I know I had promised to return with a new blog layout but as circumstances in life go, we can plan all we want but it is up to HIM to dictate the destiny in the end. The blog layout can wait as of now since I know the kind soul who I had approached to create it, is facing some problems with regards to her laptop, the medium being used to create the aforementioned layout. Take your time sis, no hurry. I don’t mind waiting a bit longer as I know she makes excellent blog skin designs. You can’t substitute quality with quantity and shit does happen in life when you least expect it, so I’m cool and patient about it, so no worries about it…

It’s ironical that I chose to return to blogging on this day. A year ago today, Siti Nurhaliza held her long-awaited concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Looking back, a lot of things have happened over the past 365 days. For one, yours truly has ended his bachelorhood and fatherhood is impending. I know this piece of news is a bit of a surprise to some of you but yes, I’m finally ready to break it to the world as my wife’s first trimester is over. If all goes well, we’ll be celebrating our first wedding anniversary with a new addition to the family, God willing. Life for the past 3 months that I was away has been good. Even though I was bogged down with work and reservist training, I managed to fulfill a lifelong dream to return to two sacred places for my long-delayed honeymoon. Well more on that in future postings.

Speaking of the diva herself, now that the cat has been let out of the bag, there seemed to be a deluge of resentment in many quarters. Internet forums and comments in online blogs I visited to read about the news, mostly were disappointed to the point some people got disillusioned and said they ceased to be fans. Some even went as far as saying they would throw away all her albums from their collection. My initial reactions basically echoed most people’s sentiments, moreso since I watched the press conference on television and felt disgusted by the impending groom’s grin-and-smirk look on his face as though he invited us to give him a good smack on the face at his apparent arrogance. When I thought it over eventually, I can’t blame him since he has emerged victorious in the quest for the heart of arguably the most sought after Malay woman of this decade and many men would have killed, crawled and even given up their body parts just to prove their love to her, including yours truly if he was still single and available. But personally, I couldn’t care less about her choice of life partner, especially after I had signed my own “death contract” on 31st December 2005. But deep down, as a fan and acquaintance, I would be lying if I said I was not disappointed with the choice.

My first reaction to the announcement was “Why???“, seeing that the groom came with a lot of excess baggage, plus all the conspiracy theories surrounding his divorce to his first wife. But as minutes turned to hours, reality sunk in and I had to respect her decision that it was what she wanted and it’s her life that she’s dictating. As a fellow Muslim, the right thing to do is to pray for the best and well-being and accept what God has in store. Loving her unconditionally as a fan and acquaintance means we should accept her flaws no matter what they are. We had after all chose to support her since 1995 through thick and thin and this is the time that she needs our blessings and support the most. Ceasing to be fans and throwing away her albums are immature acts to follow. She might be, in her own words, “the property of the society“, but when it came to being the rightful owner of her heart, only she had the liberty to choose the right person.

I know it is difficult to accept and I’ll be lying if I said I accepted her choice and decision wholeheartedly, knowing her character from my observations, chats and past meetings with her, and also what with all the wild speculations going round ranging from her being the third party in his failed marriage to resentment from her family and close friends. And lately, the spreading of photographs in cyberspace of his second son partying and drinking away at a pub makes one wonder if she had made the right choice or not. Some of these speculations could be true for all we know, but who are we to judge when we do not know the actual situation faced by the people at the centre of the storm??? It is already written and fated. Her parents have also announced their approval (though if one had scrutinised closely, her father had some difficulty saying he approved). Difficult it is for some of us to accept, but we should all move on and pray for the best for the soon-to-be newly-weds.

Something that was announced during the press conference still intrigues me till now. They said that the engagement and wedding solemnisation (“akad nikah“) ceremony will be done simultaneously. I for one do not see the need to have both and I find it kinda amusing to have both engagement and wedding solemnisation together on the same day. I’m not too sure how the Malays over there can hold both functions at the same time cos if you were to look at how we do it over here, normally there is a grace period between the engagement day till the day of solemnisation. They will not be the first to do it. As far as I know, another couple, Norman Hakim and Abby Abadi, did the same thing, the grace period being a few hours apart. So can anyone out there please explain to me the rationale behind doing both events on the same day???