Meeting my greatest hero Tun Mahathir

I opened today's Star newpaper and saw an article on Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed launching his new auto- biography.
For my friends overseas who happens not to know who Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed is, he was Malaysia's 4th and longest serving Prime Minister and he is the one responsible for bringing Malaysia to where it is today, a modern cosmopolitan in a small country.

He is the one who is behind Proton., the national car, building the Petronas Twin Towers., Kuala Lumpur International Airport., Sepang Formula 1 race circuit., Putrajaya and so much more, putting our little country in the eyes of the world.
And he is one of the people I most admire, as well as my husband, mother in law, sister in law's hero, along with 90-95% of Malaysians. The 5-10% who do not support him or idolize him are misguided 'Malaysians' if we can call them that.
Anyway, I was contemplating going to try to see if I could at very least glimpse the former Malaysian Premier in flesh, and brought the subject up to my husband when he agreed!! So we both went.
The crowd gathered, hundreds of people came to gather around . We were disappointed having lost the opportunity to get the 'golden ticket' or rather be the first 50 people to buy Tun's book and get a ticket to meet and greet and get his autograph on the book.
Restless, I trailed after some photographers and the equivalent of some Malaysian secret service, and watched in fascination as a police outrider preceded a shiny Mercedes came to a stop along with the Mercedes. An aide or a bodyguard jumped out and held the car door open and Tun Dr Mahathir stepped out.
Seeing him in real life, in the flesh was really amazing. I took some pictures, but since my resolution was not as good as the media cameras, it was kinda blurry. In trying to get a reasonably good shot of Tun, I rushed back in and got into line just as he strode forward, 'salam'ing or rather, accepting all his faithful followers and supporters touch. And I got to 'salam' him!!!
The feeling was euphoric, and I was really shaky and over the moon. Some of you might say that I am overboard or over reacting, and maybe I am, but meeting him and touching him or 'salam'ing him is just like almost meeting an immortal or something.. I never felt that way before. So overwhelmed. Not even when faced with Westlife, Corrs or A1 and all when I was mad about them.. :-p
I guess that is how some people get so overwhelm that they faint when coming up close to the one they so admire.
Anyway, it was a wonderful experience. I got some pictures of him, and his beautiful and ever graceful wife, Tun Siti Hasmah.
It was kind of disappointing that I did not manage to get his signature on his book, but I was lucky enough to sneak in, and met Tun Siti Hasmah, 'salam' her and got her signature instead, on her husband's book.
God bless you both, Tun Mahathir and Tun Siti Hasmah. You're both the reason why Malaysia is well known and well developed today, despite whatever the opposition wishes other people to think, and you'll always be my hero!!!
Sent by Maxis from my BlackBerry® smartphone