IHSAN KHAIRIR

February 16th was my 27th birthday so the family got together for a small celebration.

The chocolate mousse cake that was completely devoured within two minutes. Because the whole family was busy with preparations and other stuff, I went to town and bought the cake myself. Glad I picked this one because usually at the end of the birthday celebration we ended up with a big chunk of uneaten cake, but this time my cake was the first one to be gone from the food table. I have chosen wisely…

The birthday feast was a simple lineup: chocolate mousse cake, mashed potato with mushroom gravy, salad with hard-boiled eggs, tomato and sliced cheese, turmeric fried chicken, and sliced oranges (Happy Chinese New Year of the Tiger, btw!)

Cutting the cake. As always, Abu my brother refuses to smile in the picture. He does this deliberately sometimes. The frown doesn’t necessarily mean he’s upset, he just wants to make a face in the picture.

This is my excuse for being overweight =). Whenever I’m home, there’s such an abundance of wonderfully cooked meals that I find it hard to restrain myself from finishing up leftovers. My family feeds me well =)

Some of the presents. My sisters like to prepare and wrap each present themselves. Plus they always make (and not buy) the birthday card so it has a personal touch that you can never get from a card purchased from the store.

They spelled ‘successful’ wrong. My sister said it was deliberate. Yeah right =D

The symbolic t-shirt. The absent present (oxymoron!) was represented by the mock t-shirt my sister made. The actual t-shirt was left in our apartment in Seri Kembangan.

Mya gave me a personalized t-shirt with my family nickname on it spelt in Korean. Besan (or Abesan) is a portmanteau of the Kelantanese word ‘Abe’ (means big brother) and the last part of my name, ‘San’ (from ‘Ihsan’).

Milah and Shaz gave me a pair of Crocs. Each half of the pair was individually wrapped in two different presents, which meant that they each gave me half a pair =D. I guess in some ways, it meant that I have to use  both their gifts equally and am not able to prefer one over the other… maybe. I thought that was quite amusing =)

Another personalized birthday card made by my sisters, with a two-layer birthday cake and a pair of candles shaped like the number ’27′.

There are presents yet to be received, and those are the ones I am quite excited about!

I am so grateful to my beloved family for the wonderful celebration this year. I have to say this is one of the best that I’ve had in a long time =)

Thanks for all the presents and the well-wishes. I am ninety percent of the way to being thirty. The past three-cubed years have been a journey, and I’m glad I got to share those years with my family and friends, and you guys, my blogreaders.

Thank you for those who’ve been there for me, both in body and in spirit. Those that I haven’t seen for quite a while, do know that I really miss you and would love to have you around. I’ve had nothing but wonderful times with everyone and I hope we get to make more wonderful memories in the coming years.

Here’s to being three to three-oh.

Cheers!

This is my youngest brother Abu. He is currently six years old.

It seems that he shares my interest in photography. I remember the day the above photo was taken. It was at a family gathering, and I was happily snapping pictures of the family younglings before I realized that Abu was doing the exact same thing using my sister Kim’s camera. I guess we are more alike than I previously thought.

He has his mood swings when it comes to being photographed though. There’d be times when he absolutely refuses to have his picture taken and would make a scene if he discovers that somebody just snapped a picture of him without his consent. Other times he’d be super excited to be photographed and would do funny and interesting poses and demand to see the photos immediately after they were snapped. And during such times I would take the chance of exploring photography with Abu as my subject; the most recent results of which can be see in the following pictures.

It was one fine Sunday morning at the pavilion in Putrajaya Wetlands that I saw Abu climbing up and jumping down some terraces. I noticed that the bright morning sun in the sky has caused my eyes to adjust to the brightness, thus rendering everything into dark silhouettes. I immediately took out my camera and snapped up some silhouette photos of my brother.

He saw that I was taking photos of him and alhamdulillah, he’s in the mood for pictures. So I had him jump a few more times…

… and let him strike a few poses of his own.

I love it when he uses his own creativity to pose. It makes the photo more honest and sincere and more reflective of his own identity. When I look at the photos, I would remember his energy and excitement and the innocence of his youth. And it’s the sincerity and frankness in these photos that make them all the more memorable and priceless.

I would surely miss moments like these when Abu grows up…

Just scanned this family photo a few minutes ago, thought it’d be nice to be able to show everyone my wonderful family, finally united in one picture. For the past few years, my sisters and I have been away in the U.S., Japan and England for our studies so a full family photo is something that we look forward to every time there’s a chance to get everyone together. This photo is the only one in existence that has every single one of us together, including our housekeeper.

(Click on the picture to view full size)

Top, from left: Tina, Karmini (housekeeper), Ihsan (me), Jayyid, Mya, Husna, Kim.

Sitting, from left: Shazni, Dr. Khairir / ‘Ayah’ (Dad), Abu, Rashidah / ‘Emak’ (Mom), Milah.

P/S: Hoping that soon, another person would be added to future family photos…