It's a new year. It's 2011...

My countdown was well, absent. I wanted it to be special, or at least different. And I got what I wished for, I guess.

Mom told me that she wanted me to spend a day out with her, and sleep over at her old friend's place. I agreed but I didn't know she wanted to do that on New Year's eve. Well, the morning started out a bit bad. She was moody and I was sensitive. We went to the market, got some food and ate breakfast. Sent Jane home to the kampung and there was a bit of argument going on. But after we dropped Jane, I guess we both tried to be a bit nicer to each other. We visited Nirvana to check out the place, went driving at Serikin and visited Kpg. Stass as well. Kpg. Stass is apparently the place that my maternal grandparents met for the first time. Mom and I expected at least a row of shops, but we found.. erm, nothing. Just houses and a church and lots of land. It was a nice visit though as mom has heard so much about this village but never seen it in person. We would never know now, though, how her parents actually met in such a small village. I mean, where in the world did they meet for the arranged marriage kind of
thing?? Mind boggling. After that, we went to Bau for lunch. Had a nice curry chicken and meatball-tofu soup lunch. Dropped by Tasik Biru and took some pictures and drove from Bau, passing Singai to Matang. Picked mom's friend up and visited Fiona and her mom at their place at Sinar Serapi. Was good catching up. Fiona's expecting her 2nd baby now and Hanna, her eldest is turning 3 soon. Time flies but the feelings remain. I guess these words are best to reflect the situation of the day. Around evening, mom, her friend and I drove to Kpg. Gersik, across river from Kuching's riverside to have dinner. We also got some kek lapis :). I was dead tired by then, having driven for so many hours and to so many places out of Kuching but on the way back, I stupidly commented that E-mart, this local big mart at Matang, was so big! So they kinda coerced me to give E-mart a visit, which I did, half asleep. By the time we reached mom's friend's place, I could only manage a bath, a drink of juice she made for us, and bed.

After some calls I made, I fell asleep, only to be awoken by Glo 7 minutes past midnight, to wish me a happy new year.

For once, after almost 20 years of my life, I slept past countdown. Even my post surgery condition did not stop me from going out during the last new year's countdown. But I did miss it, this year.

But in the morning, when I saw how happy mom and her friend were, having chatted till almost 3 in the morning, catching up, I just knew I did the right thing. After all, how often can I make mom happy?

We had noodles at the infamous noodle shop near Bishop's gate in Kuching's 'chinatown'. I told mom that the love the crowd had for the noodle was definitely more than the fear they had for the noodle maker. Apparently the dude who sells the noodles is a really fearsome guy. If you do not play by the protocol of the shop, although a customer, he'd yell at you!!! We had a good chat with Mr and Mrs Lai who coincidentally sat with us, and later paid for our noodles! Wow, my very first New Year's gift!!! :)

And so that's my new year's story. What's yours?