Weekenders

      It's that time of the year again where this post is solely written for the purpose of my documentation. If you stumble upon this and still interested in knowing, read on. No one is stopping you.

      I got a text last week from my beloved brother; Abang Zakry Latif the badminton player. I know there's an awful lot of you do not know who is he. He was once a pretty big name in the badminton arena when he and his partner, Fairuzizuan Tazari for mens' double won a back to back super series in Indonesia and followed by Singapore in 2008; when I was 15 years old. They were known as Fuzzy afterwards. Malaysians were very very happy and they gained quite a number of fans...including yours truly.

      Then there came the opportunity to meet up with them up close and personal. I grabbed it. The opportunity was to be a ticket vendor at a national's badminton tournament, Badminton Johor Open Championship on November 2008 which was for our national players to compete mewakili their negeri. The story of how I met them can be read here (click for link).

      As years passed, I kept on supporting them and gave him encouragements through texts although the year when I was in Kuantan, or maybe it was in my SPM year, I lost his number 'cos of the handphone-plop-in-jamban thingy. And a year after that as I wished his birthday, he still remembers me. How sweet is that? Thanks Abang Zakk. I was touched and still am.

      The text that I received on 07/11/2012, 02.29pm from Abang Zakk went like this...

Walimatul urus...di jemput tuan/puan datang ke majlis perkahwinan saya (zakry) pada 17 november 2012 di Dewan Majlis Perbandaran Seremban. Bermula jam 11am hingga 4pm. Diharap kehadiran tuan/puan dapat menyerikan lagi majlis saya. Terima kasih..

      When I received the text I forward it to papa and before I gave papa the chance to reply, I called papa with bubbles of happiness and kept on repeating "pa, jom p! paaa, jom pergi! taw. taw. tawww.". I know, childish. Ahh, as if I care, ngehehehe. 

      The day came, last two days, I went to Seremban with mama, angah and akak...sadly, without papa. Papa got to attend another two weddings in JB. I was sad but hey, at least yang lain ada and I got to go! We came into the dewan with an awe since the pelamin is quite awesome and all. Lupa nak ambil gambar pelamin.

      I went straight to Abang Zakk and Kak Arda (the bride) with my family behind me, as we were about to take photo I asked him, "abang ingat tak siapa ni?". I shouldn't put him on the spot like that, I know that since I have a flaw in remembering people's name but then I just couldn't help myself. But all those guiltiness that swept upon me was once again swept away as immediately as he answered "Kenal... Nadilah." with confidence and a smile. 

      Again, I was touched...still am since he still remembers my name after all these years; 4 years to be exact. Then all of us took a picture together to capture the moment. We serbu the buffet after that to isi perut. The food served was as usual ayam masak merah which was very tasty as it was crunchy, sweet and pedas as well. The one thing that made all of us drool until now was the daging and cendawan hitam masak lemak cili api (a seremban-ians' staple kot). I FORGOT TO TOOK PHOTOS OF IT ALL...again! SINCE I WAS TOO EXCITED. Dang! Sampai sekarang menyesal. Pfft.

      Before we made our way home, I went to Abang Zakk and sampaikan salam papa and once again he amazed me when he told his bride, Kak Arda, "dia datang dari Johor Bahru tauuu." and Kak Arda macam oh, wow. Yet again, he remembers. Then he said "dik, take care tau.". I will dear brother. I will, insyaAllah.

      May Allah bless you, your bride, Kak Arda and your future offsprings, Abang Zakk. May you be the best husband and daddy that bentuk our next generation with tender loving care and implementing Islam's teaching in each and everyone of them. And may your future in badminton lebih cemerlang dari sebelumnya, aminnn ya robb! I'm gonna be the supporter of you and Abang Fairuzizuan till the end! Jia You!

US

4 years ago. Any difference?

p/s: let's take a couple of minutes to doakan kesejahteraan sahabat kita di Gaza. may Allah give them the strength untuk bertahan hingga ke titisan darah yang terakhir.