In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful.
I decided to give myself a break from my work today although I actually told my undercover boss that I’d worked on our designs in the morning. Sorry, boss! I thought I’d take this opportunity to blog. Feels like it’s been a while since I wrote.
And boy, do I have quite a bit to share that I’ll break the posts into parts.
I’ll start with last Monday.
It was the last day I get to spend away from work due to my chemical burn. My husband and I decided to get my work engine started a bit so we rented a car for a day from 1pm that day to 1pm the following day. We also wanted to see if I could cope with wearing the hijab for a prolonged period of time since I work super long hours.
We had lunch first before doing a few deliveries. They were all Christmas goodies. It felt pretty heartwarming to deliver them. To spread joy to the world. Haha! I hope want to spread smiles with my greens. I think that will be really nice to do!
Then we picked up our didi, Teck, from his workplace before we picked up my undercover boss from his abode for dinner together. He rather be called a Hustler now but I’mma refer to him as G Hustler instead because that makes him sound more hood. Anyway, when we reached G Hustler’s crib, didi accidentally stepped on a snail as we climbed up to his porch. I didn’t see it either. We were both heartbroken. 😦
When we reached the doorstep, G Hustler passed didi some materials to aid him in growing his Kangkong microgreens. Didi received a cute little chocolate stick from his workplace so he gave it to G Hustler in return. We got to taste G Hustler’s basil microgreens. Damn, they look and taste better than mine.
When getting ready to leave, G Hustler realised he didn’t have a clean mask with him. Luckily, didi had a spare in his bag! Then off we went!
My husband took a few wrong turns so by the time we reached Changi Village, we were all starving. I wanted something soupy and spicy but I was alright with anything. Didi wants satay so we went to the hawkers at the marketplace.
And there it was. At the satay stall. A picture of a glorious bowl of Mee Soto staring at me. God is Great, man. It’s one of those moments when you compromised what you wanted earlier to honour your friend’s wish but in the end you both got what you wanted anyway. There was even begedil, the potato cake. I asked my husband to order more of those. I even got to share them with the boys! Because good things must share. Sharing is caring. So good.
After dinner, while my husband and G Hustler helped themselves to some fags, I brought didi to a shop to look for a retractable tag since I can’t wear a lanyard at work due to the burn on my neck. I couldn’t find what I needed. Then I spotted a pack of disposable masks selling for $2 and suggested to didi to buy one to give to G Hustler in return for the kind gesture of providing the materials earlier so G Hustler could just chuck it into his bag to standby for when he needs them. Didi saw that the masks in a box of 50s cost less than ten bucks and decided to buy that instead. That’s very kind of him too. After he bought it, I remarked that the others were probably not interested in looking for us as didi’s phone didn’t ring at all whilst we were shopping. Hahaha! It finally rang as we were walking up to them. So okaylah. Glad to know they were concerned and didn’t just drive off without us. Hahaha!
We headed back to G Hustler’s place to drop him off initially but in the spur of the moment, he invited us all in to chill and hangout. We had a great night! It was nice to kick back and watch the boys take turns to play the piano.
I even got to sing a new favourite song of both didi and I towards the end of the night when my husband and G Hustler went out to smoke. In the beginning, I wanted to jam that song with didi whenever the smokers of our band go on their smoke break, leaving the two us alone in the studio room. But didi confessed he lacked the confidence to play it. So I was like, nah, it’s alright and turned on the piano version and tried to sing. After not singing for so long, I sounded all croaky man, ugh. I hope I didn’t disturb any of G Hustler’s neighbours’ peace as it was quite late at night! The following is my favourite version.
I want to break into people’s hearts that they have walled up due to their bitter experiences in life and return them their smile. I think that is a form of success that is hard to measure and harder to carry out and it’s what I want to achieve in this life.
I digressed.
Somewhere in between the session, G Hustler showed me the progress of our work on Smiling Greens, which are coming along rather nicely. I’m so happy and proud of him for deciding to take back what is his and put in his best foot forward. A bit like Aragorn deciding to return as a king instead of lurking the lands as a ranger. While I lack the sophistication, elegance, and abilities of the characters that helped Aragorn, I’m pretty sure little old me can secretly help out with the little things that build up to the big things. The deeper the foundations, the stronger the fortress!
Yeah, I’d like that. I really enjoy doing work for Smiling Greens. The incentives I get out of it is more intrinsic. Well, the extrinsic benefits like getting to eat a whole bunch of cherry tomatoes are nice too! Hahaha!
Sadly, as we were leaving G Hustler’s for the night, it was my turn to accidentally step on a snail. T_T So sorry!
So yeah, it was really fun. It’s a nice memory to cherish.
As for the progress of my burns, well, have a look.
Only when I took a closer look at the pictures, do I realise that my scalp was burnt pretty badly too. You can see how pink the scalp area is as well. Even my left ear now looks different from my right ear.
Not gonna lie — I do feel deformed. I don’t know what strength has been given to me that prevented me from allowing myself to be sucked into the sadness of it. Maybe my brain cells were bleached as well that I feel incapable of feeling depressed? I don’t know. But after I watched a video of a local kid who got multiple cancers his whole life but still scored 220 in the Primary School Leaving Examinations yet didn’t get to collect his results as he passed on beforehand, I just want to focus on what I can do to help others.
Also, I feel like a complete asshole because I didn’t have cancer but I only scored 19 points more than him.
So yeah, that’s about it for the story of Monday in this first part.
And Allah knows best. – MM
Metropolitan Muslimah 