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"Thirty five is when you finally get your head together

and your body starts falling apart" - Anonymous

It's my birthday today.

Someone wise once asked, "What right do you have to celebrate your birthday?"

Well, I don't know.

But I do know that birthdays could be a good time to reflect and to grow...

It goes without saying that as we grow older, and hopefully wiser, we view things, people, happenings, the world, differently.

We've gone through a lot more than we used to when we were younger, and that in turn enable us to reflect on how little we actually know after all.

We move a step closer towards death, and we would remember those selected ones - who were born in the same year we were born - but had gone to meet The Creator earlier than us.

But we can't despair for we also need to remain energetic, zesty, full of life so that we can keep on playing our role, commit and give back - to our family, loved ones, friends, community, religion and all.

So, it is my hope and my do'a that while I'll grow wiser and act so , 

I'll also remain 'young' enough to keep living, loving, learning and giving, insya Allah.

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Undated picture, probably taken when I was 7.

With Ayah Tam, Tok Ayah, Pak Su, Ayah woohoo - rambut afro ala Alleycat, Tok,

my cousin Syahril, Adik & I

Yeah, yeah, now it's obvious whose mischievious grin Ujai takes after..

Standard 6, with Kelas Agama classmates 

(two classes were combined, the non-Muslims for Kelas Moral and Muslims for Kelas Agama)

I was in the same class with Wan Azlan Abdullah - a good swimmer and a minor celebrity of sort in school who would grow up to swim for Malaysia in 2 Olympics - Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000

 

Eidul Fitri 1988 - in Kelang Lama, Kulim with Tok, Tok Ayah,

Ayah Jang's family, Ayah Tam's family, Teh and Pak Su.

Eidul Fitri 1989 - in Parit Semerah, Pontian with Mak Tua, Mak Long, Pakcik Me'at, Mak's cousins and Kak Ina - the longest serving 'kakak pengasuh' we ever had.

SRP 1990 candidates - right after we were done with the exam. For the record, yellow baju & white kain was the uniform for KPs(prefects) while light blue baju & white kain the uniform for Resource Center-related  committee members

Eidul Fitri 1991 - with Tok, Tok Ayah, Nyah, Teh, Chik and more cousins since Teh and Chik had gotten married while Ayah Lang had remarried in the previous year. I got 4 new cousins in 1991 alone, 2 of them girls. finally Firdhaus and I had new female cousins - yeay!

English class classmates 1992 (during English and Arabic, the classes were divided into "Set"s)

As it happened, many from our class furthered our studies abroad - if I'm not mistaken,7 of us did our 1st degree in UK, 3 in the US, 1 in Canada, 1 in Jordan and 1 in Egypt.

Heh - who says budak sekolah agama usually fly to Middle East je?    

In the exam hall - SPM 1992

5 Biru 1992 - During those years, it was almost a tradition for Kelas Biru to be the naughtiest in the school.

I must admit that while we were no angels, we were not that naughty, but maybe we were, if measured by a 'sekolah agama' standard...

Poor Ira and Ara - being prefects on good terms with their 'naughty' classmates, they were usually given the task of 'jaga gate' when spot-checks were on. But of course, we the naughty ones were quite good in hiding our 'prohibited' walkmans, romance story books, cassettes, posters and usually got away with it, hehehe.