The day my mate got engaged

It was last Sunday. My best friend was to get engaged. He was my roommate for four years during my days as a uni student. Knowing him well, this engagement news came as a big surprise to me. Bagitau nak bertunang pon macam main-main je. We were chatting over YM, the usual guy's stuff hot chicks hot cars, kutuk **** haha. Tetiba je "Syed, aku bertunang bulan depan". Pergh! The legendary one getting engaged, who would have thought? hehe. Actually, over the last few months, this legendary friend of mine has mellowed down quite a bit, a lot actually. I quite expected him to be engaged and get married but not this soon. Anyway congratulations are in order, the next question we have to ask ourselves is when is the bachelor's party? Do we get permission for a stripper? Serahkan keapada aku bro.

He invited me and some friends to go to the ceremony in Kajang. Biasanya kalau bertunang, side perempuan je yang jemput. Side lelaki bawak rombongan meminang je. Kadang-kadang yang bakal pengantin lelaki tak pergi pun. So, on Saturday night I made to calls to some friends who are going with me, made plans when and where to meet on the next day. Since the event starts at 12. I told them to meet at UNITEN at 11.45 the latest.

Sunday morning; I realised I had lost the invitation card together with the map. Aduhh satu hal plak nak cari jalan...Nevermind I thought, we're guys. guys don't get lost. I went to subang to pick up R****n, told him I'd be there right at 11 and I was perfectly on time (lambat 10 minit, my watch's fault..). As always he's still sleeping. Sabar je la.. Another friend A***t was supposed to be at Subang at 11. He was travelling by train from Klang. 11.15 I called and he was still at the Klang station. Classic malay attitude...sigh...harap rambut je colourful ko ni.. I tried calling the other guys who were coming, to apologise to them that I would be little late.

11.30

R****y: Wei aku lambat sket. Bangun lambat tadi.

me : ko katne?

R***y : Tanjung malim...

me : ........hmmm (speechless)

11.45

me : M***a ko katne?

M***a : on the way, lagi 10 minit. aku dalam kete ni (behind his voice in the background

I could hear children's voice laughing so I knew he's still at his house)

me : okey...cepat sikit..ni bukan kenduri kahwin datang lambat sesuka ati..

12.00

A**p : weh mana korang ni? aku dari Kuala Pilah dah sampai ni

me : tunngu A***t. kejap

12.01

A***g : wei kalo nak datang sekarang la. Orang dah start. nk datang ke x ni?

me : on the way (always the safe answer hehe)

After what seem like forver A***t finally arrived at Subang station, berlari dia datang ke kereta aku, takut dipersalahkan la tu. Then the chase against time began, I drove as fast as my Proton could take me. At one time I was controlling the wheel with my knees; one hand hand was used to search for coins to pay the toll, the other was holding the handphone answering to my friend on the phone who kept bitching to me that he had waited almost an hour alone in front of the UNITEN gate. Rileeeek

When all of us are there at the meeting point it was already 1. A***g has called many times asking when the hell we are gonna be there. Next part of the problem is fing the house, as your truly have already lost the map we just have find it by the address given by A***g. Luckily the he told me his brother was waiting for us at a mosque near the Kajang stadium to escort us to the house. When we found the mosque, his brother came to me. Dengan selambenya "Abang, kitorang nak balik, ni map dia abang ikut je, terus je dari masjid ni....simpang kanan...simpang kiri...."

I took a good look at the map, ah piece of cake. R****n jadik navigator. Being the great navigator that he is, we managed to take the wrong turn at the very first junction indicated in the map. Straight to a dead end. Someone else became the navigator. Wrong turns after wrong turns I almost gave up and wanted to go eat satay at Haji Samuri. To add to the problem, the weather wasn't being very friendly too on that afternoon. Panas gila. Suddenly we found a large number of cars parked along a street. This has to be it I thought, not! It was a different wedding. In desperation I asked a pakcik who was handling the parking area for that wedding. Showed him the address. "Oh ni dekat je. Patah balik jalan ni. Kat simpang tu amik kanan pastu terus je" Thank you pakcik. (kalau pakcik tu pun xtau jugak time tu rasanya kitorang g makan kat kenduri dia je la)

Finally we've arrived at the destination, rombongan lelaki dah balik pun. Lucky my friend stayed and waited for us. Everyone was happy to be there at last. (Sebab korang la aku miss sesi berbalas pantun). It was a great time, all of us there catching up on times. Laughing out loud like we used to. A great question was asked by Manta "A***g, ko masuk meminang ni diorang terima tak?" hahaha. I also had an embarassing moment there where I managed to spill a glass of sirap all over the buffet table while trying carry three glasses at a time. Nasib x pecah gelas tu. untuk cover malu, aku dgn selambanye mengambil segelas air lagi untuk disisi, kemudian mengambil tisu untuk mengelap lengan dan baju ku yang dah basah, sampai air yg diisi dalam gelas melimpah keluar membasahi meja makan sekali lagi. Sorry la bro malukan ko haha

After eating, we went to a cendol stall outside the mosque mentioned to have a drink and borak2 kosong (melayu...xkan nk borak benda berfaedah kot). After that we all went our separate ways (bukan berpisah, balik rumah le). Me and A**p, we decided to go to A***g's house afterwards. Since we don't get to see him often nowadays, we thought that day would be great to spend time together. When we arrived at his house, it was packed with cars. Damn I thought. mesti ada tahlil ke baca2 doa ni. mampus..tak bersedia ni...tak guna a***g cakap ajak datang lepak je. It turns out the cars were his relative's. They were part of the rombongan earlier. Lega gua... hehe So began another session of borak2 kosong, eating again, borak, eat again and finally ending the day with a few ping pong games (which I sucked of course). What a day it was. On the drive back home, my mind flashed back to the very first day I arrived at UNITEN. These guys were the first persons I know in UNITEN, we've been through a lot since then. I'm glad we've all made it on his engagement day and for sure we'll be there on his wedding. When another one of us gets married in the future, near future maybe, A**p? hehe. All of these faces will be there I'm sure of it.

p.s Kepada orang-orang melayu sekalian. Kalau berjanji tu biarlah ditepati. And for A***g baru bertunang beb, belum dihalalkan lagi tu hahahahaha