麻豆约拍

Abdul-Rehman Malik, journalist and broadcaster

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I went through a rather significant chunk of my life not knowing what or where Wales was. Katherine, I know it sound terribly uninformed, but growing up in Toronto鈥檚 sleepy suburbs, the location of Wales wasn鈥檛 essential knowledge. Yet I was the know-it-all who would spend hours studying atlases and could identify the most obscure places in the earth. I proved to my first grade teacher that Timbuktu was actually a real place and impressed a well-travelled uncle by naming all the individual republics that made up the Soviet Union.听听 Yes - I was that geeky.

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But when my friend Robbie, who lived next door, told me his parents were from Wales, I was confounded. All I could think of was schools of Humpbacks, Belugas, Orcas circling some strange faraway island. When I pursued this line of questioning, he laughed 鈥� and told me to check a map.听

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I lost touch with Robbie, like I did with a lot of childhood neighbours, because we moved a fair bit. It felt like every few years the economy would get rough 鈥� oil crisis, deflation, banking crisis. In such uncertainly my parents were always reticent to buy a home, so like a lot of single income families we rented. My mother became an expert mover, but 1989 we all thought the moving was over. My parents took the plunge and bought a beautiful new home. Looking back on it, I wish we鈥檇 had experts like like Kirstie and Phil around, because the joy was short-lived. The housing bubble burst and soon enough there was no choice but to sell up and rent again.

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It was a tough move, probably the toughest, but my parents put on a brave face, said a prayer and started packing.听 听"A good word is like a good tree," advises the Quran, "whose root is firm and whose branches are high in the sky, yielding constant fruit by the leave of its Lord.鈥� I shouldn鈥檛 have worried. The house soon came to life. A few months after we moved my kid brother was born. The place was always buzzing; guests and friends came and went as they pleased. Eventually, it hosted two weddings 鈥� my sister鈥檚 and mine. My parents eventually bought the house and it鈥檚 been our family home for 23 years.

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Bought or rented, houses become homes through good words, hard work and lot of love. I do wish I鈥檇 stayed in touch with Robbie though. He鈥檇 be happy to know that I made sure my son knows the difference between Wales and Whales.听