Today is 1st June. To many, is it just the start of winter in the southern hemisphere, but to me and MR K, it signaled a start of a beautiful journey together. Exactly seven years ago today, we officially became a couple (pak toh/go steady lah). Many have asked us how we met and started going out. I have never really told the story in full, until now.
Well, it all started from a summer bbq…
We both came to Auckland to study at the same university. As usual, Malaysian students normally hang with the same crowd, so we were introduced by a mutual friend during an evening bbq. My first impression of MR K? Quiet, soft-spoken and a total kayu (wooden). After the courteous greetings, we hardly talked to each other (well, he hardly talked). As we are both good friends to our friend V, we often hang together with the same gang. So eventually I started to notice him more and felt sparks loosely flying around. Heh! He on the other end, being the mr nice, timid, reserved type, didn’t feel a thing. Though that being said, our friendship grew stronger, and he started to open up to me and tell me things deep in his heart that had never told to anyone else before. Of course, being the kayu(wooden) that he was, he didn’t realise the sparks, and needed to be reminded by our mutual friend V, who has been in-the-know all these while. So on the faithful early hours of 1st June 2000, he asked me to be his girlfriend when we were chatting via icq (hey, that was the in thing back then ok!). And the rest, like they said, is history.
Some of my friends were quite surprised for my choice of boyfriend back then as we are the total opposite. He is quiet, reserved, nerdy and kayu(wooden). On the other end, I am noisy, passionate, talkative and warm. You can see we are at the total opposite ends. Right down to our educational backgrounds and families. He is a banana from a pure English speaking family who hardly speak Cantonese, let alone Mandarin; I am from a pure Chinese speaking family who speak mostly Mandarin. God certainly likes to play match-making in the strangest ways.
I remembered my dad’s words just before I left for New Zealand, ‘don’t get a boyfriend who is of different descent, I won’t approve.’ So instead, I found a banana who is somewhere in between. I am sure my father’s heart died a little when he knew this (just joking lah, my father likes him very much). So imagine the scene, me speaking to him with my broken English and Cantonese, and him trying to figure out Mandarin. Luckily. years passed and my English and Cantonese improved a great deal since then(thank you MR TV!); him on the other end, is still trying to figure out Mandarin. Though the once kayu and geeky guys actually turned out to be a warm and fun-loving man. So, underneath the icy exterior, there is a warm mussy heart. Heh!
So there, my love story, hopefully it is not too lovey-dovey to read. 
*banana = yellow on the outside, white in the inside. Loosely describing Chinese who doesn’t speak Chinese.
