The Sound of Music

This post is a spin-off from Mommy at Home's post on how she met her husband. It may or may not be as interesting, but since I've got nothing better to do except stare at the walls waiting for labour to start, here we go...

I met my hubs, R thru a trustworthy source - my oldest and dearest friend, Ms M. He was her chat buddy from mIRC (those were the days...a/s/l?). I'd actually met him before once in 1999 I think... he drove us to Puduraya to buy bus tickets to Pangkor. Masa tu not much of an impression la since we were all nerdy uni students and I was strictly banned from having a boyfriend while I was still studying. Haha. I completely forgot about him afterwards.

Fast forward a couple of years to 2003. Ms M and I were checking out the sales at Lot 10 when she got a call from R telling her that he'd just got back from Langkawi and would like to meet up with her. I'd been accompanying Ms M to meet her chat buddies loads of times so I didn't mind.

I'd just come out of the fitting rooms at Guess with this really cute skirt which I ended up buying (and must slim down enough to fit into again), when this tall guy in an orange football jersey and cap came up to me and said, "Hanna kan? I'm R. Ms M's friend?" I was like, how did he recognise me? (He later told me he had a hunch! Haha.) Later the three of us headed to Dome where Ms M and R chatted while I remained mute (as usual) and concentrated on my chicken & mushroom pie. Honestly, I must have said about 5 words the entire time. I'm like that with strangers, I guess.

A week later Ms M called me and said R had invited us to a show at his then workplace, here. It was actually a dinner show where the entertainment was a group of mat sallehs who performed songs from The Sound of Music. The dinner was quite good, typical Austrian fare I think, and the show was great. At one point they picked members of the audience to join them in dancing on stage and of course R got picked! Later he treated us to supper at the coffee house where again I was painfully shy and contributed about 3 words to the conversation.

I remember Ms M asking me later, "He's nice, isn't he? U suka dia tak?" I replied, "Err.. he's ok. U go out with him la." Then Ms M said, "Eh hello, I'm engaged okay. Remember?" Oh yeah, right.

The next day at work I got a text from R. It went something like this: "Hi. R here. I got your numer from Ms M. Is that OK?"

Me, being sarcastic: "Err... ok. Bukannya boleh pulangkan balik pun."

R: "If you don't like it then I'll just delete it."

Me: "Yeah, right. It's ok, really. I'm really busy right now."

R: "Sorry. I'll call u later. Can I call u later?"

Me (what's with this guy?): "Yeah, ok, whatever."

10 seconds later, Me: "You gave my number to R????"

Ms M: "Why not? He said he likes u. He asked if u had a bf. I said not at the moment."

Me: "Oh God."

R did call me later that nite and we talked on the phone for about 2 hours. My parents were both away at the time which made it much easier. He asked me out the next day and I shyly said yes. He drove all the way from Ampang to pick me up and we ended up going to Rasta chaperoned by Ms M and her then-fiance, F. We went out nearly every nite after that, mostly to Rasta, Sri Hartamas... makan² type places.

Our first proper outing about 2 weeks after the SOM show we went to Mid-Valley Megamall where we watched Johnny English (starring Rowan Atkinson!!), of all movies. Later over dinner at Nando's he gave me 2 silver rings which he'd had engraved - one with my name and one with his. He sort of proposed that we go steady (so high-school) and I actually agreed. I thought my heart was going to explode, I was so surprised!

The next day he took me to meet his mom at a friend's shop in Hartamas, which was totally unexpected. I almost died from nervousness. And again a few days later when we "bumped" into his whole family at KLCC.

My family of course were all kecoh² that I finally had a boyfriend. My aunts especially had been pestering me since I graduated in 2000... you know, all that crap about workaholics and andartus and stuff. In fact I remember my kakak saying before we went out on one of our dates : "You're going out with a guy? I don't believe it! If Hanna's going out with a guy then you can kerat my little finger!" (which she still owes me, by the way). So you can just imagine my reputation among my family.

It turned out that my mom's family knows his mom's family since both are from JB (kampung sebelah-sebelah, uncles played footie together, grandmas pegi mengaji together, yadda yadda yadda). Even my dad's family knew his dad's family from Penang. R was in the same school as Ms M's fiance. And so on and so forth. Dah jodoh, as the old people say.

We got engaged the same year in December. I can still remember the suspense when he sat down to formally ask for my hand from my dad. He still won't tell me exactly what my dad said. "You know, the usual." My aunts were ecstatic... their niece was laku after all! They immediately set about planning my wedding with my mom right down to the dresses my little cousins were going to wear.

Our wedding was in August, 2004. We had our nikah and reception at my parents house in KJ and the bertandang ceremony here. My hantaran was done by my paternal grandma, Tok Kecik while the groom's side was done by R's mom. I'll dig up my photos some time and post them.

You know.. I could go on forever about the early days of our relationship. I remember practically everything. How we woke each other up in the morning to go to work. How on his days off he'd drive all the way to KJ to pick me up and send me to work, even though I had a car. You know how couples sometimes dress alike, with matching shirts? We did that! I know it's cheesy but I thought it was so romantic at the time. We still do actually, except now with our son included.

So that's my story... It's fun to get nostalgic once in a while. We've been married for 3 years already with baby #2 due anytime soon. How time flies!

I might be taking a short break from all online activities to welcome the arrival of #2 so I'll see you guys when I see you!