Bismillah.

*clears throat*

Assalamualaikum wbt and a warm hello!

So here we go – a whole bunch of us bloggers who were huddled together many years ago via Sentraal Station, are now attempting to make a resounding comeback in blogosphere after being riled up into a cyber frenzy by Ailin Abdullah and the doyenne of Sentraal Station, Kak Teh. It really was quite spectacular to see everyone get all excited again about something in cyberworld (because let’s face it – a lot of what we read on the internet now is just pure spiel, hate, rubbish, fitnah, etc – hardly anything positive and ‘real’).

10 years ago.

That was when I stopped blogging actively. I did try to revive it on many occasions and for many reasons (10 years is lifetime) but I kept faltering. So one blog after another, they all fell into cold storage or oblivion. All 10 of them.

Until this.

I dare not make yet another full-blooded and passionate cry that ‘this’ is the real thing – especially after 10 years, .. but I will try.

If I was doing this alone, I am not confident I can persevere. But now that Sentraal Station has been resuscitated, perhaps it may be easier to wing this now, seeing as how we can all nudge each other on, yes? 🙂

I wish today’s inaugural post was more well thought-out and possessed ‘actual’ content, instead of just a ramble that is basically a buy-in for more time (i.e. next post, heh), .. but let me be fair to myself – I haven’t done this kind of unedited, uncensored, public free writing in 10 years. So baby steps for now.

Meantime, I think the best way forward for me is to reconnect with my previous blogger mateys on Sentraal and provide a short rundown about what’s been happening with yours truly in the last 10 years.

In gist, after we were demobilised from Cairo, Egypt at the end of 2008,:

• We rented a little shoebox studio apartment in the heart of KL in 2009;
• I had my own little op-ed in The M@laysian Insid3r, thanks to Dina Zam@n;
• We moved into our little house in PJ in March of 2010;
• Hubadubs (H) got word that he was being transferred to Dubai in May of 2010 and that we would follow suit in early July that year (we barely had time to warm the seats in our new home);
• July 2010 – moved to Dubai;
• Oct 2010 – my arwah Maktok passed away while I was in Dubai and it shattered me that I wasn’t in Malaysia;
• Early Jan 2011 – the Egyptian revolution took place (we had paid a visit to Cairo for New Year’s that year, just before the revolution);
• Early Feb 2011 – we demobilised from Dubai and returned home;
• Some time mid 2011 (I think) – I gave up my op-ed with TMI;
• Nov 2011 – Second bun was in the oven;
• July 2012 – Second bun popped, a girl this time – feisty, obstinate, free-spirited and yet tender (when she wants to be) little Sara;
• Nov 2012 – a day shy of my 40th birthday, I donned the hijab;
• Nov 2013 – my beloved 13 year old Tigger passed on;
• Some time last year – I adopted two moggies who were abandoned outside my vet’s clinic, and named them Mycroft and Moriarty.

These events are just plucked off the top of my head as to what has taken place in my little life during the past decade. There are stories buried within those events, and in others too – friends and family who have passed on, a great thirst to immerse myself in knowledge of Islam (to make up for all the lost time), the shocking reality of how life changes from having one child to two (I know, I know, I can’t hold a candle to those of you with 3 or more – what to do, I am weak), how life becomes increasingly hectic, how my perspective towards life changes, the frightening reality of how life around me is changing, how I myself am changing, .. so many things.

Blogging started off as a safe space for me to express myself. Over time, I slowly ‘exposed’ my online existence to real world acquaintances. It became a paradox – I gained readership, but I lost my writing/blabbing mojo due to self-censorship. Blogging then became arduous because there were things I wanted to write about but couldn’t. And hence how those almost 10 blogs came about, because I couldn’t decide how I wanted to approach the whole blogging thing. Plus I’m just inconsistent and flippant lah, period.

I readily admit that finding stuff to share on this blog will be difficult, as I have, in these past 10 years – conditioned myself to share less and absorb more, especially in relation to opinions and grouses.

But like I said, I will try. Consequently, this blog will remain under the radar, at least for now. Of course this is out there on the internet, but I’m not about to broadcasting its publication and creation either. 😉 Baby steps.

Plus, that gives me more room to express myself here, hehehe.

So to my dear blogger friends, how lovely it is to meet your acquaintances all over again, and a warm hello to all the new ones that I have not had the pleasure of interacting with before.

So 10 years and 10 blogs later, Blabarella blogs again.

#sentraalstationstrikesback #blogreviveday