Princess Socks in pissed! As well as Abang Q...

"You wanna explain why you let me sneak into the room and hide under the bed so you can't see me when you leave the room?"

*backstory, read Q's first ever WhatsApp message to me.

Goodbye is never easy

I was the little girl that you spoiled to bits, and you are the first man I had wrapped around my little fingers.

My first scrambler bike ride.

My first banana split, at the best ice-cream joint in town, which happened to be a pub off Beach Street.

My first kebab burger from that place on Esplanade.

They were all with you.

And you bought me my first 24 colors Colleen color pencil in the prettiest tin with Takahashi Makoto's shoujo girl on it, that was the envy of all my classmates.

All that before I turned seven.

Then you moved on with your life, getting married and having a family of your own. And I grew up.

Once in a while we'll bump into each other, but we never got close again, until a couple of years back when we started going to your printing press again. Learning much about you and the life you led, bantering and arguing, and at times switching roles of being the adult while we chat.

Today, I went to your bedside in the ICU to bid my final goodbye. And I stayed to watch over you as your breath gets shallower, as the number for your pulse on the monitor gets smaller and smaller, and finally watching life leaving your body as the sun begins slip into twilight on this Friday evening.

Good bye Abang Taufik, thanks for the memories, and thank you for teaching me a few things about life.

Innalillahiwainnalillahirajioun.

~Taufik Sheikh Sulaiman Rafie~

1958-2018

My favorite store on Carnavon Street

My knees go weak, what ever self-restraint I thought I still have remains on the curb of Carnavon Street.

My eyes gets glassy seeing all the colors looks deliciously enticing. Pens, paints, and markers, crayon, watercolors and pencils, if I can't have them all, I must at least have a few, or (when Zz is hovering) just one.

Don't even let me begin on the papers! I get a high running my fingers on the different textures and material, in standard sizes all the way to a giant roll. And the brushes; did you know DaVincci makes sable makeup brushes too?!

Welcome to my Kryptonite, Nanyang Book and Art Supply Store.