Privacy

Warning: This post does not contain any pics - both cute nor uncute. And there is absolutely zero-nudity and profanity. Proceed with caffeine if necessary.

Someone asked me what I did for the weekend. And couldn't believe it when I said that I didn't take a single photo of the wonderfully relaxing time I had with my friend and her family. Haha, I must have given you all the impression that I am that trigger happy, eh?

Sometimes, there is no need to take photos of someone or something that is already imprinted in your heart. Someone that you can easily picture or imagine because the person is already so much part of your life. Sometimes, the experience is so precious that to display it in a two-dimensional way would cheapen it somehow. Some experiences are meant to be savoured in privacy and just between close-knitted pals.

Those of you who know me, know that my life is quite an open book. That all it takes sometimes is just a question (and sometimes none!) to know what's going on in my life and in my head. Still, there are things that I find uncomfortable to share and I value my privacy, just like anyone else.

Which brings me to something unique which I experienced yesterday.

It's always fun to visit the homes of my friends and get to know how they interact with their families and cats. Yes, I have been known to visit homes of friends just to see their cats. One of my many quirks but let's not publicise that, shall we? Shhhhhh.... It's our secret - me, you and all the others who read this blog

Ok, so last Sun, I had a thoroughly enjoyable pre-birthday celeb lunch with my bezzie. It was a mostly quiet lunch. The restaurant was quiet. We were not. I dunno but we just can't equate silence and quiet with fun. Which is why most of our spiritual retreats often fall short from the quiet repose they were supposed to be. Heh.

As usual, we had so much fun yakking that the waiters had to discreetly shoo us as they were about to close for their afternoon break. So we spent the rest of the day at her house. Which was great, because there were some things that we wanted to work on the pc. The trouble was, the pc was located in her brother's room.

The minute we entered the room and sat in front of the pc, something mysterious happened. It was as if the room suddenly became the most happening place in the house. Everybody, and I mean, everybody came into the room. Cat (Rina's sis) and her new born babe, Lillian (the eldest sis), Cat's mom-in-law, and finally, Rina's mom.

Some flopped on the bed while the others crowded around the pc. All were grinning and yakking away and David, Rina's bro was happily showing me ALL the photos they have ever taken recently.

"Never mind, " I thought to myself. "We can chat about our plans later. Surely, these pic showing session won't take long and those rellies of Rina would get bored and leave the room soon enough."

I was being overly optimistic.

There were oodles and oodles of photos of their recent jungle trekking trip. I lost count of how many trees, insects and owl photos I saw. I think my eyes must have glazed after the 100th pic and my smile must have froze at the 120th one.

And then just when the jungle trip photo session ended, David opened up the baby photo directory. Which I have seen in one of my previous visits to her house.

"Ooooh, this I must see!" Cat, the babe's mother said happily. And the whole photo slideshow process repeated itself.

I think I enjoyed the background alternative music that David played most. Such a lulling effect on the mind.

After they have exhausted all their photo collection, they got tired and all adjourned to the bed to play with the baby. Only Rina and I were left at the pc. I gave Rina a conspiratory wink and insidiously plugged in my usb drive to the laptop.

Cat, being as curious as her namesake, smelled something fishy and immediately bounced up from the bed and bounded towards us.

"Eh, what are you showing? I wanna see, I wanna see!" she said cheerfully.

"Errr... see what?" Rina asked her with a too-innocent look on her face.

Apalah.

"Show me lar! I am not budging from here," Cat said and planted her hands on her hips. Aiyo.

So I just opened up some tame and boring looking song files for her benefit and Rina and I pretended to have a discourse on them. We are obviously such pathetic liars that Cat was not fooled.

"Ceh!" Cat said. "You two are up to something, and you're not telling me!"

I looked at her in amazement and stiffled a giggle. If I think that I was curious, she was infinitely worse! Hehe.

Anyway, seeing that no one was interested to budge from the room, Rina and I decided to leave the room quietly and make a quick entry later on when they have dispersed.

"Sorry ar," Rina said apologetically. "My family is very close-knitted and the concept of privacy is quite unheard of here."

Yep, it's definitely an eye-opener for me. But I find them to be very warm, charming and cosy folks and I guess, if I hang around with them long enough, I probably would get used to having people barge into my room at all times of the day and wanting to see everything that I'm working on. A remote possibility but still, a possibility nevertheless.

Apalah (in Malay) - what lar