picture in my mind

Had a photog gathering yesterday to say a little bit of farewell to Tsz San. What was most memorable to me about the whole thing was the fact that we had a discussion about cockroaches over ice cream. Colin was telling us about how he did a little bit of microsurgery for Bio Olympiad last time, and how they had to use their bare hands when cutting up the roach. Because, Colin claims, one cannot actually feel the roach properly if one wears gloves. You can imagine how horrified I was. Luckily I was done eating my apple crumble. And he talked a bit about how roaches have fat stores in their bodies - that's why roaches can survive for a couple of days even with their heads cut off. They just starve to death when their fat stores are used up. And the squish that you get when you crush a cockroach is because of those fat stores as well. Of course, we started laughing when we realised how insane it was discussing the disgusting creature over a meal. Mad.

After that, met up with Shen Onn for the last time before she flies off. Had a ridiculous time trying to photograph three of us together because we initially refused to ask someone to help us take the photo. There were a total of eleven tries before we got a shot with everyone's face of decent size and unchopped.

I can't wait for Ramadhan! Almost. I seriously think it's the best damn time of the year. There's this feeling of working towards a climax - Raya - and everyone's excited and planning. And we have the makciks comparing kuehs and dishes and ketupats. And people asking, "What colour you gonna wear this year?" And my insane family sahur (early morning meal before sunrise) - where my dad will essentially be deaf and say 'Hah?' to every word uttered, and depending on the general mood, causes annoyed grunts or hysterical laughter. And meeting up with extended family over the weekend to break fast together, which is always so superbly fun. And terawihs, which I think I get better at each year. Maybe I'll do twenty this time. And the nice feeling that my body is cleansed because I haven't consumed junk all day. And the nice anticipation of dusk while staring at the food in front of you - waiting for the moment when it's okay to sip that very appetizing-looking fruit juice - and realising that food never looks as good as that point in time.

Raya itself almost completely pales in comparison to Ramadhan.