I felt so good to spend the new year’s eve in Alexandria over my friend, Hasyimi’s house watching the blue sea and drenched myself into the cold and freezing wind by the sea shore. That very evening, I sat on the big block of rocks, probably put there to withstand the strikingly strong blow of sea waves. Mediteranean seas are often wild and raunchy this season. Yes, winter is coming and in fact came and in Alexandria, you can feel nothing but coldness. That’s what I need. Something to cool myself down. If I am to look back at the previous year, a lot of things came by. Horrible, nasty, insidious. Come out with all the negative words by all mean, but at some point I like it. That’s enough with last year. As the new year arrived, I decided to make some accomplishments. This time, the real practical and surreal accomplishment. To write a book ( as what I am doing now ), to pass medical school with flying colors ( what I am doing now also ) and to master crochet. The new passion I just discovered during my fifth year final examination. It’s very funny actually to recall on how I just started to love crocheting. It was weird at the first time but self-satisfying as the interest progress. Even though it has been two months I think since the first video I watched on you tube, I can still remember the excitement that I felt when my finger very delicately managed to pull off a strand of a finger-crochet project. It was simple as the instructor told me ( in particular ) that the most important thing to do or to have when you do this is your passion. At that time, I was only thinking about getting my mind off medical stuff. Well, that’s what everybody is doing during the test. But I simply didn’t want to just do something that everybody else is doing. Although I am not a risk taker, I like craft. So, the first day I learn to crochet was the frist day I know, I can succeed in this field. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to be a doctor. Or at least a medical professional. Let’s just think this as a hobby. I write. In fact I write a lot. So is reading. I do them everyday . So, making crochet as another hobby won’t hurt so much.

Alright, back to Alexandria. As I sat n the big rock and the cold wind keep hurling themselves around me, I was reading a book about motivation and I was holding also with me, on my lap my laptop and a book about literature, a malay literature book. At that time, I wanted to write a short story. However the ideas and inspirations were all over the place between getting my nose on the laptop and start to write something quick and trying to get myself away with ….. crocheting. Since the main reason I came to Alexandria is to finish my short story collection, so I decided to leave all my crochet tools behind. It was devastating when you’re reading a book and your mind is filled with imaginations of what you want to write but as soon as you want to write, you just can’t. it’s horrible. But I just wrote it anyway. This time the short story is about a goldsmith who is a master of gold and jewelry. He wanted to present the royal family with some luxurious gift made of gold and silver but he was out of gold unexpectedly. We went to search some gold in the forest and the gold mine was nowhere to be found. He was so upset and started to cry because he think that without the gold, there will not be any luxurious gift. How can he be named the goldsmith but make something without the gold. Out of the blue, he reckoned a cockatoo on the branch of the tree where he sat. The bird started to knock on the tree to make holes as it supposed tto and that took a quite few hours to complete the task. The goldsmith finally realized that a luxurious gift was not about what it was made of. It was about by whom it was made and how does he make it. So he went back home and started to assemble every piece of minerals and granites he possessed and began to work on his mojo. When he arrived at the castle, the royal highnesses were amazed by the beautiful heart pendant. It was luscious and sparkling. When the king asked him, with what the pendant were made of, he replied humbly ‘With my own respect and loyalty’ and the king instantly reward him with a chest filled with gold so that he would never loss the might and aspiration to work.

As I penned down, it just came to me that I am the goldsmith. And everything I do is the ‘heart pendant’ I was telling about. Even though I may not be the greatest writer of all time, or the brightest medical student in my school, or even the most skillful crocheter, I will still do them because I know. That’s where my love lies. And I will lose nothing if I do them with respect and dignity !