Now, they each have their own -- from their savings.

I told R that Lana Zaheerah would lead me out of hiatus. It took me a while -- her birthday was four weeks ago.

Happy Birthday Lana.

You sure know how to party. We should do something together for New Year's.

Austen wrote, "Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken."

Omission of words, a voice with a tone misguided, laughs that hide inconsolable sadness – they all disguise. But then there are smiles from the heart, and sighs that tell whole paragraphs…

How lucky we are to have someone from whom radiate little streams of truth, and with whom we share hope, expectations and uncertainties.

And above all else, love.

P, a friend of nearly 20 years, shared a house with four other close friends. They kept everything so tidy that I had to re-adjust my standards every time I stayed over. They scoff at the oh-so-very-clichéd ‘are you a teenager?’ theory of ‘organised chaos’. Square lines were always in parallel, or at an angle both logical and or in harmony with the qi of the house.

It was therefore illogical to lose something in the house. Being the scientists we were, everything had to be explained through theories. Being cult movie fans that we were, those theories weren’t always confined to the realms of science. P’s theory for items suddenly went missing and mysteriously reappearing was that little green men (not those ones with claws, red eyes and evil intent) had to borrow certain mugs, hairbrushes, books, microphones(!) for various reasons. Perhaps they needed an urgent hypersonic karaoke session, or perhaps they were just disorganized that they kept losing their own stuff. Those items were then duly returned when they found their own. The green men lived in another dimension and entered through small portals that appeared under beds at times when the air was still, when heartbeats were faint and the house unrealistically neat.

P’s Green Man theory withstood more challenges than the other flawed theories put forward over the years by different members of the household… and different green men continue to haunt our lives to this day.

Another.

Shadow of a man standing in the cold helps reflect part of a poster with trees commonly associated with much warmer climes.

10:30 p.m.

From the archives. 4 November 2005. Around noon. Nothing else recorded.

My baby came first in her class. Pride came naturally; after all, parents are responsible for her genes, for her upbringing, for fostering a loving environment, and for buying those baby Einstein videos. But the truth is, for reasons that were inevitable, we couldn’t tutor her for her final assessment as much as we’d like, or as much as usual. She came across a picture of a xylophone about a month after her test and asked me what it was. I learned later from her teacher that it was the xylophone that she couldn’t name during her assessment. I grew up with a few toy xylophones in the house. I must have seen my fair share of ‘X for Xylophone’ illustrations during my early years. I shouldn’t be surprised though, we’ve never bought the kids a xylophone.

Yes, it’s only kindergarten. But because Azmina did well despite the lack of preparations, it compels me to at least match what she is capable of, with my own efforts at guiding her. Guidance…, rather than a push is what I’d be giving her. And I know I could do better. The good thing is, we’re still in her kindy years. She enjoys school, and that’s the important thing.

Picture taken during her school’s award ceremony and year-end concert last Saturday. A lot of proud parents there, and things could have been organized a tad better. I only stayed for Azmina’s academic excellence award and her class’s dance number. It was the fourth performance of the afternoon, and I think, theirs was the best out of the four that I stayed on for. Being a fairly disadvantaged parent in the dance department, I’d say the teachers did pretty well in teaching a kid of mine to move like that.