How we met
Written by Fozzil:
It was back in 2004, when I met Siti Nadhirah at a soccer tournament that was held at my university, Edith Cowan University (Joondalup, Perth, Western Australia). She was a member of her university's International Students Service and was there to support her uni's soccer team that was playing against mine.
Picture was taken on the first day we met (Team UWA)
During lunch, when everybody was walking towards the lunch area, someone came over and asked, "Excuse me, sausage ni halal tak?" (Is the sausage 'halal'?) . I had a surprise when I turned around and saw a Caucasian looking girl standing next to me. I asked, "Eh? Orang putih boleh cakap Melayu?" (Eh? A white girl can speak Malay?). And she went, "Kita orang Melayu lah! Dari Ipoh!!" (I am Malay! From Ipoh!)I was so dumbstrucked by her presence, a Caucasian speaking to me in Malay? My friend leaned over and said "Angkat sua!" (Take it!).. He was implying that I 'go for it!
I must have listened to his advise, because although we didn't get together immediately after, we eventually did...
The Proposal
Written by Nadhirah:
9 December 2009, as usual we would give each other a call at the end of the work day on our drive back home. The funny thing is, my office (when I am in my office) is about 10 minutes from Fozz's house and his office is about 10 minutes from my house!
As I was updating him about my day, I mentioned that Nud cancelled her dinner plans with me (later I found out he had called Nud and managed to cancel our dinner plans without letting the cat out of the bag).
Casually he said "Since you're not doing anything, let's go for a nice dinner since we haven't done anything special for a while and it's our monthniversary anyway". So he took me to the Boatshed Restaurant.
Somehow during dinner he kept encouraging me to have dessert! And suddenly a thought came across my mind, 'Hang on! Is he trying to propose? OhmiGOD this had better not be a dessert proposal because I would be so upset!' (You see whilst working as a waitress during Uni days, the dessert proposal is just far too cliche and overdone!)
After dinner we walked along the Perth foreshore and sat on 'our bench'. He quietly took out two folded A4 paper sheets and said, "You know how you mentioned before how special it would be to have someone write a poem for you? I am no poet, but I will try".
As I was updating him about my day, I mentioned that Nud cancelled her dinner plans with me (later I found out he had called Nud and managed to cancel our dinner plans without letting the cat out of the bag).
Casually he said "Since you're not doing anything, let's go for a nice dinner since we haven't done anything special for a while and it's our monthniversary anyway". So he took me to the Boatshed Restaurant.
Somehow during dinner he kept encouraging me to have dessert! And suddenly a thought came across my mind, 'Hang on! Is he trying to propose? OhmiGOD this had better not be a dessert proposal because I would be so upset!' (You see whilst working as a waitress during Uni days, the dessert proposal is just far too cliche and overdone!)But dessert came and gone and nothing happened. So I convinced myself I was being paranoid.
And at the end of the poem, he went down on his knee and in between the tears, I said "I WILL! I WILL!"
I later found out he had asked my mum and dad for 'permission' to propose in October when he was in Ipoh for work and I felt sooooooo proud of my parents for being able to keep the secret from me for so long!
