Used to be that making friends through the world wide web would simply gives me goose bumps. In fact, I've lived with this notion that people are not really who they truly are on the other side of the virtual world. Most of what is said on the net are either purely made-up, or tweaked to suit the user's imaginary thoughts. Which explains why I refused to chat or interact with strangers on the net.
But that all changed when I logged on to Yahoo! Answers Malaysia (which we fondly called it YAM, which I will get to it later).
It all started when I was seeking for answers for a matter which by now I couldn't recall what it was. I think it was two years or so ago. Yahoo! Answers came up, clicked on it and thought, not bad. Some of the answers were live and direct. Most of the answers given were crappy while some can really be very useful. After much browsing and clicking and answering as well as posting questions, I finally arrived to the Malaysia section (in the Travel/ Asia Pacific/ Malaysia section). Though its in the Travel category, I can assure you that none of the questions posted are related to Travel. And it is more like a chat forum than it is a Q&A session.
After few postings here and there, I got hooked. And I'm not ashamed to admit that I had fun and had become a regular. I made a lot of friends from all parts of the country and we even had one regular hailed all the way from Britain and the Philippines. And some also became my "enemy". Eventually, some of us who had developed a "cliqued" unofficially called ourselves the Yammers. We even created a Facebook group by that name consist of the regulars who, like myself, grew out of Y!am and eventually stopped visiting the site.
The Yammers continued to communicate via Facebook and its about time that we decided to meet up. We discussed and we planned and eventually, we met. There was only five of us ladies and thought that maybe the guys were a bit too shy to meet up. I was a bit nervous and don't know what to expect from the meeting but I have to say, it was all well worth it. We spent hours talking and giggling and there was never a stranger feeling to it at all. It felt as if we had been friends for ages.
That was a precursor to a good and hopefully a lasting friendship and decided to do it more often. That was when we decided to call on more Yammers to join in and chose a bowling tournament as a fun reason to gather and get to know each other outside the virtual world.
As the picture shows, that's me (white shirt holding the red ball) and some of the Yammers having a ball of a time at Alamanda Putrajaya Bowl. Some brought their boyfriends, husbands and children along and just like the first meeting, we never felt awkward with each other at all. We were like long-lost friends who had a hell of a good time. We had gifts-exchanging activities and later, dinner at Alamanda food court.
(Picture from left: Yantie, Ayn holding her daughter Aira, Suraya and boyfriend, me, Akma, Gigi, Zeeda, Mastura, Borhan)
Looking back, I have to say that I am glad that I clicked on to Yahoo! Answers (Malaysia). I had fun interacting (and quarelling also) and most of all, I made new friends.
