Dear Diary,
From this day forward, I'll just post entries as snippets or bits of stories and information I think should go in the different chapters.
The easy part should be Chapter 1. My life before children.
Let's start with a bit of history
Who am I? Where am I from?
My name is Hartini Binti Zainudin or as we say in this country, Hartini, daughter of Zainudin.
But everyone calls me, Tini.
I am the oldest of 4 children.
My father is of Malay parentage, mostly, although there is Thai blood in my family too. My claim to fame on my father's side is that we are descendants of 'Mat Kilau and Tok Gajah', famous Malay warriors who fought against the British during the colonisation of Malaysia then. I have over 100 first cousins. My grandfather had 3 wives and sired his last son when he was 76 years old.
This is a photo of my great, great,great granduncle, Mat Kilau.
( This is a photo of my dad and his family and parents. My dad is right at the back, on the far left, the oldest son of a family of 14 brothers and sisters, but the fifth child in the family)
My mother is of Chinese heritage, the 4th child in a family of 7 brothers and sisters)
This is my mother's side of the family:
These were my grandparents on their wedding day.
My claim to fame is my great, great grandfather was the first Kapitan of a town called Muar. He was elected by the then, Sultan of Johor.
There's a plaque in Muar, which gives you a bit of his history:
This is my great, great grandfather:
This is an old photo of my family, without my brother. He came much later. He's the youngest. We're 14 years apart.
That's me, right in the back!
So you see, I'm of mixed parentage and heritage. My father came from a poor family. My mother was from a middle income family, with a piano in the dining room- a big deal after the war- we're talking World War 2, here.