Book done, tremors felt

Finally, I am done with my manuscript for my children’s guide book. What a relief! I had been burning the midnight oil for the past few weeks in order to meet the deadline. It’s not the end yet, of course. I will have to revisit the manuscript after it has been edited by my editor but the bulk of the work is out of the way.

I am so glad that I won the Samsung laptop or I would still be slogging away on the book. Murphy’s Law being what it is, my telephone cable had to snap during the Hari Raya break which meant that I was without Internet for one week. Telekom came to restore the line yesterday. While the line was down, I had to hog cafes with wifi in order to do my online research. Last Saturday was the longest session I ever had : 7 hours without budging from my seat except to take toilet breaks. Total spent: RM15 for brunch, coffee and tea. Quite reasonable. (If I had gone to Starbucks, just one cup of coffee or tea would’ve set me back by RM10.) Fortunately the eatery was not busy or the waiters would’ve stared daggers at me for overstaying my welcome.

After sleeping just five hours last night, I was acting like a zombie in the morning.  At six-something in the evening, while working at my laptop in the kitchen, I felt the table swaying. Now that couldn’t be due to lack of sleep as I had caught up on sleep in the daytime. I thought my legs were shaking the table as one knee was propped up against it. (That’s one advantage of working from home. You can sit anyhow you like.) I moved my leg away from the table. The table was still shaking.

Next thought which crossed my mind: Woah, lizard, take it easy, will you. Why are you shaking the table so (this thought directed at the scoundrel of a lizard which has taken up residence at my dining table – under the Lazy Suzan). But then it can’t be the lizard. It’s not that strong. Must be some other animal – a rat perhaps? Urrgh.

Then I felt my chair swaying. It can’t be due to lack of sleep – I caught a nap (two in fact – one to make up for lost sleep and another to celebrate the completion of my book). Oh no! It’s an earthquake!

“Hey! Did you feel the earth shake?” I yelled at the kids upstairs. No. 3 was blur like a sotong. No. 2 said, “Yeah, I felt it but I thought I was feeling dizzy after staring at the computer for too long.”

Later after picking up no. 1 from college, I asked if he felt the tremor. He did but he thought he had a bout of dizziness due to working too hard (haha!).

I suspected an earthquake had hit some place in Indonesia. True enough, it was an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter Scale in Padang, Sumatra. At moment, online reports said the casualty is 20+ lives. Terrible, but this figure will probably climb in the next few days.

Short article by daughter

No. 2 wrote this short, sweet article about no. 4 in Starmag’s Generation Gap column, published yesterday.

The Sibling Connection (The Star, 13 September 2009)

WHAT is the sweetest thing in life? Is it waking up in the morning and finding an “I love you” note beside you on the bed? Is it going to bed after hours in front of the PC and finding a drawing of a huge Smiley face wishing you “Good night, XOXO”? Or is it coming home after a long tiring day in college and being greeted with a bear hug?

Yes, I get all that from my sweet little sister.

I want to always be able to hug her, pinch her soft chubby cheeks, kiss her and carry her like a baby. But I also want to be able to talk about “deeper” stuff with her, instead of just asking, “Who did you go to recess with?”

I want my sister to remain innocent, to say the cutest things like, “The cuttlefish will cut your stomach!” But I want her to grow up, so I can finally have someone to share my clothes with. Well, I shouldn’t worry too much. She is growing up and there’s nothing I can do to stop that.

My sister says she wishes that we were twins. She already is a carbon copy of me. A mirror image, my Dolly. She looks like I did when I was her age. She has the same favourite colours as me. She does her hair the way I do mine. She listens to the music I like and watches the TV shows I watch. She even copies the fancy way I write.

The perfect sister? Pretty much so. Even when I do get upset with her, it’s never for long. Once I was angry and refused to speak to her. She wrote me a note saying, “I am sorry, sister”. How could I possibly stay angry? And people still wonder why I love her so much.

I want to protect her from the harsh realities of life: Sometimes people won’t like you for who you are, they don’t want to be your friend. Sometimes you’ll experience failure and disappointment, heartache and bitterness.

She has to experience all that herself. Still, I know I will always be there for her. If she wants me, that is. She might, she might not. Bonds can fade. Hopefully, not ours.

I will treasure the moments I have with her because not everyone gets a angel for a sister. The 10 years between us is not a gap. It’s a bridge that connects two separate souls.