Missing my kids

I received a TXT messages from my niece yesterday. She just turned 10 (OMG, she's a big girl now) on Tuesday, and I sent her a few Birthday wishes messages, thru her mom's work email, her mom's mobile phone, and one to her OWN mobile phone too(!).

I know, a 10-year old girl with her own a mobile phone. What the..? (Don't ask me, ask her DAD) Furthermore, her mobile phone is even much better than mine. It's a Sony Ericsson T610, complete with colour screen and built-in camera, while I'm still stuck with this crappy (well, it wasn't that bad, really) ol' Nokia 3315.

*sigh* This requires another whole blog section to whine about!

Anyway, getting back to my story; once I got the TXT message, I figured she must have at least got one of the Birthday wishes that I sent her. Here's what my darling niece wrote:

Salam hai uda tengah buat apa.uda raya kat mana.uda rayalah kat rumah atin.atin dapat masuk kelas nombor 2.Atin dan uni rindu kat Uda.

Sender:
Atin+Ayuni
+601********
Sent:
4-Nov-2004
16:26:31

.. of which can be loosely translated to:
"Hi Uda (yup, that's what my nieces and nephews called me at home in KL, just a common family nickname representing my hierarchy - haha.. I'm the 3rd of 5 by the way - among my siblings according to our age) What are you doing? Where are you celebrating 'raya' (that's the big festival celebrated at the end of Ramadhan, the fasting month) Uda, why don't you celebrate it at our house. Atin (that's her name) got second place in my recent examination. Atin and Uni (that's her lil' sis name) miss you Uda."

Awww.. I miss them lots too. In fact I missed them ALL. My nieces Atin & Ayuni. My nephews Ajeem & Afeeq. And not forgetting the latest addition to the group, my brother's little girl fondly called (by her dad at least) as Biah (although I would have preferred to call her Abby, short for Rabiatul). All start with the letter "A", get it? ;-)

So, I replied to her, explaining how I can't go home for raya, because I still got classes at that time, and how the omputeh (ie. the whites/Europeans/general Australians) here do not celebrate the festival, hence no public holiday for me. And how I missed all of them terribly. Complete with the sad/weepy emoticon too.. :"(

To this, she replied:

Uda, uda datang rumah atin bulan 12 nanti ok. Please, please :-( :-(

Sender:
Atin+Ayuni
+601********
Sent:
4-Nov-2004
16:36:31

The girl really broke my heart. Since I couldn't come back for the festival, she was hoping I'd at least return home in December.

The thing is, she and her cousins, always compete among themselves, on how long I should be staying between their houses, everytime I got back to KL. Nothing serious. Just a harmless sibling-like rivalry I guess. And a little bit of token of appreciation for the short return of their good ol' uncle.

Which made me love them ALL even MORE.

I didn't reply directly to what she asked for, knowing that I couldn't be back in KL for Christmas holiday either. So, instead, I just wish her well, asking her how come she wasn't in school (I know, lame excuse to divert her question) and also, wishing my loving regards to the family at home.

*sigh*

I wish I could head home for raya. I wish I could head home in KL anytime I wished for. But THAT's not going to happen, unless I'm this super fast swimmer who could swim across the ocean in a nick of time. For God sake, I wasn't even a competent swimmer at all either! Put me in water, OK.. I dog-paddled a bit, and leave me longer, for sure I tenggelam (sink) like a solid concrete.

Oh well, I just gotta wait until sometime next year, when my one-year return trip flight ticket from SIA is due to be used. Then I'll head back to KL with head held high, hopes in cloud nine, and I'll give them kids a big warm loving hugs, fresh from DownUnder.

In the mean time, I just have to make do, looking at their photo, with a very heavy heart.

I really miss ALL my kids dearly. My intan payung gunung meletups..