Narcissism

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom.
One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.
...Sandra Casey

Another semester will soon blast off. I am feeling hmm, nothing. Oh wow.

I blamed heat for killing my focus in class last semester. How could I possibly pay attention after lunchtime? Soon I’m in no position to reason anything out. All subjects are of figures. Jolly! I’m a tad late on this; Alhamdulillah my prayers were answered. I passed all subjects.

Thoughts are nestled up there. So excuse the scattering.

I need new books. Ayah! Materials to digest are running low. The four of us surely have different preferences in books. It’s a bit disturbing especially when you are in dire need of mind boggling. We only share Reader’s Digest. Hurrah! I had my hands on The Gathering by Anne Enright recently. I do not like it. Great that it won the 2007 Man Booker Prize. But definitely not in my collection of trophies.

Richard Clayderman is coming to town! He will be performing at Genting next Friday. Bets are high on him astounding the audiences. Bugger much I could not go. Raya Haji falls on Thursday – stupid authority always announcing Aidiladha a day later than the Saudis. Humph! I have a wedding to attend on Friday itself. Bummer! I am only looking forward to our ritual family holiday over the weekends. Yippee!

So anyway, Clayderman is amongst modern pianists I adore. Ballade pour Adeline is ubiquitous. My personal pick would be Marriage D’Amour, truly astonishing. When it comes to banging the keys, I take pleasure in andantes. I find it hard to relate and immerse myself into Baroque pieces. Presumably my fingers are influenced by the melodious emotions sync between the heart and the ears. Baroque pieces delve more into technical skills.

That reminds me of the second time I had my practical grade 8 assessment. Comical. I can’t recall the examiner’s name, a British bloke though. Anyway, my turn was next after Alia’s. The minute I said hello, he asked on how to pronounce my name. My first reply was a titter. It was of course nothing new, in fact weird to have people (foreigners especially) not asking on how to correctly enunciate them. Because Syaza is spelt in 'Sy', the British say it as 'Siaza'. I have to enlighten him that it is called out the same as having it spelt in 'Sh'. So he Ah’ed and remarked on how different Western are with names. Err duh?!

Forget my second name, the first is confusing enough. Meeting new people sure is thrilling but none has I ever encountered at one go said my name correctly. Kudos to my parents! The combination made it challenging? Haha. One emcee once halted before announcing my name and made a comment that my future husband will have a hard time ‘melafazkan nikah’. I was laughed. But reality check dude? Of course I wouldn’t be marrying a moron who couldn’t even say his lover’s name. I’m even the one and only in UiTM, the name of course. High five to those in this game!

Back to the enunciation, ironically though I was watching the idiot box with my aunt some day after. I can’t remember the programme, but it showcased new restaurants. For this one particular restaurant, a Malay actress was invited to have a say. And in between her speech, we caught her pronouncing vegetable as ‘veh-geh-tay-bel’. Yes! The –table actually sounded table which brings the meaning of meja! My aunt and I hysterically gelak golek-golek tak tahan can die! Such a cuckoo celebrity! When you cannot speak English cakap je lah Bahasa MELAYU. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. Sayur pun tak reti nak sebut ke? My god! Humiliating!

Here’s another can-die incident, again a female (bimbo bimbo!) VJ said embarrass as ‘em-bress’. Ya Allah. I feel sorry for them. It’s only because they were aired I’m writing on this. Of course it’s never nice to bad mouth about people. But come on! Do you not have integrity? It’s shameful enough that you degrade yourself, but knock-knock, to what extent? And producers, directors or whomever, please do your job.

It is so beyond the pale. Blah.