When Liyana Jumahat first met Zul, they decided to watch a movie after dinner. However, every movie she suggested, he did not want to watch.
Said Liyana:
"It was a mundane week day and I was bored out of my mind. I logged in to facebook and updated my status -- something along the lines of 'I'm bored, who wants to go out?'
Instantaneously, I got an inbox message from a Zul Bonkerz saying: 'Hey!! I'm bored too...let's go out?? If u don't mind... My treat :)'
"Yes that was the exact thing he said; I still have all our conversations on facebook since day one. He passed me his email AND his number. But I did not contact him via either one. A few days after he sent me the first message, he sent me a second one saying, 'Hey..watchu doin?? Goin out tonite?? If ure nt..up for a movie tonite??? :)' I ignored that too.
"A week passed and I thought, hey why not get to know him better? It won't hurt anyway. So I finally texted him and we met up for dinner. Our first date was pretty funny.
"20 June 2010: We had no clue where to have dinner at so we decided to go to Little India for some Indian food. BAD IDEA. It was a Sunday and as you all know, Little India on Sundays are ALWAYS crowded. Nevertheless, we managed to have a nice dinner of naan and mutton kheema.
"Deciding what to do next was hard. I suggested a movie, but every movie I chose, he did not want to watch! I gave up and finally we ended up at Arab Street for sheesha and also because he wanted to watch soccer. Two of his friends joined us and one of my friends came along as well. After sheesha the bunch of us headed to Pasir Ris park to just chill and talk.
"Honestly, I had a bad first impression of him when I first met him. Not only did he have a tattoo on his forehead, he was kinda rude! But I put that at the back of my mind and we continued to date.
"A month after that, I found out he had a son. And not only that, he was undergoing a divorce. I was just speechless -- I had never expected him to have a kid let alone be married before! After I got to know that shocking piece of news, I decided to keep my options open because he was not completely over his ex and I didn't want to hang on to him, not knowing if we were going to end up together.
"We did still date but it was not the same. I was trying to accept him for who he was and he was dealing with his own problems. After 5 months of confusion, on November 6 2010, he finally asked me to be his girl. I can't explain how happy I was when he finally 'popped the question'. I was elated to say the least.
"On June 1 2010, we got into a bike accident. It was not very bad but that incident taught me not to take him or life in general for granted because anything can happen in the spur of the moment.
"It has been 15 months since we have been together and I daresay it wasn't easy in the beginning but I have accepted him for who he is. The past doesn't matter to us now, only the future does. We stuck through all that happened and we learnt a lot from each other.
"He taught me how to eat tulang, and many different types of Malay food (I am Chinese-Malay but more to the Chinese side) and I on the other hand, am sure that I taught him a few things about my culture too.
"One of the reasons why I love Zul so much is because he's so unpretentious. He doesn't have to say sweet nothings to let me know that he loves me. He may not be the sweetest guy or know how to surprise a girl, but he can sure whip up a hell of a lemak chili padi!"
