It’s funny… When I have the time, I don’t have the inspiration to write but when I’m busy, I wish I could just write in peace and quiet.
Melbourne is a quiet city, especially when the sun has gone down and it’s a weekday. But somehow people spring up from nowhere and fill up the streets during the weekends. The nights seem to be alive with all kinds of language, fashion, arts, music and food. I can hear Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Cantonese, Laos, Spanish, French, Indonesia and lastly, my beloved Hokkien which I still get to use speaking to John, the only other international student in my class, who also happened to be a Malaysian. Thank God!
I miss quite many things about Malaysia. 98.8FM, MyFM, David Tao, Jay Chou, Eason Chan’s Under Mt Fuji. The surprise and delight when I get to hear my favorite songs over the radio station. Sigh…that’s what I’ve been missing most. Not to say that I don’t miss my family members and friends and CG and church… I do. I really do especially the first day when I stepped onto this land.
And I missed all the Malay food, wonder whether William’s gerai will still be at Tmn Megah when I come back in 2 years time. Or was it Tmn Mayang? This is bad, my memory’s fading.
I missed my room overlooking this nearby kampung with black and white cows mooing everyday, plus the smell of cow dung. Not forgetting the polluted air at night when there’s open burning of rubbish.
But most of all when things don’t go well, when I have a bad day, that’s the time when I miss home so much that I can say I truly know how the Hebrews felt when they followed Moses across the Red Sea. They complained and wished they were back in Eygpt when they have no water and meat. I complained and wished I could go back to Malaysia when things go wrong like when I got lost, took the wrong train, encountered a man who made an indecent proposal and even now as I still couldn’t find a job.
But thank God, He provides in time of need. Every time I see ladies in ‘tudung’, it’s like a blessing from God. The feeling of being back at home in Malaysia, the comfort it brings, the sense of familiarity and the sense that all will be well.
Good night, from Melbourne to Malaysia…