Monday, March 17, 2008

Is this Salvation?

While many were attending Sunburst, I was busy adjusting to my new home and a new culture.

On my second day here, I learned that mee goreng basah is actually mee ladna and mee goreng mamak is actually mee goreng basah.


Apparently owning four cars is normal here. They have huge houses with huge driveways that could fit at least eight cars. On the way to my house for the first time, I thought we were driving into a road when it hit me: we were driving into our driveway.


My first impression as I stepped into the house was, ‘This house sure has a lot of flowers in it.’


Exhibit A- The sight that greeted me at the door:




Exhibit B- On the other side pula:


Exhibit C- Situated in the living room:





Exhibit D- beside the dining room:



My thoughts as I was eating in the dining room were, ‘This dining room is as big as my whole apartment dulu. And to think that was a kitchenette, toilet, shower and a bedroom in that apartment.’


I still feel like a guest in this house. Maybe in time it’ll start to feel like home. My room has pink walls. Curtains with flowers. Blue, pink and magenta sheets with huge, bold prints. It’s hard to be sad when you wake up in that kind of environment.




I would have been extremely bored if it had not been for this kitten and his siblings.


This house feels as if it is was ran by a Stepford wife. Everyone here smiles a lot. There is something different in the air here. In the three days I’ve been here I haven’t felt angry, sad or depressed even once. I don’t understand what the people here are saying when they are talking to me but it doesn’t really bother me. It doesn’t seem to bother them.


I’m having a hard time adjusting to the fact I don’t have to cook at all. It used to be cook or buy something or you’ll starve. On my first day, the lack of chores to do made me restless. I asked my Mom for meat to dice and prawns so that I could remove the shells.


That night I greedily hentam udang sambal tumis with jantung pisang that I didn’t cook myself. I could get used to this, I thought happily.


That same night I told a friend, “I think I’m permanently damaged. I just ate meal that my Mom cooked and I felt guilty. In fact this whole place makes me feel guilty. It makes me all sorts of happy. I don’t deserve this. I’m like the pauper who suddenly found himself in the castle.”


And like all good friends do, she told me I wasn’t damaged.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

not damaged lah... just pampered. :P i'm surprised by your reaction towards the house though. isn't it your (parents') home? 0_0 or are you in a totally different country or summat?

wow listen to me. next i'll start bouncing on the back seat going "ARE WE THERE YET?"

magenta said...

Haha..this entry is a bit hard to understand because it's a sequel to my post Salvation in Jan. 'Damaged' referring to an incident that happened to me back then and my situation for the past few years.

I just feel a bit overwhelmed when good things happen to me now. Blame the 2 years of bad luck I had.

Yupe, my parents live here but I haven't been home that often in the past 4 years. In that time my parents moved to a different country so this is my first time here in the house.

Anonymous said...

mee goreng mamak tu mee goreng basah? mee goreng basah is mee ladna?

??

magenta said...

anonymous: haha mapley brunei. or maybe just that one.

Anonymous said...

Ohhh... Heh, now I malu for misunderstanding. *hides face*

...and I was about to ask you if you're in Brunei when I saw your LABELS. Alahai why am I so slow.

But hey, you know what they say? Once you hit rock bottom, there's no other way but up. :) Maybe this is your time. Even though the thought of being around a Stepford wife creeps me out a little. :P

magenta said...

Haha I would hardly call you slow chen. Even some of my closest friends have no idea what the hell happened to me or where I am.

There's no Stepford wife around but there's that Stepford-y aura which creeps me out too. Other than that, it's a nice place to be at. :)

Anonymous said...

wow..that's really a lot of flowers. did someone get married? hehe. i never have that much of flowers in a room..maybe if i wake up there one morning,i would immediately think 'am i in a hotel?'..or 'in hospital'.

magenta said...

married?haha no lah. if you had that much flowers in a room nanti ppl will call u metro..hehe.