Hate This & I'll Love You

"Whoa! You just stole my meal! Now I'm going to make you pay for it!"
"No, I'm not gonna! I'm not gonna!"
"Well, I knew you were going to say that. So I already paid it using your card."
"Aww...wait, no! Wow, that was harsh!"
"You well deserved it! Ha! Ha!"

The first time she did it, it was adorable. The second time she did it, it was cute. The third time she did it, I smiled. The fourth, fifth and probably sixth, or was it seventh? Well, I still didn't mind. She was lovely, my own sun that shone on me, warm and welcoming, and my life was at its best! She completed me.

"You know, instead of making you pay for meals using your very own card, oh sorry! Cardsss.."
"I get your point."
"...I think I should use them on something else. Maybe some shoes? Bags? Huh?"
"You know, when you speak that way with that smile and gesture, you really look like a witch with breast cancer."
"Breast cancer has got nothing to do with the way I smile!"
"Well, I did mention 'gesture'..."

There was one moment of hesitation in my years with her, when she asked me to take her home after work and I refused due to a possible super heavy traffic in her area. She didn't say anything. An hour later she called me, crying, saying, "Next time you picked me up whenever I asked you to! I almost killed a man!"

"What happened?!!"
"He tried to snatch and grab me."
"Huh?"
"He tried to snatch and grab me! What are you? Deaf?"
"I thought you said... you almost killed a man...?"
"Well he tried and failed! It was raining, he slipped right before he reached me. So I hit him instead, before he could get me."
"Well, are you sure he had that intention to... snatch and grab...you?"
"That's what I meant by "I almost killed a man!". I was scared! You didn't want to pick me up! So I panicked every time I saw a man! What do you expect?"

On my 25th birthday, she bought me a cake. There was a face on it, 'me with a baby smile' she said. She bought me no present because, she told me, "A babbbbyyy doesshhhhnnn't know anythiiiiingggg about a presheeennntt!", while pinching on my both cheeks.

"I hate this song."
"What song?"
"'Hate This & I'll Love You'"
"Then don't listen to it."
"But I want to listen to it!"
"Then listen to it."
"But I hate the feeling this song represents!"
"Is it possible that if you hate this song, you'll love the feeling it represents?"
"It could be."
"Then do it."
"Okay!"

She never did. She kept listening to the song and got very grouchy afterwards. It would be me, only me, who was able to put those witch-like smiles back on her face. It was supposed to be that way.

But it wasn't. Because I never let her keep my cards. I never said anything about the way she smiled. I never thought about taking her home from work, ever. I never picked up the phone when she called. I never wanted the cake because I threw it away. I never listened to her complaints about the song. I never cared. And for all the possibilities that could have happened if I was different, I wish now I could have cared.

This story has got nothing to do with anybody. It's 100% fictional.

"Your Daddy's Cool...!"

"I hate him! He always says that I can't have it because it's not for me. Says that a good kid should never play with that kind of things! But what does he know? I'm the kid, not him!"

Rishi shouted out what he had in mind. He hated his dad for not buying him the scooter he wanted. It was blue in colour, with some black stripes on it, a combination that had been his favourite since he watched the new 'Ultraman' series. "I love that scooter! It's got my favourite colours on it! It is literally Ultraman Agul's scooter!"

"But maybe your dad was right. You see at school, bad kids always ride on scooters to chase and bully other kids. Maybe it is true that a good kid should never ride a scooter...", his friend Jaban defended his bestfriend's dad. He had always admired Rishi's father, especially since the day he scolded those bad kids who had been making fun of him. They used to call him 'Jamban'. Not anymore.

"Ahh! The truth is, he doesn't have the money to buy one for me! What a lame dad! Everyone's daddy is like.. rich or something. You see Daud's dad? Yesterday he bought him another Barbue doll that cost him about 27 hundreds ringgit!"

"You... want your dad to buy you a Barbue doll? That's silly...", Jaban responded sceptically.

"No! What I'm trying to say is, his dad got him a very expensive toy! Just like that!" Rishi argued.

"Nah, Daud's lying. There's no way that Barbue doll cost 27 hundreds ringgit! With that amount, you can buy... eleven cars!", he showed all of his fingers from both hands excitedly.

The next morning, Rishi's dad entered his bedroom. He woke his son up and brought him outside. Right when he set his eyes on the thing in front of him, a series of happy-like adrenaline rush took over Rishi's body. In great excitement he cried, "Whoa! A mountain bike! A mountain bike! Thank you, daddy! Whoa! Whoa!"

While watching his son trying to get on the bicycle, he said, "Now that's what a 7-year-old kid should ride. Not some stupid-looking scooters. Next time when those boys try to tease you again, you outrun them with the speed of light! You have bigger wheels! Come on!"

Rishi had not learned how to ride a bicycle, yet. So he pulled his new 'toy' by his side and went straight to Jaban's home as quickly as possible.

"Dude, your daddy's cool...!", Jaban was impressed, again.

A New Place To Learn English

Let's Get Whiteboard-ed

Straight to the point, me and my friend Syafiq (again) are co-hosting a new blog called 'Let's Get Whiteboard-ed'. The main purpose of this blog is to make it a community where anybody who loves English can share what he or she knows or wants to know about the language.

But the best part is, when we said 'share', we literally meant it. If you have ideas about teaching methods, learning skills, study tips, classroom experience or anything related to English education, we encourage you to write it down in a form of a writing and send it to us! If it's good, we'll publish it on the blog with your name as the author.

Some people complain about their level of English proficiency and how to improve it. Well now we have one of many solutions - start reading and writing!

Other than that, 'Let's Get Whiteboard-ed' will also be a place where you get to know about news and what's going on with our country's English teaching and learning. There you'll find links that direct you to a lot of important websites, important as in for; research papers, English games, literatures, dictionaries etc. I'm sure they'll be good for your classrooms (if you're a teacher) and studies (if you're still studying).

You can check how to write to us (really simple steps) on 'How You Can Contribute' on our page.

Anyway, do have a look and think about it, okay? We wish you all the best and we surely hope this new site can be of help.