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Elaine Clarke, interior decorator extraodinaire

Bradley Clarke, poker-faced funny man

Today I had one of the best meals ever--Elaine and Bradley Clarke (okay, okay, no more 'Uncle' and 'Auntie' titles!) are family friends who now reside in their homeland of South Africa, and were on holiday in this part of the world. They are the loveliest people we know--genuinely caring, disarmingly honest, open and (un-Malaysianly) gentle-natured without being pushovers. I love how their Afrikaans-tinged speech is so mild yet deliberate, leisurely yet concise and purposeful. We first met them in South Africa 12 years ago when my dad took the family along with him on a business trip. The Clarkes hosted us--and the rest is history.

Well, lunch was over far too soon and we all needed to get back to our respective workplaces. It was hard to leave--it's not easy to tell when we'll next meet. It goes without saying that I'd love for them to finally meet Han, and it would be my honour to have them attend our wedding in July... but we'll see how things pan out. 🙂 At this moment, they're already on their flight back to South Africa.

Bradley, Elaine, it was wonderful to be with you once again albeit for just a while. Thank you for all your unfailing support to each one of this family's members, through the years. We love you.