Catching fireflies

Once upon a time , there was a little girl, who wanted adventure and fun. But life wasn't all it turned out to be.
Loosing hope, she joined the mundane life until ONE DAY, on her way to to a company dinner, she lost her way. Seeing light in the sky, her curiosity got the better of her....was it an alien? Was it a shooting star...was it a construction sight? Was it radioactive? Was it a trap? Cautiously arm with the steering lock and a spanner ,she clambered out of her car and slowly with her pink imitation jimmy cho's climb a few rocks. The light was getting brighter. LO AND BEHOLD in front of her were a swarm of fireflies, dancing in the dark.Laughing and jumping and dancing for a moment the young woman forgot her worries as she was surrounded by the fireflies.

All about mika

https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/113782955-all-about-mika

Lisa has lost her job. It is not the first job that she has lost , she just couldn't hold on to any job. She finds all her jobs impossible.
      Before she gets nag by her parents for the gazillionth time, Lisa took the first job that she came across. 
      Except that, this is one job that she couldn't seem to get out off .

General Fiction

Elephant and his mom short story

Short it is  😀

Animation and art color

Been bored lately so doing art work and also videos to past the time away.

All about Mika

Inspired from the classic story "waterbaby".acrylic on stretch  canvas

I did a new story title All about Mika. 

You can view it at 

https://www.wattpad.com/430789547-all-about-mika-day-1

Only at day one and then got stuck again.

Art gallery

A rainy scene in the middle of town. Using watercolor

happy teachers day. Using pastel

A rendition of fiddler on the roof and mary poppins. Medium . Water color

Samsung galaxy table . I walk alone

Samsung galaxy tablet. Gazing

Just a short snippet of me and exercising

Watercolor Sink or swim

Scribbles

You can also see the video at,

https://www.facebook.com/syazlin.imran/videos/10212963795389251/

Train trap

I've posted this fiction story a few years  back (2013 to be exact )as an attempt to write
 a ehhhhhhhhhmmmmm slightly weird supposedly  romantic scene ( ok how am I suppose to know romantic I read Stephen kings' books. )

What people don't know was that the incident actually happen. I would have fabricated 50% of it but the other 50% was real.

It was during the time I was doing my bachelors degree in International Business at Uitm  in Shah Alam. It was already late but I had to go back home to my hometown to use the computer and printer for an assignment.
THINGS THAT ACTUAL DID HAPPEN.

1)I did reach KL late and yes,  I did fall asleep
2) yes,  when I finally woke up everyone had gotten  out. All of them were rushing to go back or grab the last taxi. It was almost 12am.
3) yes,  the lights went off and the doors automatically shut
4). Yes when i looked  behind there was a young man sleeping in the seat behind me. It was n't  a dramatic thing, the lights  actually went off  when he opened his eyes.
 5) yes,  he was more alarm than me.
6) yes, the train was moving away from the station and parked slightly further away .
7) yes we did run from one carriage to another to the driver's compartment.
8) yes, I did jump from there to the gravel track
9) yes,  we did walk together.
10) he did ask for my number.
11) No , that was the last time I saw him......ever.



I'll just show you the snippet and you might have an inkling of what happened.  So just stomach a bit of my corny writing 😋🤐

Chapter 1

The train heading towards Seremban was late.

Sharifah looked at her watch, 10.00 o’clock . She bit  her lips. There were fewer  people on the platform. The Pelabuhan Klang train had passed twice and still there were no sign of  the her train.

It was almost 10.15 when the train came into the station. Sharifah  perked up when  she saw it was the  train with the two row seats.  Two row seat means more place to sit and more privacy. Perfect to snuggle and get some shut eye on her one hour and a half trip back to Seremban. Sharifah made her way through the aisle. There was  no one in her carriage except for the Malay couples at the back row. They were giggling and holding each other as if  their seats were not big enough to accommodate them both. Sharifah settled down on her seat and hugged her knapsack to keep her warm from the cold temperature in the commuter. Before she knew it she had dozed off…

     Sharifah opened her eyes groggily. The train had stopped. What station was it? She looked out of the window and saw that a lot of people had gotten off the train. Still groggy, Sharifah sat straight on her seat. Slowly she stood up and searched for the couple at the back row. They were gone!

     ‘Calm down, Sharifah, probably they had gone down on the earlier stop’, Sharifah tried to rationalize. Sharifah could see more people disembarking the train .Her eyes darted to the door. It was closed! Why was her door closed ?Sharifah felt all her blood had drained. Her heart was thumping so hard she felt that she could hear it echoing throughout the carriage. She was rooted to the spot as the dreadful truth crept up to her. She was all alone in the locked train and nobody saw her! She tried to force herself to move and was about to rush towards the door when Sharifah noticed the young man sleeping peacefully behind her. That was when the lights went out…..

     “This is bad,”said Sharifah to herself. The young man stirred and woke up. He rubbed his eyes and looked at Sharifah, dazed and confused. He jumped up when the train started to move again. Sharifah shouted and hit at the window trying to get the attention of the passengers remaining on the platform. They were too engrossed on their own activity that they didn’t see the two people inside.

The train came to a stop at a gravel track.

Sharifah slowly edged away from the strange, big yet, attractively handsome man. The young man was too busy trying to pry the door open to notice this. It was useless!. Without electricity in their carriage, the door was securely locked!  He started beating on the door and shouting as loud as he could ,terrifying Sharifah even more. She was nearly in tears.

 Here she was in a dark train with a total stranger, a man; no least and twice her size. Horror images came into her mind, news paper clippings appeared with stories :

GIRL FOUND STIFF IN SEREMBAN!

Nobody saw them…..

anything could happen in the train…….

The man lay his head on the glass window pane in frustration. His breath was heavy, fogging the window as he exhaled. He felt her presence near him and he looked at her. His face was half hidden by the dark. She didn’t know what he was thinking and panicked when his body turned towards her.

Sharifah was shaking all over. She was hugging her knapsack, her left hand dig into it trying to find the black pepper spray she kept in the bag. The man walked towards her. Sharifah panicked and stepped a couple meters back , her hand frantically searching for the spray. Where was it? Her finger found something flat and sticky and melting. Sharifah pulled out her hand. She cursed herself, as she had forgotten to eat the half uneaten Cadbury chocolate bar she bought that afternoon. Her hand was smudgy. At least she could smudge the man’s face and blind him with rich chocolate goodness!

The man was coming closer and he was breathing heavily. Sharifah yelped and turned 180 degrees and ran. There was a sliding door at the end of the carriage which leads to the other carriage. She tried to pull the door open but her body was shaking badly, pull as she might the door only slid open an inch. Her hands had turned jelly. Sharifah gasped and let go of the door. It closed with a loud THUMP! She could feel her heart thumping harder. She was so scared. She could feel him breathing behind her neck. Sharifah closed her eyes, trying in vain to control her body from shaking.

What should she do, what should she do?

 Her mind was trying to find a way but her body was frozen with fear. She did what anyone would have done in a dyer situation …..cry!

She cried and sniffle and sob, while still backing the door. The man was startled and stopped in his track. He seemed baffle at first and then he grab both Sharifah’s shoulder, which caused her to cry even louder! MAK!

Sharifah was too busy crying to notice that he had pushed her aside. The man turned his back towards her and tried to pull the door open. Sharifah’s tears subsided and she was starting to have the case of hiccups. The man managed to open the door and held it so that it wouldn’t slide shut. He looked at her and raised an eyebrow as if saying, ‘Are you coming?’ Feeling stupid and still having the case of hiccups she followed the man into the other carriage and rushed to the sliding door at the far end. The door was heavier this time and the man was breathing heavily when he opened the door for her. She passed him as he held the door open and could see his tired face. By the time they reached the other sliding door, the young man could barely open it. He slid down to the floor leaning on the sliding door. He wiped the sweat on his forehead. Sharifah looked at him and looked through the window pane on the door. She could see the driver’s cabin door on the other side of the next carriage; it was open. They were almost there! Sharifah put down her knapsack . SHE was not going to be locked in the train  with a man, no matter whether he was good or bad. Anybody who would find them the next morning would assume that they had slept together in the train. Who cares whether they were innocent or not. People will only say what they what want to say. Sharifah could see the headlines now.

‘UITM STUDENT CAUGHT IN JAINS (Jabatan Agama Islam Negeri Sembilan) RAIDE WITH A MAN IN A DESERTED COMMUTER TRAIN.’

Oh no ! She was not going to let that happen!

She pulled the door as hard as she could but it didn’t budge. She tried again, her hand was wet from the sweat she had drawn out from her earlier fright. She pulled with all her strength, leaning her body sideways to the left so that all her body weight was used to pull the door open. Her hand slipped from the door handle and she fell…..on top of the young man. He groaned in pain, Sharifah had fallen on top of his stomach. He looked up at Sharifah, his face twisted in pain. Sharifah tried to get up but was mesmerized by his eyes. Talk about cheesy in a bad situation! That close, she could see that it was hazel brown in color and although his face was twisted in pain,  she could sense that there was sadness in them.

The young man groaned again, this time a little louder. Realizing her position, Sharifah struggled to get up. She held out her hand to help the man up but he brushed it away and painfully got to his feet. Feeling foolish, Sharifah brushed her wet hands on her t-shirt and tried again to open the door. The door opened a bit. Sharifah pulled again and suddenly she felt a big hand on top of her left hand and felt a crushing pain as it put force on her small hand as they pulled the door open. Together they managed to pull the sliding door wide open. Sharifah’s hand was throbbing with pain and she looked up at the man to see whether he did it on purpose to get back at her but she didn’t get any expression on his face. He let go of her hand and merely walked passed her to the open cabin door at the other side of the carriage. Sharifah felt a little hurt. Massaging her left hand, she followed solemnly behind him. She stepped into the cabin and saw that the man had already jumped out through the drivers exit door. She couldn’t believe that the arrogant man had just left her ! Sharifah went to the door and looked out. It was a sheer 2 meters drop on the rail track. There were a lot of sharp small rocks below. Sharifah walked to the edge and sat down. She felt that she had a better chance of not injuring herself if she pushed herself off the edge sitting down then standing up!

Sharifah looked down at the track. It seemed so far down. ‘Here goes nothing,’ said Sharifah under her breath and pushed herself off the edge. She fell on her feet but lost her footing and tumbled forward. She would have landed face first on the track if it was not for a pair of hands  that managed to grab both her arms on time. The hands pulled her back and Sharifah turned to see the man smiling arrogantly at her as if saying ‘No, no, no need to thank me.’ Sharifah felt her face go red and would have walked a way until both of them realized that he was still holding on to her arm. The man let go of her arm  and turned his back towards her. He started walking along the railway track, with a sheepish Sharifah trailing behind. The man ignored Sharifah and whistled all the way to the platform.

That's all folks.

Born to be wiiiiiiiild

Ok, ok, I think I went over the top with the title.




But I AM adventurous  , I 'm bad,I'm mean ......I go to the extreme. OOOOH  you don't believed me.
Well I'd done jet skiing .......at 30 kmph .

On my defence,I was afraid I might hit someones' head. You never know anyone would be lurking underwater two kilometres from the beach.


It was a few years back, when I had a knack for new adventures.
I was stressed out from work and I wanted to go the beach to get my mind out of things. Beach at my home town was Port Dickson.

Little old me was walking on the beach, when I noticed that they were renting Jet skiis, Rm 45 an hour. It was low peak at that time and they didn't have any customer.

Internally I was playing tug and war with my conscience. Should I or shouldn't I, should I or shouldn't I?

My adventurous side was getting the better of me , I was stress anyway , why not just go for a cruise.

ON , I told the brother that was renting out the jet skii.

He took me out to the middle of the sea, well it was a few km from the beach. He showed me how to use the throttle, how to press the gas for speed.

He jumped on another jet skii and shouted to me to have fun.

I did have fun ! I was enjoying the wind on my face , the splurt of sea water as my jet skii gracefully crashed over the waves.

I was the king of the world!!!!!


Ahhhhhhhhh peace of mind.

I was daydreaming until I was interupted  by big waves.


Zooming pass me was a road runner on jet skii , full throttle with the engine blazing, the rider was doing tricks, swirling around , bouncing on the seat trying to control.

Vroomm, the rider swirl and did a sharp turn or what we call 'corner baring',
Before I can blink , he was at the far end of the beach.  It was oooo-ssome to watch his stunt. There goes the driver riding with the theme song Highway to Hell while here I was doing I think 30 cause there was no meter on the jet skii, doing a My little poney , my little poney.

Soon, my time was up. I turned back to the beach , and there was a small group as I approached.

Were they awe struck by my ability to manuever the jet skii by myself?

NOOoooooo....

They were laughing, as I was coming nearer, the guy that taught me earlier was laughing.

'That was the first that anyone got on a jet skii and did  30 kmph!"

Hmmmmmphhh, I didn't care what they think....I got on a jet skii that day and did it my way . Which was also the song that I sang as I drove back home.....


Next adventure.......


One of the things in my bucket list that I wanted to do was para- sailing.( the one with chute not the one with the glider)

I manage to get the opportunity when my family and I went for a vacation in Langkawi.

We stayed in  a motel at Pantai Chenang. We were lucky to get a room facing the sea.
Our room had a balcony where we lounge there taking in the sea air and the panoramic view.

One bright morning, I was sitting there all by myself, I saw a few people para sailing on the beach. I saw the motorboat launching them from the beach, a little running and there they were soaring up in the sky , being pulled by the boat further up into sky.

I want that, I said to myself. Besides I was already here , I had to do it.


I went to my parents and said I want to go para- sailing .

NO...was the answer. Now, some people would think their being overprotective , trust me their not, with more that five accidents under my belt they know how their daughter works. They were just cautious. Yes, I am independent and old but  they were my chaperone, out of respect I need to get their permission.

PLEASE.........NO.

And I did  what any reasonable adult would do........ehm...  I grovel...
Please ....one time.

For about 15 minutes.

At least , I guess I manage to mentally exhaust them....they agreed.

ON one condition , you bring your brother.

I looked at my little brother grinning ear to ear. If he had known what would happen , he  would have not agreed.


So happily, I went down to the beach and told the person in charge that I wanted to go para sailing.

Soon we were strapped up. They had spread the chute on the beach easier for it to open up as we were being pulled by the motorboat.

My brother was strapped behind me and I was in front. I was so called the look out person.


My brother's task was to pull the marked rope, left and right. Pull left to slowly descend then right  and then when reaching the ground pull both. Someone would be signalling us the instruction from the beach,

Easy peasy lemon squeezzy.

That was until they ask for both of our glasses.

Uh-oh what happens when you tell someone whose blind as a bat to para sail?

We didn't have enough time to argue.

The motorboat  was pulling our strapped, we were running on the beach and as soon  our feet hit the water, we had lift off.

Slowly , we were pull up to the sky, the chute had open up  pulling us up , up and away.

It was GLORIOUS.

I had my fear before taking off but being up there where you can see everything so small and beautiful, you forget everything. My brother was awe struck also as he was quiet well quieter than his normal self.

The boat took us to another side of the beach. I spreading my hands, Top of the World Baby!!!!!


Then blurily I  saw someone on the beach and he was waving both his hands.

Hey,hey, he's signalling.
Which side?
Both?
Are you sure?
Yeah?
Both?
Yeah....

My brother pulled both the rope and we fell.

Well,  we didn't immediately drop down, thank god as the parachute and the wind was protecting us from that but we were dropping and we were dropping at a quick speed on the sandy beach. As we were getting closer , I could see all the men running towards what they expected our landing spot. They were shouting frantically , waving their hands  madly

What are they saying? Asked my brother.

No, idea.


My brother was taller than me so his legs hit the ground first    both of us were flung to the ground and I would have gone face first into the sand had my brother not  manage to pull me. The parachute was on top of us.

All the around us the men working at the para sailing rental store was busy pulling the chute off of us , asking were we ok, were we hurt. I  could see their faces, they were pale and so was my brother.

Somehow during that death defining moment my adrenaline kicked in.

Lets do it again!!!!!

NO!!!

Oh well, I did manage to scratch that out of my bucket list although traumatizing my brother for a while.

That's all for now.

Daredevil wannabe out.....

Colors of the world part 3

Colors of the world part 3.

This art collection is a combination of samsung tab art digital,pasrel,pencil

and acrylic.

Blind date

Dear dairy,

I remembered my first date. EONs ago.

Not only was it my first official date in my mid 20s but it was also a blind date.
Meaning that I had never met the guy. Meaning that I only saw his picture which was passport size given to me...........Well, lets say by a well meant anonimous source. Meaning that it might turn out well or it might be a disaster. ( positivity was not my virtue)

Dates and I never turned out well........And these are non blind dates, the people that I bumped into either on a commuter train or on the bus.

If you're one of them and  reading this ,

I'm........ So .........Sorry.



There was one time, I got of work late and met this guy on commuter, nice chap and he actually asked me out the next day. (It was Saturday aaaaannnnd I had go to go to work) he was willing to wait.

I TOTALLY FORGOT HOW HE LOOKED LIKE! Our meeting point was Sogo ,a popular shopping complex in  the middle of KL. I was late  and Sogo was packed with the weekend shopping madness plus there was a sale.

I was suppose to meet him at thd lower ground floor.

Every where there were people.

I was walking around trying to remeber how he looked like and like in the movies the crowd parted and lo and behold I saw a young man standing near the wall. I walked up to him and hd smiled.

My heart warmed up, he was tall.

 I asked him , are you --------?

He shook his head and then he smiled warmly ,  he really had a  nice smile.

I smiled until I noticed that he was not smiling at me.

He was tall, and his gaze wasn't falling on my face , it went way over my head.


I slowly turned around , there behind me was a pretty young girl , well ,less pretty because she was staring daggers at me.


AND BEHIND HER.......

Was the guy in the commutter , how did I know that ? His glare was as heaty as Superman's heat vision! Ouch!


Needless to say that was the last time I saw him.

Now back to my story.... blind date....


Again, the place was Sogo. Just that this time it was weekday so lesser people. He told me where to meet.


This time I was ready.

I came early. I even memorised how he looked like from his passport size photo.

The plan was to meet him at 6.00 pm.

There he was leaning against a wall.

Looks ......Check ....... Samd as the photo.How did I know this, well I literally took out his photo.  Double, tripple, quadraple check.

I waited for a while at a handbag stall to make sure he was not with anyone.

You know I  didn't  want to be bludgeoned by an  umbrella or french bread  by his partner if he was waiting for someone aside from me.

Five minutes pass.

 Well nobody was going to meet him might as well I go.

And ,thats when  I did a 180 degrees turn and dive at any counter that was nearest to me.


I was nervous, granted I had went with the expectation that something disasterous would happen,

He won't turn up or he looked like a mass murderer  or he came with his girlfriend...Any scenarios that came into my head but no, everything was smooth sailing.

While crouching behind the counter I called my friend,

" So, how was it?" a voice piped out.

" His here...."
" Yes, yes and your there also. How is he? "
" I haven't meet him yet."

"WHAT?"

"Alo Miss you want to try our perfume?" Said the man behind the counter. He was holding a Polo bottle.
" I'm a woman." I was trying get away , while my friend was screeching on the line.
Plus, I did think at that time Polo was a men item.
"Aaah, we have perfume for women, very nice would you like to try?" I said yes , it was after work and I was sweating.

My friend was still on the line "What's wrong ? Does he look like a mass murderer, a child killer, Freddy Krueger?"

I thank the man behind the counter and tried behind another countrr not far from my blind date, who was looking around.

"No, he looks pleasant looking and tall."

"Alo Miss you want to try our perfume?" There was a sweet looking girl at the counter.LV ......LV had perfume? I thought it was just handbag. I nodded my head and gave my right hand ( my left was Polo).Thanked the girl and jumped go another counter which was another counter!!!!

" Then go and see him!"
Ten minutes and 5 sprays laters....I got the courage to see him.

I had so much perfume on me I was feeling dizzy.


My blind date saw me and smiled

There was no sign of irritation that I was late.

" Hi , how are you? "

We went to a restaurant and talked . He was nice and friendly. A few times he menioned that I smelled nice. God, I really hope the smells was not too overwhelming, I had floral, strawberry,cherry, lavendar , mystique mystery ( no idea what that was) on my left and right hand.

The day ended great... He actually walked me to the commuter station .I was on cloud nine until I remebered....

Yikes! I forgot my jacket and had to walk back to the restaurant to get my jacket.

Night for now

Kampung life for me part 2

This is to continue from my previous story.


When I was small , my villlage ( kampung) was the most magical place for me.

In front of my grandmother's house was a padi field, spread out to  other neighbouring villages. At the end of the padi field,   infront of grandmother's house  was a stream running around the village leading towards the Rembau town, a few kilometers away.

Sure, the padi field was dried up , but it did not stopped us from having fun. We fished in the padi field, we played chase in that padi field. We were afraid of leeches but as kids we forget that there were leeches in the padi fied when we go off on our adventure. We never had any casualty from leeches.

But, we also had a look out person to see wether there were snakes.
Once, there was an alert , we ran through the padi trail trail  running back home but I had slipped and fell into the mud.My foot sank deep into the muddy floor, everyone was screaming , tryingto pull me up the trail, but my foot was stuck in the mud. Everyone yank me up , I managed to get up the trail but I had lost my slipper.

I had to go to the town that evening to buy a a new slipper.

The padi field was our playground.

My  brother, cousins and I would run on the pathway , slipping into the muddy field , screaming , shrieking and we had a ball of a time. At the end the of day , before the call of 'azan' from the nearest mosque , we would head back home.

Our parents would shake their head as the five of us walked into the house grounds, like a creature from' swamp thing'. We were ushered to the back door and immediately pushed into the big bathroom, girls first of course.

The bathroom,was the old fashion bathroom, zink and wooden walls, cement floorings, there was a pipe and a small pond that act as water reservoir. The water was so cold.Each of us grab a pail and started splashing each other with water. We did not want to get out until our moms knocked at the door.

We were to get out immediately, the boys were dirtying the floor........

There was also a railway track that runs through the village.

When I was small, while waiting for dinner my cousins and I could here the distant sound of the train passing through.

There was one time, that my aunt took, my cousins , my brother and I walking at the railway track. I had not watched "stand by me" at that time but when I watched the movie I would have a big grin on my face.

We were like that. We were waking on the track , trying to balance ourselves on the metal railing. When we heard the distant sound  of a train approaching we would get off the track , stood at the side and wave andshout at the train.

One of us tried the 'Tonto ' method, laying down and put our ears at the metal rail to hear any trains approaching. Never worked with us.

We got down at the village behind ours and walked on a massive field until we reached a river.

We wanted to go across to the other side. In the middle of the river was a cow and its calf. They were just lounging in the middle of the river, cooling themself in the water.

All of us took off our slippers and rolled our pants up. One by one we enter the blissfully cool water. The river was clear, we could see our feet and the sandy bed below.

The river was shielded with bamboos and shady trees.

I really felt like Indian Jones, trudging throuh the water.


We should had known that something was wrong when the calf kept glancing at us.

It even had a guilty face.

Sort of like saying , 'I can't, I can't , I'm sorry................aaaahhhhh'

Peerrgh......Out from its behind came ou a brownish goo..

Oooooh noo.....it did not! Screamed one of my cousin.


The worst part was that the current was towards US.

'RETREAT!!Retreat!!!!!' Cried one of us, who was it, I couldn 't remember because I was trying to run. It was not easy when your already waist length in water.


We tried to run against the wind and the current.

Finally ALL of us manage to get to the river bank.

The cow and calf were stll looking at us.

We walked along the river bank and we were sure that there were no abnormal sightings in the water, we bravely went in again.

The whole evening we walked, following the water until we reached town, where we stopped to buy slippers.

Oneof us lost a slipper through the cow dunk adventure.

If we keep it up loosing slippers  , the store owner would be rich.


Until next time, that was my story from kampung for today.

Photos sceneries and landscape