‘Many Happy Returns of the Day’, Honey Dear!

Try it! Say it out loud, ‘Honey dear! Yes, Honey dear! No, You can never say it that well. You cannot call out loud to someone dear to you when saying ‘honey’. The word has to be taken softly. The same thing with ‘love’ or ‘yang’ (short for sayang) It must be softly whispered, sometimes barely audible.

You would have to be physically close to your loved one to utter such endearment. I could never call out to my loving wife Shadah ‘honey’ or ‘ni’ when more than 5 feet away. It cannot be me in the lounge and she in the kitchen and I shout ‘honey’. No, it did not work out that way. If I have to call out to my loving wife I would have to come closer to her.

And another thing. I had never for the life of me called my loving wife ‘yang’ . Not in front of others as it sounded odd. It was embarrassing, and others hearing it would feel uneasy (meluat). But some people do and are proud to do so. At least ‘ni’ sounds like a name and sounds pleasing enough. I would always settle for ‘honey’.

Somehow ‘honey’ is universal and I very nearly always use it. It changed slightly when they came into our lives.(read: children) In front of them I would use ‘your Mama’ or call out ‘mama’ instead of honey. In our private moments it is still ‘ni’, even now.

Recently Zee Avi was in town. She’s the 23 year old Miri-born who was discovered through her ‘You Tube’ recording of her own song called ‘Poppy’. I’m saying this because one of her recent hits is called ‘Honey Bee’. On hearing it on the air, it rekindled times of togetherness with my loving wife, ever so sweetly , and it lingered on.

Zee Avi is special. I like her style. She is an acoustic guitar and an ukulele strumming singer and song-writer. Her rendition of “Honey Bee’ is plainly music to the ear, nothing pitchy, no high notes nor screams. It is so serene, innocent and peaceful. Her songs are reminiscent of Norah Jones on piano.( you can google more of her songs on You Tube)

Let’s get back to reality. Actually my loving wife’s birthday was on April 03. Yesterday, April 04, Adura and Hafidz (read: children) treated us to lunch together with their respective families . The option for lunch over dinner was prompted by the kids , Norman,Kimie,Nabil and Sarah Aishah (read: grandchildren ) who need to be early to bed. Azhar, my youngest boy chose to miss this out to attend a wedding in town instead.

As to the venue, both Adura and Hafidz chose a quaint little Korean Restaurant in One Utama that offered something different – a Korean buffet with a DIY grill-and-boil set-up (grill plus steam-boat like ) for each table. I thought it was perfect, not lavish nor overly crowded. It was ok.

It seemed to be popular with the younger set too. The attraction as opposed to a Japanese fare is pretty obvious. It is different, more savoury, spicy and hot ( akin to a Thai offering) The pickled kim chee ran out fast and was being topped up every now and then.

Last year, we had it at the Shogun, a Japanese buffet in town where it was practically twice as expensive (for the same number of us)

It is a far cry from those days , when I was in my final year and Shadah a freshie during Orientation Week. We would adjourn on my 2-wheeler to Amjal Corner (the eatery at the main entrance of MU) where RM5 could fetch 2 plates of whatever plus drinks ! ( I think it is no more there now, a sad casualty of road alignment works)