I took this picture (can you see me?) when I was in St. Louis this weekend visiting the St. Louis Bascilica. I know if I send this picture to her, she’ll make it her desktop picture (Mac term). Or in the Windows land, they call it wallpaper. Regardless, my mom always has her own terminology. This one, she creatively called it the “curtain.” After so many years of teasing her creative misusage of certain terminology, I finally have a general observation. She would learn the term, then she forgets it, but still retained the concept in her head. She would then creatively recall the term, usually something close to the original concept, but an entirely different word. Nonetheless, often very amusing. Here’re a few pairs of her creative errors:

Stella Maris (a motel/vacation lodging own by the Catholic church in Penang)
Mom’s version:
Sheila Majid (a Malaysian singer)

100 Plus(pronounced “Hundred Plus”, a sports drink)
Mom’s version:
Code-10 (a brand of hair styling product)
Note: You can imagine how I reacted to that when I heard her telling me: “There’s an open can of Code-10 in the fridge, it’s cold, you can finish it.”

KTM (Keretapi Tanah Melayu, our train system in Malaysia)
Mom’s version:
RTM (Radio & Television of Malaysia)

MIA (Malaysian Institute of Art)
Mom’s version:
MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress)

I love my mom. I find myself doing the same thing as I’m getting older. I’m sure the gene is in me.

Last week my brother invited Bruce and I to join them in a three-day-weekend in St. Louis for a short and relatively inexpensive weekend. I liked the idea, and so did Bruce.

But after finding out that the hotel is going to cost about $120 before tax for one night. I decided not to go. Unless I can find a cheaper hotel, even if it means we’re not going to be in the same hotel. It really didn’t matter, because they have their car, and we have ours.

So, before giving up, I tried Priceline.com. I put in $40 as my first bid, and a response came back asking me to add $12. So, I did, $52. Not only did I get a room for $52, I’m staying in the very hotel my brother and Eric are staying. Lucky me.

We had a great time there. And I’m still enjoying the fact that I get a hotel room for $52/night, almost as much as I enjoy the trip itself.

It’s all goooood.

Last Thursday, Bruce sent me a funny album by Mrs Miller, well, that’s a whole other story. But, through that, I found myself browsing on iTunes, which I rarely do. But today,  I found one of my favorite singers, Ning Baizura listed on iTunes. Ning is a Malaysian singer whom I enjoy since her first album. Being away from Malaysia for so long, trying to keep up with the music industry back in Malaysia could be a little challenging. I was excited to see Ning listed on iTunes. I didn’t buy her album. This is the reason why.

While I was browsing under the “World” section of iTunes, which is where I found Ning, I stumbled upon this Malay sounding album “Tekad Redha Tabah.” So I clicked on it. Listened to a couple of tracks, it really sounded great. I was going to check to see if this album is indeed Malaysian or Indonesian (the Malay language and Indonesian language are very similar). Looking up on the artiste’s name, Hazami, I thought it sounded familiar. After reading on more, I found out that he is indeed a Malaysian singer, and began to suspect that the Hazami could very well be a friend of mine from Malaysia. After listening to all the sample tracks, I love the album, and I bought it.

Hazami was my good friend Henry’s best friend. I was introduced to him through Henry when I was studying in Petaling Jaya. Hazami and I both love singing, and we would sing and chat on the phone for hours. He is fun, smart, and definitely a wonderful vocalist. His trademark was his high pitch singing ala Mariah Carey. (A few tracks on his album have those singing style, but only as backups, which I thought was wonderfully done. Really not many people know that’s him singing) However, we have never met in person. The last I heard about him was from Henry that Hazami was in engineering school in England. That was at least six years ago.

After a few more research online, and getting Hazami’s full name and a few chat sessions in some Malaysian chatrooms, I finally was convinced that the Hazami I know, is indeed this rapidly becoming very well known singer in Malaysia. Another factor confirming the fact that he is the one I know was his singing. He was nominated for the best new male artiste and the most popular male artiste in the Malaysian equivalent of the Grammy Awards. And he won the best new male artiste.  I try to get back in touch with him. I wrote an email to him, but haven’t heard from him yet. I hope he’ll be able to get my mail and finally get back in touch.

I am so proud of his success and would definitely love to share his success and reminiscing those days when we were just dreaming about our success being famous singers. And today, he has made it. I’m still a singer, famous only in the vicinity of a few miles. Nevertheless, enjoy every bit of the singing that I get to do.

Syabas Hazami! (Congratulations Hazami!)

p/s: Buy Hazami’s album if you like R&B. As far as I know he wrote most of the music and lyrics himself.