Hazia’s Reflections

It was not just any ordinary day when Saedah and I met for the first time at Golden Landmarks Hotel where I stayed. It was like we’ve already known each other for years. That’s the power of the cyberworld, strangers could become everlasting friends within a heartbeat.

After having breakfast at Raffles Hospital, we grabbed a cab to Pahang Street. Yeah, it was nearby but with the sky pouring, imagine the ‘challenge’ of trying to find a place that you’ve never been to, and also without knowing its exact name and location:) Saedah bought me a little pink umbrella to brave the rain, hehe…we caught the Displacement: Project Bandung - Singapore 2006 at Orita Sinclair.

INNOVATIVE…

There were quite a number of quirky short films being showcase, the directors sure let their imagination run wild. My personal favourite (don’t be shock) was ‘Flushed Memories’ by Yusof Ismail - ‘A saga of public toilets in Bandung’, hehe…The film featured only white toilets, mind you, with flushing sounds effect, I actually watched it twice:p. I was too amused, that was first class creativity:)

Another one that I like was Memorial Hall - featuring this young haunting couple dating at several places in Bandung, on the trishaw, on the train, at a park…It always ended with the guy disappearing at some point of time…turned out that he was dead and she was with a ghost. That was strangely familiar huh, the guys disappearing bit I mean, not the death part:)

INTERESTING…

We continued catching up on each other’s juicy life stories over lunch at this nice new Turkish place around the corner. Not that that was much to share though, I read her blog regularly and vice versa, it was more to ‘clarify and fill in the blank’ kind of chat, hehe…We then rushed to the Asian Civilisation Museum to catch Sanif Olek’s short film, Lost Sole. Interesting to see how this old amnesiac or cuckoo Pak Cik was treated on his ‘day out’, both with kindness and harshness. A cute little girl gave him her ice-cream. We missed half of it though:)

One thing I loved about a rainy day outing was IT WAS COOL. We took a nice leisure walk over to Mc Donald at Boat Quay to meet the filmmaker himself, my, I felt so privileged:D. Sanif was both down to earth and lively. He was about to take off for the Big Apple soon to showcase his work, so lucky:D. I’d sure look forward to his new sitcom, a witty cooking show featuring 3 women in character due to be relased in August 2006.

INSPIRING…

Full of surprises and excitement, the day culminated with us sitting down with charming artist and filmmaker, Harman Hussin at La Pa Sat. He shared his dream of performing Haj this year. He would be riding to the holy city on his motorbike a few months ahead and stopping in several cities to film and document the lives of the Muslim communities along the way. I was excited as coincidentally, my parents and I would be doing Haj this year too, with God’s will (do read Blessed Too for the full story).

Wow, Saedah sure knew all the ingredients and spices that jived a REAL VACATION. I’ll let her plan my holiday anytime:D. Boy,it would be tough to top that when she comes to KL, hmm…

"There is no distance too far between best friends, for friendship gives wings to the heart."   

~Kathy Kay Benudiz~