At two junction

Gosh! It has been ages since I update anything. I have been busy playing with Wordpress that I neglected my first born baby here... Well, frankly speaking, I have not written anything in English for so long except for the emails that I have to respond in the office. Otherwise, I've been busy polishing my Bahasa, which I'm proud to say that I have improved compared to two years ago. That is a big change for me. However, I'm still struggling to respond an official email in Bahasa. Words didn't come that easily whenever I tried to write in Bahasa. Hopeless case! Hahahahaa..


Well, of late I have been thinking a lot, thinking about my future. Where I want to be not in few years time but next two months. Yup, my contract with 7E is going to end this October. To be more specific, it will end in mid-October. Not that they don't want me, but it was more of whether I want to continue with them.


Before I decided to come back from the semi-retirement, I was working on my pet project or sometimes, I called it Option B. I have been dreaming of this project since four years ago. Of having a bookstore and selling stationary, but over the years,  it changed. From stationary to cafe. So, for the past two years, I was working on the idea. Looking at the fund and the market and so on. Finally, I got the chances when I opted to accept the Maxis scheme. Off I went and happily putting the vision into the plan.


But... the vision, the dream was stopped by my sleeping partner. It took me about a year to convince him of this bookcafe concept. We started looking for the ideal location, and we found it and now we are ready to move to second gear. I also work on the timeline where it will be ready just in time when my contract expired.


The current project, which I'm currently involved is expected to complete by July, but lo and behold... the project got delayed. From July to October and now seems it will be delay further.


I scratched my head. I thought if the rollout takes place in July, the operation stabilization is expected for three months, then it is just nice for me to leave. But it doesn't look that way. Hmm... I can't be selfish and just pack and go. But my conscious mind tells me not to abandon my team. They are a young team. They need guidance, and they have been telling me not to go too. They wanted me to continue at least for another year.


At the other end, my pet project is taking shape. The idea that I conceive is slowly turning into a reality. The project is my new baby. I wanted to see it grow from an unknown to someone. I don't want to miss the steps, the fumble, and the push it going to make. I want to be there. To be together with my crew and to get the satisfaction of running my baby. It will give me the satisfaction.


In one hand, it is my responsibilities to my beloved team, while, on the other hand, it is my responsibilities to my own satisfaction and family. I have to think really hard about it and to decide the way to move forward. People might say, hire someone to run the business, but will I get the satisfaction? Maybe not.


So it is a tough decision for me. It is between my obligation to my team, my boss and my CIO versus my dream, my passions, and future... Whatever it is, I have him, the ALMIGHTY,  to seek for guidance. Insya Allah, I will able to make the decision soon. Meantime, I'll let my mind do the pro and con of continue to work or leave.

Until then.. goodnight.

Midnight Ramblings

This is what happened when I have nothing to update. So I rambled....

Zaiabdrahman: Hey Zai! Where have you been? You have been neglecting this blog for months. Just because you have a new boyfriend, you neglected me. That is totally unfair. What is so special with your new boyfriend?

zai: Calm down, friend.

Zaiabdrahman: Oh.. what do you call me?

zai: *scratching her head* Hmm... friend.

Zaiabdrahman: Friend? You told me that I'm the special one. The one and only one for you. Forever together. Do you remember that?

zai: *slowly nodding her head* But things happened. I need a more exciting boyfriend.

Zaiabdrahman: Now you called me boring.

zai: No..no.. I didn't mean that.

Zaiabdrahman: Then what?

zai: *Lost of word* Hmmm,,,,You need to be more flexible. The other guy can speak malay and english but you can only speak english.

Zaiabdrahman: I can accommodate that. I can learn malay very fast. It won't be a problem.

zai: It is to me.

Zaiabdrahman: What is the problem?

zai: The other guy wants me to be in an exclusive relationship with him

Zaiabdrahman: Are...are... you leaving me? *feeling sad*

zai: *shaking head* No, I would never leave you. I might be away for long, but I will always come and visit you. You are very dear to me. I first started with you. Learn my way around you. I can't just leave you like that.

Zaiabdrahman: *Feeling down* *Almost wanted to cry*

zai: Hey! Don't cry. You are a man. Fight for it.

Zaibadrahman: Tell me how?

zai: Just seduce my brain and my fingers. Get them to cooperate so that I can spend more time here.

Zaiabdrahman: That's it? Seduce your brain and fingers? I think I can do it. *smile slowly"

zai: *nodding head* Yup.. seduce them.

Zaiabdrahman: I will. I will.  Thanks love for the tips. I love you.

zai: I love you too... Bye.. I'll come again.

Zaiabdrahman: Oh please do that! Bye!

Knocking on our door...

Hello! I’m back. Have I been away? Not really. I was just busy playing with Wordpress. Trying to out what is good and bad about Wordpress. So far, I like it…. Check me out at zaiabdrahman.wordpress.com; just a caution though… the blog is in mixed lingo… I have english and malay update that I posted over there… Hmmm… actually there are more malay post than english.., apa-apa aja lah.

Hey, do you know that something is just lurking around the corner? No? Yes? Well…if you know it is good, if not let me tell you what it is… (1) Ramadan is just around the corner. It will be knocking on our door this coming Saturday. (2) Tomorrow is a big day for me and my hubby. It is our 22nd anniversary… Wow… it has been a long journey full of ups and downs, lows and highs… but I won’t share the story on my journey with my partner in crime today. Let's talk about Ramadan….

How ready are we with Ramadan? If you are adults and  teenagers , you should be ready. Ready to give our tummy a rest for a month. But is it really a rest knowing that our society has a tendency to eat a lot during iftar? Or some might be eating and drinking for three quarter of the night. Well, if you do, cut down on that.

Okay, back to my family. Are we ready? Of course… that is always a standard answer. Right? Well, actually my two young kids are really looking forward to this fasting month. They have been talking for a week on this. If Zaki is confident that he can fast the whole month, InsyaAllah he can, I’m not sure about Zara.

Zara is only eight and she has been having some tummy problem, on and off. To be exact, she has gastric. It will be very challenging for her. Well, nothing much I can do except to make sure that her condition did not get worse during the month of Ramadan. Anyway, both of them are not at the age where it is compulsory for them to fast yet. But somehow, they need to start practicing it.

Oh ya… in this holy month of Ramadan, Insyaallah, I am going to cut down on reading those books. What books? Hah…the lovey dovey, mushy mushy novels. I’m gonna spend, Insya Allah, more time reading the Al Quran and also a few books that I bought earlier like Aisyah Ummul Mukminin, Hassan Al-Bana, Salahuddin Al-Ayubi and few others. Those books have been in my TBR (To Be Read) list for quite sometimes. Instead of gracing my bookshelf, it is time for the books to grace my nightstands and my table.

Okay folks… gtg.. haha.. what the $$$$ is that.. Well... I got to go. I need to finish this book Cooper-K by RodieR before the month of Ramadan and also wishing you selamat berpuasa.
find

Exploring my new toy -

I'm still learning and exploring WordPress. So far, I 'm impressed with WordPress. Uploading pictures, copying contents from my blogspot to here is also easy. Checking on the stats is also easy as 1,2,3. But there are so many other things that I have still yet to explore.

I have not finished playing with the tools and all the linkage that is available.The tools and appearance will be my next target for me to play. Will changing the layout and colors as easy as blogspots? Fonts setting is another one that I'm looking forward to.

Besides the few good things that I have found, I have found one drawback. I might be wrong but this is what I found. WordPress gives limited space to each user. I'm not sure whether every one of the users is assigned 3GB in the beginning. So, people like me will find 3GB is enough. Eh... I'm not sure about it in the long run, but for now it is just enough. If you are heavy users and really use your blogs to generate income, you may need to pay for additional space.

Okay before I'm logging off, let's play with adding media this morning. Here...Unchained Melody by Righteous Brothers. This video is from Ghost movie which is one of my all time favorite movie. Oh yeah!... the lyrics attached is the lyrics too.

Oh, my love, my darling
I've hungered for your touch
A long, lonely time
Time goes by so slowly
And time can do so much
Are you still mine?
I need your love
I need your love
God speed your love to me

Lonely rivers flow
To the sea, to the sea
To the open arms of the sea
Lonely rivers sigh
"Wait for me, wait for me"
I'll be coming home, wait for me

Oh, my love, my darling
I've hungered, for your touch
A long, lonely time
Time goes by so slowly
And time can do so much
Are you still mine?
I need your love
I need your love
God speed your love to me
Lonely mountains gaze
At the stars, at the stars
Waiting for the dawn of the day

All alone I gaze
At the stars, at the stars
Dreaming of my love far away

Oh, my love, my darling
I've hungered, for your touch
A long, lonely time
Time goes by so slowly
And time can do so much
Are you still mine?
I need your love
I need your love
God speed your love to me

Paroxysm of Reminisce

Ever heard of this song before? Paroxysm of Reminisce. Huh! Can’t pronounce it? Haha....garbled it up? Whatever it is, this is my latest go to song when I need something to pump me up. What? An old lady listening to this kind of song? Hey!… I’m might be old, but I always feel young at heart.

When I first heard this song, my first reaction was “WOW," and seriously I like this song since the first time I heard it. This song has been featured in my playlist since they released it few weeks back.

Well… This song is by a bunch of guys that some of them, I know them personally. They are my son’s friends and, in fact, my son has some touch to the song too. A little tiny little bit of melody in there. Huh! Frankly I don’t know whether he has any contribution to the song, but for the past one week, they have been to my house practicing/recording some songs. Hmm…By the way, these guys called themselves ASADBand or As Simple As Death Band. Scary name  kan???

What make me so into this song. Well, whenever I listened to this song it reminds me the time of me and my brother and my sister imitating ourselves to be rock stars. We used to listen to Deep Purple, Led Zepplin, Uriah Heep and many other bands that I kind of forgot them. It was a joy for us at that time when the three of us will sit at the living room and have the LP record on at night. At that time, there was no CD or MP3 or iPod. Just the old vinyl record. Me always pretend to be Lee Karslake, the drummer, my sister guitarist and singer with my brother the lead guitar. Huh… What a memory it was!

Two days ago, I posted this song on my FB and tagged my sister. My sister commented, ‘Nice… ala-ala Iron Maiden.’ (just like Iron Maiden). That is a compliment from a person who listened mainly to rock and heavy metals.

Does this song has anyone else listening to it in this house. You bet! My three other kids love this song too. The have this song in their youtube playlist too. Ibu doesn’t have to influence them to listen to this song. They will search for it themselves.

I hope ASADBand will continue to produce good songs. And meantime, why don’t you hit the play button and enjoy the song


 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfLXc9M7g_c

Do you like it? And here is their first song, Your Rise, that they released it before Paroxysm of Reminisce.

Is it a special day?

Woke up with a pain in my back
And no water in the shower
Aaahhhhhh.....
Is it a bad day
To celebrate my birthday?

It was supposed to be
A special day to me
But....
My body has a different thing to say.

With hot bottle on my back
and a book in hand
I celebrate my birthday
with nothing on my mind

After half a century
My joints becomes rusty
With creaking here and there
It say take care

I used to be
the star in the team
With so much energy
It is the envy of the team

But thirty years of working
And a neglect to my body
I become fat and lazy

It is no one fault
That I becomes this big
But....
Can I dream
To be skinny again?

Yeah....
I bet you can.....

#Power of Attraction!....

p/s: This was meant for my other blog...

Getting fit again

Part of SAHM - feeding kitty

Hello! It has been a while since I update anything here. Didn't do it on purpose, but I was busy. Busy with my new life as Stay At Home Mom. Frankly speaking, all those years working in big corporate world didn’t prepare me for this kind of storm.

It has been two months of tiring world for me, and I am still adjusting to the new role. Well if it took three months for me to be confirmed when I was working so I guess I need that one more month to be confirmed that I am fit to be SAHM.

Ha..ha.. ha… whether I’m fit or not I will be stuck with this new role. Well not everything is bad in this new role. There are good and bad things… more good things than bad actually

Ah.. enough of my boring stories as SAHM. So what else have I been working on besides SAHM?

Well, working on my health. Well it was always my priority to get myself fit again. Years of neglect and abuse on my body did take a toll on my health. I was basically having big mobility issues last two years and guess what, the two months that I stayed at home has improved my health a lot. Especially to my mobility.

Last weekend, after months of avoiding going shopping I went to Alamanda. Heh! I walked for quite a distance before my back started to get cramps. It was basically walking, stopping, sitting and walking again for me. I was happy with that progress as previously I could only walk for 50-100m before my back started cramping and causing the whole body stiff.

And on Sunday, I went to Kajang Metro. This time shopping for printer. I was without printer for almost a year, and finally after putting off buying it for a few months, I finally get a Canon printer. Good enough to cater for my current needs.

Ha..ha..ha…..again, the same technique was applied as I was in Alamanda, but this time, I covered quite a distance before I need to rest and sit. That was an achievement, right? Yes, indeed!

But I have to pay for the price of overdoing this. My knee suddenly gets locked up, and I had a problem to stands for a while. Luckily I have the cooling pad that the moment I reached home, I applied it over my throbbing knee. It helps, but the soreness is still there.

And today, I feel much better. And I plan to do nothing for today…I need to give my knee some more rest. And also I’m going to cook curry – not chicken but crab… Wanna join me for dinner tonight?

Hahahaha....Okay..... got to go, and it rhyming with Let it Go which I’m listening to now… Chiao…

When I Saw an Old Picture of my Crush....

 Whoaa….. I saw a picture of my crush few weeks back, and it was an old picture. The picture was taken somewhere in the early 80’s, and it was taken in ITM or now famously known as UiTM.

You might be wondering how on earth I managed to get hold of this picture. Well someone from my batch were kind enough to upload his collection of pictures during his college days.

I was looking through the picture one by one when this particular picture and one particular person caught my eyes. Caught my eyes only… Nothing extraordinary happened. My heartbeat still beat at the same pace. The only thing happened when I saw that picture was it brought back some of the memories…. Angau time I called it.

What happened to him after college? I don’t know. But I guess he must have gotten married and with few kids. Heh! Who knows, he might be a grandpa already. Hehe… I might be wrong, but didn’t that normally what people do? Graduated, get married, have kids, and the cycle goes on. Well whatever it is, I wish him all the best.

So here is the picture and you may guess which one is my crush. Haha.. Few of them tried but failed to guess it correctly. Do you want to try? Be my guess….

My Saturday

It’s only one week and I kind of lost track of days. For past three days, I thought it was Saturday.  Three days ago, I went to hospital thinking it was Friday and when the nurse told me it was Wednesday, it took sometimes for me to register it is not Friday yet. I’m afraid that by end of January, I might totally forget the day and date.

Today, I know it Saturday because my hubby told me yesterday that we are going to IKEA. Hmmmm….. IKEA is the place where I try not to go there.  My hubby can be in IKEA for hours.  He simply loves the place.

He wanted to get a new bookshelf. I just don’t understand how many bookshelves that he wants. We already have a few. Let me count…  one in the family area, one in Syafiq’s room, one in Zara’s room, one big one in the family area and one in the guess room. So all in all there are five bookshelves.

My hubby said that the new one is meant for Zaki and Amir. It is not purely for books only, but also for Amir’s tools and whatever he created.  I agreed with his reasoning so off we went to IKEA after our breakfast. We wanted to beat the crowd, and we managed to that.

I didn’t follow him circling IKEA. I waited for him outside the cafeteria but I didn’t eat anything. I had roti canai for my breakfast at Islamic Kitchen, so I was still full. He said he would be fast, and while waiting for him, I watched people passing by. Interesting observation!

True to his word, I didn’t wait that long. Within 30 minutes, he has made the selection.  I thought that we will go straight to the racks to collect the shelves, but he has other plans. He detoured and started to buy plants, pots and container. Hmmm…. Sabar aje lah…

By the time we left IKEA, it was almost twelve and the kids tuition will start at two-thirty. So, there is not enough time to get the Sg Besi Nasi Ayam. Instead, we swinged to  Mac Donald next to the old Mint Hotel. I can’t remember the hotel new name. Actually, McD is no more my favorite. Dah bosan!

My hubby started to assemble the shelf after the tutors went back, and he managed to get it up by nine-thirty.  It was quite sometimes since he assembles anything. Haha,…. The next project is to get my hubby to assemble the coffee table that has been in the storeroom for more than a year.  I really hope that he will get the coffee table assemble.

Gonna Miss Them

Who will I miss most now that I’m no more the resident of the level six? Will it be my boss? Nah… he is just one of the guys.

What about my team? Yeah… I will surely miss them.. They are a bunch of good girls. Let see who they are.

Suja, my sidekick, who has been with me through thick and thin, who together swim, drown and float with me during the early days of outsourcing, who struggled together to understand those $$ signed and making a sensible report out of it.

Yeah…I have to say that our relationship is not only as a boss and staff but also as a friend. Sitting next to each other gave us lots of opportunity to gossip, and one thing that I’m going to miss most is teasing her.

Emma, Inez, and Julia are the other three ladies who I’m gonna miss too. Haha…they must be relieved now. No more tapauing for Zai. Actually, these young girls are my teachers. Whenever there are new jargons, they will be my reference point. Occasionally, they are my partners to discuss on the novels that we shared.

I’m gonna miss Kit, or sometimes when I’m in a teasing mood, I called him Kit Kat. He is the tallest guy on the sixth floor. There were a lot of things that we shared, mostly like kakak and adik. Whenever something bothers him, he will squat down between Suja and me. I knew then that he had something on his mind. We are basically a team. We can gang up and tease Inez and Suja at a click of our fingers. Same wavelengths when it comes to teasing. Ohhhh… how I’m gonna miss those moments.

I’m gonna miss the rest of the CCG teams too. Chris and his finance team are the busiest team. Always huddled together to look at the figure, and if not lucky all three will be sitting around the big boss table.

The contract team, Daniel, Anne and Ivan, is the quietest among the three groups. They daily activities are to read through the contracts or deals with things pertaining to contracts. They will sit and stared at the contracts and will only get up whenever there is something to discuss.

The noisiest team among the three is my team. Sourcing team or Girl Power, where we deal with vendors for quotation and other related sourcing activities. Haha there were times you can hear Inez screaming and shouting at someone over the phone. Hope she will tone down later. Don’t want her stress level to go up.

Others that I’m gonna miss is Mei Khuen and Wan. They are my basically my lunch buddies whenever my BFF not around or whenever times permit. I’m gonna miss our lunch at the break out area where we shared one story after another.

But one person that I’m going to miss most is Yati, My BFF. We shared a lot and discussed our life, our faith, our kids, hubbies, and families and of course about works. With Yati, it will always be a serious discussion, looking for some solution or advise. Our friendships will not stop here. We can always interact through phones and other media.

Also, I’m going to miss the people on the sixth and fifth floor. Even though I do not have any close interaction with some of them, but the spirit as one ISD is there. You have shown it during the teambuilding. Keep up the spirit and raise to challenge, my fellow ISDians…

Tale of Land of No Name - Final Episode

More and more people are coming to the land of no names. The older citizen of Land of no Names felt that they were not wanted anymore. Even though they felt that way, they continued to do their chores and works without complaint.

One day, there was news blowing across the land of no names that the powerful king is planning to take over the Land of no Names.

“Did you heard the news, John?” asked Matthew as they were walking towards the field.

“What news?”

“That the Northern King is coming to take over the land?”

“Really?”

“Yes and it going to impact us big time John.”

“What do you mean?”

“The new king said the land has more people than what it can offer.”

“So?”

“So there will be some people who will ask to go.”

“Go? Go where?” asked John. He looked worried.

“I don’t know. They will simply choose the one they don’t want and out you go.”

“Hmmm… you are pulling my leg, right Matthew?” John stopped walking.

Matthew just shook his head and continued to walk towards his house. John quickened his steps to join Matthew. Suddenly Matthew stopped and turned his body to look at his corn fields. The vast field was his property, and he didn’t want to leave the field.

“What if the king chooses me?” He mumbled.

“I don’t want to leave,” he shouted and quickly turned and walked to his house.

John was surprised to see Matthew’s behavior.

“Aahhh… don’t tell me that the rumor is true?” said John softly.

Now he’s worried. He also didn’t want to leave this place, the place where he learned his trade, the place where he met his wife, the place where his children grew up.

He walked to his slowly, thinking about what to do if the new is right. He needed to have plans if the king asked him to leave. Upon reaching his house, John quickly called his wife.

“Sarah honey! Sarah!” John walked to the kitchen where he normally found his wife.

“Oh dear! Sorry.... didn’t here you”

Sarah quickly went to get John a glass of water. John who was sitting at the dining table quickly drank the water.

“Thanks honey.”

“What’s up dear? You looked worried.”

“Hmm… Matthew told me that there’s a rumor going around that the land will be taken over by a new king. More people will have to leave the land.”

“What are we going to do John?”

“We need to plan, Sarah. We need to make sure that we have something that we can use when we leave the land.”

“What about the land, John? This is our forefather’s lands. It has so many memories.” Sarah wanted to cry.

“Sarah, this is just a rumor. Let’s think of our plan and execute it if it happens.”  Sarah nodded her head in agreement to what John’s said.

Somewhere in Matthew’s house, the house was noisy. As usual his young kids were in the house playing. Matthew sat at the chair in the living room, looking outside through the window. He sighed, thinking his future. He didn’t want to leave.

While he was watching the fields, Jane came out from the kitchen with a glass of water. She stopped when she saw Matthew was not his self. ‘What happened’ wondered Jane.


“Hi honey!” Jane greeted Matthew cheerful and gave Matthew a kiss on his cheek.

“Hi!’ he replied softly.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Just tired.”

“Hmm… Why don’t you rest first before dinner? It will be ready in twenty minutes.” Jane rubbed Matthew’s shoulder. Matthew nodded.

“Kids,” called Jane, “quiet, please. Daddy’s tired and need some rest.”

Jane went to the kitchen to prepare for dinner. Matthew continued to look outside thinking about his future.

Few months later, the rumors became true. One district after another has been asked to select who should be asked to leave the congested and overpopulated Land of No Names. Matthew and John were worried that they would be selected.

“I don’t want to go, John.”

“Ha? You don’t want to go?”

“No. I love this place, and I don’t think I can be apart from it.”

“Matthew, if you are selected you have no choice. You have to go. They will be paying you and you can start a new life outside this Land of No Name.”

“Do you want to go John? Really going?” Matthew asked.

“I am ready Matthew. I have made plans with Sarah what we going to do and where?”

Matthew was shocked to hear that John has planned. He never knew that John and Sarah, their good neighbor, has some planned if they selected.

“It is not too late to start thinking what you want to do,” said John softly to Matthew.

Matthew nodded and quickly went back to see Jane. He knew that he needed to discuss with Jane on their future. Upon reaching his home, he stopped at the door. Slowly he raised his hand and twisted the knob, at the same time thinking on his plan.

He went to the kitchen where Jane usually was. Slowly he walked to Jane. Jane, who was very engrossed in kneading the flour, was shocked to see Matthew. Normally, Matthew would still be at the field.

“What’s wrong baby?”

“Hmm… Did you hear anything about people was asked to leave Land of No Name?” asked Matthew.
“Yup I did. Why?” asked Jane.

“What if, we are selected to be the one?”

“Oh… just pack our things and go.”

“Go where and what to do?”

“Matt, I knew you are worried about this. I have already contacted my sister in the North. Her husband has a mill, and if we want to, we can join them.”

Matthew’s spirit went up. At least his wife has some planned, and now he can breathe easily.

“Thank you dear” Matthew gave his wife a kiss.
As Matthew came out from his house, he heard someone called his name. He turned and saw Gabriel.
“What’s up, Gab?”
“Hmm… I heard there’s a rumor.”
“What rumor?”
“The one that anyone of us can be asked to leave this place.”
Matthew nodded.
“I’m scared. I’m not ready Matt.”
“Pray that you are not selected.” Matthew turned toward the field.
Gabriel sighed.
“Gab, one more thing. Start planning for other thing if you are selected,” shouted Matthew.

Two weeks later, the King called them to the castle. John, Matthew, Richard, and Thomas were called. All four knew that they were the selected one.

“Dear all,” said the king, “You knew why I called you here, right?”

"Yes said John. The rest nodded.

“The new ruler wanted the piece of your lands. They wanted to build a new castle for the king. You will be paid for the lands.”

“How much, sir?” asked Thomas.

“A lot. Will a pouch of gold coins enough?” He showed a medium size of pouch that has been filled with money.

The king asked his general to hand the pouch to the four of them. There were names written on the pouch. The four opened the pouch and smiled. It was more than enough to last for few generations.

“Thank you sir,” the four said at once.

“Oh ya… you have, until the end of the month to move out.”
The king reminded them.

They rushed home and told their wives. Everyone was happy. Who have thought that their land would purchase such a fortune? But they didn’t know that each of them received different amount. It depends on the size and location of their land, but whatever it is, it is more than enough.

Gabriel upon hearing that Matthew and John were selected was relieved. His name was not mentioned, and he could continue with his life. Gabriel went to see Matthew.
“Matt, I heard the news.”
“Yup Gabriel. I was selected, but I’m very happy. It gave me an opportunity for me to do other things.”
“You are not sad, Matt.”
“I am, but life has to go on,” said Matthew with a satisfied and happy grin.
“All the best mate.”
“You too.”
Finally, the time has come. Everything that they wanted has been loaded into the wagon. The kids and the wives had said goodbye. Matthew and John for the last time stood together looking at the fields which they have been doing since they were small.


“I’m going to miss this place,” John said softly.

“Me too. There are too many memories.”

“Yup. Matt, did you remember when we first played in the corn fields?”

“Hmm… when we couldn’t find our way home where our parents and the neighbors have to help to look for us.” Matthew laughed.

They stood there reminiscing the old days remembering all the important events that happened to them. They were silent. No words could describe how the felt. For the last time, they looked at the place knowing that, it won’t be there anymore. Their houses and fields would be replaced by big castles.


Sara and Jane, who watched from the wagon, walked to their husband. They stood beside their husbands. Holding hands and saying goodbye to the place that has served them.


“Good bye, but forever you will stay in my hearts.”