With less than a week to go before return to Australia, I will reflect upon a holiday somewhat distasteful in several ways, but also cherishable in others. I also realise that for the most part I have not mentioned any of my friends in any detail since having started this blog. Hence I have decided to eulogise the three friends I have remaining in Malaysia with whom I share bonds remarkable in their depth and longevity. First though, the holiday. All in all it’s been relaxing enough, but there have been many instances where incidents have soured my stay here. This has entirely to do with the uneasy relationship I have with my parents, and particularly my mother.

As a staunchly religious family, my parents are all-action Buddhists of the Nichiren sect. Considering my own epiphanies regarding humanity and religion, my laxed attitude towards the faith I ostensibly belong to has caused much consternation amongst them. I will probably rant at length about that later. The other thing that my parents struggle to come to terms with is my own expressiveness. I find this a little odd, as I know for a fact that I have never been the most yes-sir-no-sir type of person, though I will admit I have indeed become much more vocal through the course of my residence in Australia. Whether this is an effect of living in a much more encouraging culture, or part of the natural process of growing up, or both, I can’t be too sure, but one thing is certain, it is certainly no booster for a healthily happy family relationship, particularly when you have parents who seem to take any sign of dissent as a gross affront to their authority. All this has made for some highly fractious encounters between us, and I cannot lie when I say I am relieved to be headed back none too soon. Don’t get me wrong, considering the depth of my relationship with my family these are pretty minor infractions, and they certainly do not affect my judgement of them.

All in all it’s been pretty stressful for a holiday, and it is at a time like this that I have grown to appreciate the few friends whom I can seek solace in, whether as a shoulder to cry on or as a means to counter some of the dismal feeling by enjoying the privilege of their company. Being who I am, I don’t have many friends. I am not one of those people who go around collecting as many companions as possible; I am content maintaining a few close friendships with people whom I can associate with on a deeper basis. In Malaysia I have really only maintained such a relationship with two, recently three, people. It is here that I choose to eulogise the first of those people, Alissa Roslan. I don’t often write eulogies. Eulogies are usually reserved for dead or special people; this is a special person.

Alissa came into my life in late November last year. She’s Aiman’s girlfriend, and we were introduced whilst I was still in Australia, over MSN. Considering how conservative I am with regards to meeting new people, it’s a little amazing how well we hit it off, especially since our first face-to-face meeting was still nearly a month away. Nevertheless, the friendship struck up, and though I learned little, I managed to glean a few ideas as to her character and her history.

Alissa met Aiman at some inter-college sports function back in [one of the two of you correct me if you’re reading this and find it erroneous] July, and despite an initial rocky start to their relationship, hit it off really well and officially became ‘an item’ just a short while before I was myself introduced to her. Right from the off she struck me as a very fun-loving character [really, who doesn’t want a bit of fun in their lives, but this was different somehow], if a little shy and soft-spoken. Without going into details, suffice to say her family has certain previous, though nothing altogether unconventional [I am unwilling to flesh this out, don’t bother asking]. Whether this has shaped her into what she is today, I won’t theorise on that either, but what’s certain is she comes across as one of the sweetest and most unpretentious people I’ve been privileged to meet.

All this from just a smattering of MSN chats, it would be a grievous deceit if I said I wasn’t anticipating our first meeting when I returned to KL for my summer holidays. She and Aiman came to pick me up from the train station. I can only assume I left a hell of a first impression as they drove down the avenue to the arrivals gate, what with me in my green suit, blue leopard-patterned shirt and long hair tied back with a rainbow scarf, not to mention one of the first conversations Aiman and I struck up being about putting rocket engines on roti canai [yes we are that random, pretty often], but all my positive assumptions about Alissa were duly confirmed, and as time passed, our friendship developed. In addition to her cheery disposition, we shared common ground in several interests, most notably classical music, piano [she’s a Grade 8 grad] and clothes shopping [well, sort of. Doing it with her is fun though]. Though we both like reading, her preferred genres differ stupendously from my own, but we still share a common appreciation for each other’s differences in that aspect. Essentially she turned out to be very cultured and though perhaps a little low on self-confidence has no doubts about carrying her own dignity forward.

We often hung out together, if not with Aiman, as was usually the case, then it was my privilege to share her company alone. Our time would often be consumed slowly perusing the shopping malls, talking about life and engaging in stupid banter, which taken altogether, was really plain fun. [It might perhaps be important to herewith address concerns some readers may have that I have perhaps been muscling in on my friend’s relationship or attempting to do so; let it be known this is as far from the truth as it’s possible to go. We all know our responsibilities towards each other as friends, and I certainly wouldn’t want to jeopardise my friendship with Aiman, whom I will admit is the closest friend I have from high school, together with Chian Shen. I will make it a point to detail my relationship with these two at some later point.]

This entry was written on the same day we hung out together, alone, for pretty much the whole morning and afternoon. Why I write this is because my meeting Alissa has been one of the most special things to have happened in a while for me, purely for the way we get along as friends. Now, and for the first time in a long long while, I have one more person to look forward to returning to. It’s just as well that she is in a relationship with arguably my closest friend right now. Random readers who don’t know me would obviously not know that I really have only two friends to return to whenever I come home, three if you now count Alissa. The rest of them are either intermittent passings in the street, or absent altogether. These three friends, for me, represent all that is right about friendships. The reason I have so few is because these were the only full friendships that I could carry forward with full sincerity, without pretensions, facetiousness or awkwardness. When one has so little, he learns to appreciate what he has got even more; with regards to friends, I am one who dwells in abject poverty. I cherish the ones I get, and now with my newest friend, my time back in Malaysia, which at times is frankly closer Hell than Heaven, has been made all the more precious and memorable.

Shameless plug: Alissa’s blog can be read here: http://alaistar.blogspot.com