Confessions of a Mak Cik Blogger

What was life like before blogging? I think, it was much easier…you do simple things like peeling a plantain to fry for afternoon tea or take a walk in the park, without having to think that this is a possible entry for today’s blog. You plunge into your plate of mee goreng or attack the sambal ketam without having to take photographs first to grace your entry.

Children get most annoyed and frustrated with a mother lagging behind taking photographs of anything and everything. Most of all they are afraid that they will be the subject of the next entry. One sayang mama threw me dagger looks when some one he had never met before said to him, “So, you are Batman!”

It was the full moon just the other night and I immediately thought of a blogger friend who is moon-mad (lunar lunacy?) and instructed my son to take a shot of it. What for, he asked. Errr, for my album, I lied.

My email box is full of mails from friends I have never met than from friends I have known all my life. Have my friends all deserted me? No, they said. They read my blog to know what’s happening in my life.

Just a few days ago, my husband asked me whether the Sang Kelembai was male or female. And my immediate answer was, he is a male blogger, which sort of provoked laughter from all in the car. What the other half wanted to know was what sort of animal was a kelembai. Duh!!!!

This came right after a phone call I received from Malaysia. The person wanted to talk to Kak Teh and cheerfully, I answered yes, as I thought the caller must be a sibling or a cousin. But no, the caller was from a big corporation who wanted to invite me to a launch of something big in the city soon. At conferences and seminars, I am Kak Teh. And so I thought, whatever happened to my name, my real name. Does it not exist anymore?

The same happened when we went back to Malaysia, I was answering calls for Kak Teh, from the MB’s office, from some dato’s and even someone who prayed beside me in the Bangsar Village surau. I met someone at Tesco, someone who had just arrived from Malaysia and after the initial salam, he said, Are you Kak Teh? Yes, I said and to which he replied, Aaaah, so now I have met two people I wanted to meet when I come to London; Thaksin and Kak Teh. Thaksin he met somewhere in Oxford street, I think and Kak Teh in Tesco, Queensway.

When I started blogging about four years ago, I think, I did it because I was suffering from a severe bout of jetlag. And if I am brave enough to admit, I did it because I was at a crossroads in my life when I had stopped writing my column to start life as a student. As a student, I was struggling to write academic essays and not coping with it too well. I am much better writing trivial stuffs than expounding theories that I don’t even understand. And blogging saved my sanity.

With blogging I found a community of friends, faceless and nameless and soon became comfortable with a few likeminded ones, with the same wavelength and interests. I have met some of them and truly treasure their friendship and camaraderie. Trips back home now are never complete without the bloggers meet.

And now I remember my first Mak Cik Bloggers’ meet with fondness – we met and laughed and reminisced about our initial ‘meetings’ online.

Those days, I’d open the ‘window’ to find cyber friends already waiting. I used to grapple with online chats – not knowing who was saying what to whom. And once I got used to it, there went the food on the stove. On more than one occasion, something got burnt because I was checking the blog. Children had to make do with hastily put together dinner and cats had to wait.

Admissions about blogging while still in the telekung while waiting for the next prayer time were met with uneasy mumurs of the same nature. News about new and interesting blogs spread like wildfire in blogosphere. Who wrote what where. Updating became a hassle – what to blog next?

We rejoice and celebrate each others’ fine moments and commiserate and share the misfortune of others. I personally have learnt a lot from bloghopping; some inspiring experiences, some humbling ones and many precious tips from the kitchen to the garden.

Dialogues and conversations were memorised, precious moments, sad and funny were imbedded in the mind for future reference and loads of pictures taken.

But as the novelty dies down somewhat, I personally find that I have found a comfortable level of blogging that didn’t require me to check my comment box every few hours or think about updating too often, nor worry about who is reading it.

Lately, I am buoyed up by the discovery of some old friends and some new ones. Very interesting and very thought provoking, yet entertaining reads. With this I would like to officially welcome Puteri Kamaliah as a Mak Cik Blogger. Puteri and I worked for the same company some years ago and we never exchanged more than ten words, if I remember correctly. She came to London when I was back there and when I came here, she had gone back. I am so glad to have found her again in blogosphere and I would like to wish her and Pak ABu the very best on their Journey.

PS This poster by a blogger friend Adiejin depicting Mak Cik Bloggers never failed to cheer me up on the gloomiest day, such as today. He used to have us rolling on the floor clutching our stomach with his tales of Mak Cik Bloggers. Thanks Adiejin.





More on Mak Cik Bloggers and blogging:
Mak Cik Bloggers Boleh
Mak Cik Superblur at Work

pps. The 'I'm a Mak Cik Blogger' mousepad was made for me by my son, Taufiq. Any blogger who feels she is a Mak Cik Blogger, feel free to use it.
Kak Teh