbearing father to faithful 'boy' Kassim and society ladies at their soirees. All in all it was a very powerful performance - and a history lesson we never had. That 55 minutes from Sabira Shaik gave us a glimpse of the other side of Sir Frank Swettenham, the Resident General and later Governor of Singapore.

You can read about my take on this in the NST.

I walked back in the heavy rain to the station thinking how horrible it must be to have such bitter memories haunting you to the grave.

Well, nineteen years ago today, as I was sharing a bar of chocolate - Galaxy to be exact - with my husband, I suddenly felt the most excrutiating pain. I knew I was going to give birth but I told my husband that perhaps we could cancel everything and go home. But that was the gas talking - because I went ahead and had the most gorgeous sayang mama ever! Taufiq was brought into this world 19 years ago today and since then he has given me such joy in life as a son, a confidante and a friend. Luckly I didn't cancel this order!

Happy Birthday sayang mama! And enjoy your university days!

And next week? - well apart from Raya, there's the London Fashion Week! Aaaarghhhhh!

SELAMAT HARI RAYA - MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATIN!