A farewell and some stories

Ahh...had a pleasant meet up cum farewell for Liz just now. Iris, Faz, Farah & her hubby was there too. She's going to further her studies in Birmingham, leaving on Raya day.. Will be missing her loads sob sob... Gave her a Nick Hornby book - How To Be Good as a parting gift, for her to read on the plane

Reminisced about our gig experiences together. Talked about future gigging plans (in Japan maybe? Loads of saving to be done for sure)

This then came to Iris' experience of how she had to overcome all sorts of challenges. She is from a poor family, from a small town. She had to work immediately after finishing her SPM, then her STPM. She never took money from her parents (they couldn't afford to), instead she contributed to them. She took study loans to finance her studies, and it was during the economic downturn, and the interest rate was 12.75% Crazy or what?! That was really sky high. And it was a twinning program, with a year study in the UK. It was really tough for her. And all that while, she was also working, to pay back the loans. She ensured she didn't flunk any papers as that would mean more money to burn to repeat the papers.

I wrote about a similar experience from a girl I met on the bus one day back in 2006 here. It's a lengthy conversation, but do read it. You'll feel how lucky you are and be more thankful of the things you already have, but others can only dream about. (Reminder to self too)