Right here…

Actually, we had already gone for Melissa’s convocation in December last year in New Zealand. She was doing a TESOL (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages) degree programme, twinning with the Victoria University of Wellington there…

…and one could opt to attend the ceremony there or here…or both. Well, as I have mentioned in an earlier post, Melissa wanted to go to the local one as most of her friends were not at the one in NZ and she would like to take this opportunity to get together with them, knowing that once everyone has started working, chances like this would be few and far between.

So there we were at the graduation ceremony at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre…

…where they were holding the convocation for all the different faculties in all the teacher-training institutes throughout the country. There were various sessions, of course, as it would be virtually impossible to accommodate everyone at one go and the one for languages – Malay and English – was the 1st one on Monday, 27th May, 2013.

We were informed that we had to be there by 7.00 in the morning…

…and luckily, my friend, Ivan, stays nearby and was able to go to the hotel to get us at around 6.30 and drop us off at the venue at the break of dawn.

Unfortunately, as usually would be the case with our Malaysian rubber time, it did not start till 9.30 and even before this, there were bumps along the way. Initially, they fixed the date on the 29th and luckily, I did not bother to make all the necessary bookings. Subsequently, they changed it to the 27th and those who had already booked the air tickets and hotel had to go through it all over again to make the necessary changes and as everyone knows, these days, you can’t change your flights for free – one will have to pay the penalty and it is, by no means, a small amount.

I wished they did not hold such things during the school holidays as the airfares would be extra expensive, even if there were seats available. With everybody coming home for the Gawai Festival, there were no seats in the direct flights via the national airline and nothing cheap in the so-called cheap airline – I had to pay over RM700.00 per person return! That was why I decided that we might as well spend a few days enjoying ourselves in KL, after we were done with all this, and come back on the 2nd of June – after the festival day on the 1st.

Other than that, no doubt it would have been a lot more convenient if they were to hold the convocation at some place in KL and the surrounding areas instead of all the way in Putrajaya. The hotels are expensive (and I did not know then that they have a new one now opposite the shopping complex there – that I would have been able to afford using my government pensioner privilege) and public transport isn’t that easily available unless one makes prior bookings in advance. We stayed around KLIA in Sepang (and luckily, I had friends to help out with our transport to and fro)…and I heard there were people staying in Puchong or Kajang…or even KL!

Anyway, since we were there early, we were able to snap a few photographs…

…together…

…before we went into the grand auditorium to wait…wait…and wait…for the ceremony to begin.

Photographs were not allowed inside but I did manage to snap one of Melissa after she had received her scroll and had come down from the stage…

…and was walking back to her seat.

After that, I went to the washroom…and from there, I sneaked out (we were told not to leave before the ceremony was over) and did not bother to go back into the auditorium again as by then, I was already in dire need of some fresh air… Ahem! Ahem! LOL!!!!

Some more (1)…

I mentioned in my post here that I was down to my last packet of the gravy from IKEA and I used it for my beef balls that day…

*recycled pic*

…and guess what! Annie wasted no time at all in hopping over to get me some more packets of that…

…which she passed to me when she came home to Sibu with her twins during the recent school holidays. Gee!!! Now I’m starting to believe that there is a whole lot more truth to: “Knock and the door will be open, seek and you will find, ask and you will be given…!”

She also got me these cookies from that same place and also from Marks & Spencer…

I am never a fan of ginger biscuits – these taste exactly like those…

- the Pepparkaka from IKEA with a hint of pepper in it as well. They’re pretty good, eaten just like that but not when dunked in coffee – and I always love to eat my cookies like that. Somehow, they’re not quite compatible.

My favourite is still the All Butter Viennese from Marks & Spencer…

- so very nice with its rich buttery fragrance…Yummmmmmm!!!!!

And if you think that is all, then you’re wrong! There is still some more – this…

…bottle of very nice crispy anchovy chili! Annie was telling me something about buying the wrong one – probably she intended to get the dried prawn one or something but it did not matter as this one was really very very nice as well! I certainly would want to grab a few myself should I happen to hop over there and see it in the shops.

I was not feeling very well around that time (after my trip to Kuching) when Annie was in town so we did not get to go out to eat together and I was kind of tied up with getting everything ready for Melissa to go to her school in Selangau and settle down comfortably there. Hopefully, we will get to do that when she comes home again…or when I go over to KL.

But wait a minute! There is some more…still! LOL!!! Just before she left town, she dropped by my place again and gave me one whole ikan patin, whatever that is called in English, a big one! I have not cooked it yet…and when I do, I will certainly blog about it. Any suggestion as to the best way of cooking this variety? Masak tempoyak, good or not? Come, do suggest to me some of your ideas as to how to cook it…

Where the boys are…

I did my secondary school education in Sacred Heart Secondary Boys’ School here in Sibu up till Form 5 – many of my friends came from Sacred Heart English Primary or Sacred Heart Chinese but I was from St Mary’s, a co-ed primary school quite near my house then along Race Course Road (now Jalan Awang Ramli Amit). The girls would go to the sister-school, St Elizabeth’s Girls’ School after Primary 6 and many of the rest in that school would have come from St Rita’s Primary School, an all-girl school as well. In other words, there were/are no girls in my school until Form 6 when those who qualified/qualify would come over from St E and elsewhere. That explains why there were girls at our reunion in my previous two posts – those from Form 6, 1971.

Unfortunately, when we were organising the get-together, there was hardly any response from the ladies so we had to arrange a meeting with a few of them. They were not very happy with the date chosen as it was a public holiday/long weekend and it was also during the school holidays so most of them would be going away at the time. On the other hand, we were thinking that it was the weekend before Ching Ming so it would be a good opportunity for those living far away to come back to visit their ancestral tombs – thus killing two birds with one stone…or three, in fact, as they would also be able to attend the alumni’s annual reunion dinner that Saturday night.

Well, since that was how they felt, we just let it be and went ahead with our plans – with or without the girls…but we did manage to get together for breakfast a few mornings later after that very eventful and enjoyable weekend. Most of those from overseas and out of town had left by then and gone home – only two were still around but the girls came out in full force that morning or at least, there were more than the handful we had at our reunion gathering…

I do not know whose idea it was to meet at Chopsticks – normally I would go there for their very nice chicken rice and I had never tried any of the other things available from the stalls there.

I guess it did not matter much as they were quite happy, especially those home from abroad…

…as long as they could have a plate of kampua noodles to enjoy.

There was the kampua – pak (kampua…white)…

…the kampua pain nik (kampua with dumplings)…

…and the kampua pian nik puak lak (kampua with dumplings tossed in chili sauce)…

I also ordered the Sibu Foochow-style sio bee for everyone to try…

…but I would say that the ones there were not that great – I wouldn’t think I would want to order them again.

Somebody had the kueh chap…

…and it certainly looked pretty good and unfortunately, I did not manage to snap a good shot of the lor mee that somebody else had.

I ordered the bak kut teh noodles (RM5.50) for myself…

…and all I can say is that it was good enough, nothing to shout about and definitely not something that I would be rushing back for more – it was just all right. I think what I had here was a lot nicer despite the fact that there was very little meat in it and I had to wait a mighty long time for it to be served.

We were there that morning for a very very long time – some 2-3 hours. There was so much to catch up, so much to talk about…and soon it was time to call it a day and go our separate ways. All the best to everybody, thank you to all who came – it certainly was great and a whole lot of fun getting together again this way and we hope to meet again…sometime in 2015.

Let’s twist again…

After our own reunion the night before, we joined the grand one the following evening – the annual reunion dinner of our school’s alumni or old students’ association combined with the alumni of our sister-school next door…

…at the massive ballroom in a leading hotel in town.

Frankly, I’m not too fond of attending functions there as the food may not be all that great and I get put off by the fact that going through a small road all around the hotel into the hotel’s multi-storey car park entrance at the back of the building is not entirely a breeze. Where there are events in every ballroom or function room in the hotel, just going round the corner may take at least half an hour. Tsk! Tsk! Well, the only thing one can do to avoid the massive jam is to go very very early – and that was what we did that day.

To pass the time, we took photographs or had ours taken…

…in the still-very-empty venue.

We occupied two tables – the Class of 1969…

…and minus our family and friends, I think there were some 15 of us altogether…

…including people back from Australia and Kuching. We only had two Form 5 classes then – one Science and one Arts with a student population of 30-40 in each class. That means that only around 25% of us were there that night. We had a few more joining our own reunion gathering the night before but on the whole, there weren’t exactly that many either.

Never mind, we were all right by ourselves and dinner started with the sio pua (hot dish)…

- our version of the Four Seasons except that we usually have more than four.

The not-to-be-named soup followed (Tsk! Tsk!!!) and after that came the duck stuffed with glutinous rice…

Unfortunately, it was not as well done as the last time I had that at this same venue. Perhaps, when there are simply too many tables to cope with, quality may have to take a back seat?

The steamed fish was good though…

…and I noticed that those who came back from overseas were really enjoying each and every course, including this one…

Perhaps they do not get to go for such grand Chinese banquets abroad as often or as regularly as we do here – so much so that we tend to take it all for granted and are not in the least excited over them? I remember feeling this way when I was small and kids were very rarely invited and when I/we did get a chance to go, we would be so intensely happy at the opportunity.

They did not bother with this dish though…

- the black pepper lamb! You can bet the meat came from where they all came from and they get it fresh, not frozen, and a whole lot  juicier over there.

This band from the army was in attendance during the dinner…

…though they weren’t anything to get excited about. They were not all that great but I would not say they were not good either – let us just say that they were tolerable…which would be exactly what I would say about the proceedings that whole evening – pleasant enough, nothing to get anyone jumping with delight.

There was a dance presentation by some very young boys and girls – and I thought that was a good time to go for a pee break and a whiff of fresh air. Honestly,  I can’t understand how cliche and how terribly boring one can get – and frankly, I think we have long had an overkill of that oppa gangnam thingy and the worst part was they could not even do it well – my daughter said that they were merely going through the steps and motions – they did not have a feel to it and were not able to let it come across naturally as in real dancing per se….and guess what? I saw a photograph in a local newspaper – they even got the big shots and some others to join in the dance – obviously, it did not make much of an impact as when I came back after it had all ended, no one was talking about it and I did not even know there was such a thing going on. My missus said they could not see what was going on from where they were sitting so they did not know about it either. Hehehehehehe!!!!!

Some very old retired teachers were invited by the organisers to cut the cake (in the first photograph) but no, they did not ask me to join in. They probably were specially invited to the function as well and no, I was not invited either – I was there in my capacity as an ex-student, not a retired teacher of the school and I bought my own tickets to attend the dinner, thank you very much. I guess the people organising would be those older ones – not those young ones that I taught while I was attached to the school and that probably explained the special treatment accorded to those teachers of theirs a long, long time ago.

Then they kept thanking those from certain years for their support – one group took up 6 tables, it seemed. Awwww…come on!!! If all of us from 1969 were to attend (including those already dead and gone) we would not be able to fill 5 tables – there were simply not that many of us at the time. Tsk! Tsk! The last straw was when one of those groups took to the stage to sing this Emil Chau song that night.

Ok, that called for some drastic action – with all that heralding and back-thumping of all those very much younger groups, we had to do something to make our presence felt – we, the super seniors! Picking out a dvd that I had brought along, I marched up to the emcee and told him that the Class of 1969 would be singing right after that 1980 group on stage and we did – the whole group of us, all individually over 60 years of age…and boy, did we steal the limelight that night!!!

We sang this Cliff Richard number…

…and I would say that we did a pretty good job at it and brought the house down.

Then, when we reached the music interlude break in the middle of the song, I shouted, “Everybody, dance!!!” and somehow or other, everybody got down to it right away – twisting and gyrating to the music. Gee! Had it not been for the song blaring full blast through the gigantic speakers in the ballroom, I am sure everyone would have heard all our rusty bones squeaking and creaking harmoniously in unison…and when the music came on again towards the end of the song, I said, “One more time!” and there we went again, twisting away till the very last note of the catchy song.

*Photo Credit: Ex-SHS official photographer, Mr Chiew Chong Hui*

That was spontaneous, unrehearsed…and so much fun!!!  We enjoyed it a lot and so did everybody present at the event that night. It was indeed a memory for us to cherish and I guess one that some people would remember us by – that Class from 1969!!!

When I’m 64…

The last time we came together for a reunion, I was in my late 50′s…and this time around, I’m over 60 already…and I guess most, if not all of us, have “progressed” accordingly.

Previously, they used to have a gathering every four years but they said that we were all growing old and opportunities to meet like this would be getting fewer and fewer so it was unanimously agreed then that we would have one every two years. Well, at that previous gathering, I was “asked” to organise the next one – I was told that it would not be too difficult. I would just have to fix the date and venue and everything and announce to everyone in our yahoo group…and everyone would come running. Dream on! Only a few responded – the others did not make a sound.

I was waiting for the school’s old students’ association to fix the date for their annual dinner (usually around the Ching Ming Festival)and we could have ours the night before so that those coming  home from afar – there were people home from Australia and New Zealand – would be able to attend both and at the same time, visit their ancestral tombs to pay their respects. So there we were – the 5th time since they started this thing – the reunion of the Class of 1969, Sacred Heart Secondary School, Sibu…and the Form 6 of 1971…

What I did not realise till much later was the fact that the date we had chosen happened to be Good Friday. That was why we arranged with the hotel people to have an almost meat-free menu as some/a few would be abstaining from meat.

There were these very nice salty-crusty prawns…

- so very fragrant with the garlic, Bombay onions, curry leaves and all. They were so nice that my daughter kept going back for more.

The sweet and sour fish fillet…

…was very good too – it could do with a  little bit more tomato sauce, I thought but on the whole, it was fine. I am glad the fish fillet was not those frozen till bland and tasteless ones.

By special request, we had midin (wild jungle fern)…

- prepared in two different ways, one plain with garlic and the other with sambal belacan (dried fermented prawn paste). This disappeared in a matter of seconds, believe you me!

We also made sure that this was in the buffet spread – the cangkuk manis fried with egg…

…for the benefit of the deprived lot (from overseas, especially) who would not get to eat it unless they come back home to Sibu.

Other than the mixed vegetables…

…there was also the fried noodles…

…and of course, we insisted on there being no meat in it, and we asked for plain rice instead of fried rice for this same reason.

There was the Sarawak’s own daging masak hitam…

…for those who are not abstaining on this auspicious date in the Christian/Catholic calendar and for the chicken curry…

I asked that they put more potatoes in it.

All in all, everyone was delighted with the food and it was very reasonably -priced at RM20 per head for a minimum of 50 persons at the restaurant on the 1st Floor of this hotel here in Sibu…

Unfortunately, the response had not been very good and somebody proposed that other than the invited guests, family members coming along to the event wouldn’t have to pay as well so eventually, everyone had to fork out quite a bit – RM50 each to make up the minimum requirement.

I went to get a cake for the reunion that morning…

…but they would not accept last-minute orders for a large one so in the end, I bought two medium-sized ones instead and asked that they did the icing with the words that I wrote out nicely for them. Good grief! That looked horrendous and to think that I had to pay RM2 EACH for that! Tsk! Tsk! I could have designed something and printed it out on a colour printer to place on top of the cakes – I am sure that would look a whole lot nicer and more presentable.

Thankfully, the Japanese baked cotton cheese cake that I had picked was very nice…

…and everybody loved it and I guess that was what would matter most.

Well, it certainly was a delightful evening with all the nice food and cake and the company was great and everyone had fun singing…

…their hearts out…

…and there was dancing too…

It was just too bad that it being a long weekend plus it was during the school holidays, many had gone out of town so were not able to join the function. Hopefully, the next time around, in 2015, the response would be a lot better than this.

Well, a big thank you to all those who joined and came to make the evening a really successful and enjoyable one and thank you, Robert, for bringing one whole carton of wine – that certainly helped in no small measure to loosen everyone’s vocal chords so much so that they sang way past closing time. Luckily, the hotel people were nice enough to let us go on and on a while longer. LOL!!! See you all again in 2015 !

It’s a long road…

On Wednesday last week, we decided to drive to Melissa’s school in Selangau to clean up her room prior to her moving in on Sunday before school reopened the following Monday.

Yes, it isn’t very far – about 1½ hours’ drive away but when it is me who is driving, I may stretch it a bit but it would be less than two hours, that’s for sure. I don’t really drive very fast but I am not one slow coach either – just that I am in no hurry so I just cannot understand why there is a need to rush. After all, we do not have multi-laned highways like the ones our counterparts in the same country enjoy in the peninsula – here, we have one lane going and one lane coming back…

…and traffic can be pretty heavy sometimes so overtaking may not be all that easy…and if it is not your lucky day and there are people working on the road along the way…

…you will probably be delayed a bit. That is why it is better to plan ahead, start early and give yourself lots of time to get to your destination and you will not have to be rushing like a lunatic on a one-way ticket to Hell! Well, that is the impression that I get looking at some of those people on the road and honestly, it’s no wonder at all that accidents happen…and fatal ones, at that.

Get it into your heads, guys – you’re no hell-raiser, no F1 driver…just another road user like me and everybody else and if you see it fitting to put your lives at risk, just make sure that you do not drag everybody else down with you. If I am going 80-90 kmph (that’s the speed limit here) and you can overtake me and disappear from view within a split second, I can well imagine how fast you’re going, my friend.

On my part, usually, when I see people tailing me, the moment I see that the road in front is clear, I would signal and move as far left as possible to make it easy for the fella to overtake. I’m in no hurry…so after you, if you please. I do not have a problem with that, not at all.  But unfortunately, there are some very slow vehicles especially some old jaunty jalopies that have seen better days, looking like they are about to fall apart any instant now…or those overloaded trucks or lorries that seem to be groaning at the weight of the things they are carrying and the sad thing is they will just plod on right in the middle of the road, never mind that there is already a long queue of cars trailing behind them – it’s their great-grandfather’s road and there is no way they are going to let anybody overtake them!!!

My dear friend, Mandy, once went to Selangau on a working trip and she can tell you that it is generally one hell of a roller coaster ride and the condition of the road isn’t really cut out for fast driving. Sure, there are some nice bits and pieces along the way, few and far between…

…but most of the time, the road reminds me of Swiss cheese – full of holes…or a patchwork quilt where they have filled those potholes instead of resurfacing the whole thing, making it one hell of a bumpy ride so one would have no choice but to go a little bit slow over such stretches. Perhaps I am not that well-seasoned so I do not know how to manoeuvre around to avoid all those without having to slow down, I wouldn’t know.

You will drive past lots of longhouses – some modern, looking quite pleasant, really…while there are others for which time seems to have stood still. I would think these would be more authentic, very much more worth a visit than the nice-looking ones. Past the small Selangau town, you will come to this place where the Miri/Bintulu-Sibu buses would stop…

…for the passengers to go for their tea and pee-breaks. They’re nowhere near those very nice rest areas along the highways in West Malaysia , of course.

Then you will go past the Selangau police station…

…and the klinik kesihatan (health clinic)…

…and the junction to Mukah and when you see this milestone…

you will know that you are 122 km to Bintulu (over 90 km from Sibu) and you have reached the school – there, you can see the red roofs behind the row of banana trees.

They are still waiting for the green light from the authorities concerned (After three years already, mind you!) to move into the “new” teachers’ quarters…

…so in the meantime, Melissa has to stay in a room in one of the old wooden ones…

Of course, they’re not in very good shape since obviously, nobody has bothered to maintain them properly. I can guess how difficult it is to get the school to do that (and they in turn will need to pass the buck to some other department) plus they may have other “better” things to do with the allocation that they get…but if I were staying in one of these and knowing that I would need to stay here for a while, I would do something about keeping the place in good shape and looking more presentable – no need to depend on others and wait till kingdom come before anything happens.

Actually, does it really matter one bit that you will not be staying there forever and others will move in after you…and reap the harvest of all your effort? I have only one word for the likes of this – SELFISH…and perhaps, irresponsible, not very innovative, couldn’t-care-less and everything negative, all rolled into one! Gee! If this is the kind of person you are, I can imagine what kind of teacher you will make! This is what is MOST important – the simple basics in life – things our parents (mothers) taught us before we went to school…and we need to educate ourselves in these matters first before anything else. And never mind what philisophy, what blueprint, what syllabus you have, what experts you spend a fortune to rope in from abroad to assist, if this is the mentality of the educators concerned, it is really very easy to see the direction things are going.

Still, despite the not-very-pleasant condition of the quarters, I would think it is really a very nice place to live. One can just sit back and relax and enjoy the peace and quiet all around, the clean fresh air, the soothing green grass and forests and the clear, blue sky…

…and one can plant some vegetables in the vicinity of one’s house…

…like these terung Dayak (Dayak brinjal), for instance…

…or even some pineapples, if one so desires…

These cangkuk manis certainly look a bit too old already…

…but one can always replant and get a steady supply of free, pesticide and whatever chemical-free vegetables right outside one’s door.

It was around 3.00 p.m. already when we decided to call it a day. We stopped by the market in Selangau and I saw some Iban ladies selling this – with a swarm of flies hovering over the meat. I bought a bit to bring home to cook soup , our traditional way…

…to see if it was any good and it was. Maybe I would buy more next time. In case anyone’s wondering, I was told that if there are a lot of flies, it is good and you can just go ahead and buy – just wash clean or if you are fanatical about the cleanliness, trim away the outer layers before cooking. If there are no flies, the people must have used some chemicals to kill the animal or to prevent the meat from going bad, so much so that not even those common houseflies would bother going near.

All in all, I would think that was a rather fruitful and rewarding trip, indeed…and after what we managed to get done, we certainly hope Melissa will find it a little bit more comfortable staying there in the days ahead.

Short changed…

We flew via maswings…

…to Kuching that day.

I booked through the Malaysia Airlines website and there was no indication as to whether it would be a Boeing flight or one on the small ATR aircrafts…so I just picked the flights according to the fare and the time. It seems that if the flight is numbered MH2xxx, then it is a Boeing flight and that will only take 35 minutes compared to the rest – 40…and when you board the aircraft, they will tell you it is going to take 45 minutes altogether…IF the flight is on schedule and there is no delay!

All in all, I paid over RM500 for two persons…and that was on Thursday – when we got the news via the service commission’s website that Melissa would need to be present at something that they would be holding in Kuching. The next day, Friday, the MATTA Fair started and if I had booked a day later, I would have save over RM100 on the air tickets. Sometimes it pays not to be too efficient! Tsk! Tsk!

Well, if you’re flying on one of these little planes, it is best to check in your luggage. After all, you get an allowance of 20 kg free (or is it 30 kg now?) and it being such a small plane, upon arrival at the airport, by the time you reach the carousel at the luggage reclaim area, your stuff would have come out already. For one thing, the overhead stowage compartment is very small…

…smaller than even the old Fokkers in the past so you may not be able to squeeze your bag into it and will have to place it under the seat in front of you…and end up getting cramps in your legs by the end of your flight.

Then, there are those inconsiderate nincompoops sitting in front who will just stuff their bags in the compartments at the back before they proceed to their seats. Thus, if you are sitting at the back, when you board the aircraft, you may find that you do not have any space to put yours at all and that was exactly what happened to me that day on our flight home – AND HEAR ME AND HEAR ME LOUD AND CLEAR, all you airline staff…and those who have this horribly selfish and inconsiderate habit! Next time, I will just take those bags and throw them down the aisle and put my own bags in the compartment right above my own seat that is rightfully mine. You are the world’s No. 1 cabin crew (or is that for Malaysia Airlines’ only, and all the maswings ones are of a different class altogether and are not included?)…so you go and handle that situation yourself. It is not my problem.

They have moved the business class seats to the back now – those few seats used to be right in front. I guess the change is in view of the fact that the door is at the back of the aircraft and it would not be so convenient for these selected few – their esteemed passengers. An ex-student of mine, who used to work with the airline, would promptly move me to these seats if he happened to be on duty – not that it would make much of a difference other than the fact that you would get something a little bit nicer to eat and not just a packet of MILO and peanuts…

Well, unfortunately, my ex-student has joined the new airline in the region now but I do recall when I was flying to places in Sabah sometime ago, I was given the refreshments on board in boxes and inside, other than those MILO drinks, they had sandwiches and cup cakes and even a Kit Kat! Perhaps that is for their longer flights, I wouldn’t know.

They are still using the same safety briefing video…

…that I thought was kind of funny when I saw it the first time but unfortunately, the “jokes” are getting somewhat stale. I would think a simple straightforward one would be more appropriate and they can keep on screening it till kingdom come and nobody would give two hoots about it. If I remember correctly, they are now using the Malay version and not the English one that you can see if you click this link here. Tourists from overseas would surely have a problem trying to make head or tail of the whole thing, I’m afraid.

Incidentally, is there any way one can fasten one’s seat belt while still standing?

I guess one can only do that when and while seated, right? For one thing, I must say that it is commendable that the ones in this aircraft are all long enough and I did not have to ask for extensions, thank goodness.

Yes, if you’re thinking that it is a small aircraft, you are right. Even the seat for the cabin crew is stowed away in a compartment in the wall and for landing and takeoffs, he or she would have to take it out and sit on it…

Somehow or other, it conjures images in my mind of those contraptions in James Bond’s Aston Martin…where you press a button and the person in the seat would be ejected into the air and out of the car in an instant…and in this case, the plane. LOL!!!

I guess we should appreciate the fact that we do have this miserably-categorised “rural air services” even though the main towns and cities included are in no way “rural” and the airfares are in no way cheaper for warts and all, at the end of the day, we do not have much of a choice since we do not have the luxury of those smooth, multi-laned highways that are all over the peninsula…and our Third-World country’s Pan-Borneo Highway, I would say, is, in no uncertain terms, a real disgrace in this present day and age. Vision 2020? *guffaws* Yuck…yuck…yuck!!!!

This little town…

Last Saturday morning, Melissa and I made our way to the airport here in Sibu to welcome her coursemate…

…all the way from Trengganu to this little town.

I would say that he’s very lucky to be posted to a school in the town proper and of course, we would be here to help him in any way we can.  - the least we can do after all that he and his friends did for Melissa when they were in Wellington, New Zealand.  I remember once there was a severe earthquake and in the middle of the night, he and the others went to Melissa’s studio apartment on the 9th Floor to help her move to their house as it would be much safer there till it was all right for her to go back.

Of course, as with anybody else coming to Sibu, I would make sure that they would get a Sibu kampua welcome and since the halal one that we tried the other day was not all that great, I took him to this place instead. I had their kampua before and I thought it was very good (RM3.50)…

I did not order the special (RM4.50) as I was still abstaining from prawns and other kinds of seafood but that was what I ordered for Melissa’a friend…

I’ve mentioned this before in my previous posts that here, for just RM1.00 more, you will get the special – five very nice prawn fritters with whatever you order. I was glad that he liked it very much and he even had to ask how he could go about ordering that if he were to go out and eat on his own – they certainly do not have that in most places in the peninsula so it came as no surprise at all that he was not familiar with it.

Melissa had their mee jawa special again (RM4.50)…

…and after that, we took him to his school to report for duty.

Hmmm…the nice boy did not come empty-handed, not at all! He brought along two huge packets of keropok ikan (fish crackers)  all the way from his home state for us…

I’ve always loved the ones from there – smallkucing has given me some a couple of times already.

Well, all the best to him and here’s hoping he will enjoy working and staying here in Sibu, Sarawak – Bumi Kenyalang (Land of the Hornbill) which I am pretty sure he most certainly will…

Here am I…

Melissa got her what-they-call “interim posting” to this school…

- SK Sungai Sepiring near Selangau town, around 1½ hours by road from Sibu.

We drove there for her to report for duty last Monday and when we arrived, we stopped first at the Education Office in the town itself…

The Education Officer was not around…

…but Melissa managed to meet the lady in charge and signed in…

…as an indication that she had reported.

I’m not too sure what this interim thing is – it seems that there are no vacancies available resulting from the current situation where people are retiring at 60 so they have come up with something like this just so there will not be a whole lot of fresh graduates unemployed…which may mean that one may be moved to a school where there is a vacancy as and when the need arises.

I certainly hope that Melissa can stay in this school though as it isn’t far from home and the students look so cute and lovable…

We walked around the school and saw that they were all so very well-behaved in the classrooms during the lessons – not like the ones in the towns and cities…and I’m pretty sure there is none of the problem of demanding and difficult (and vicious) parents either at places like this unlike those urban ones.

Of course, kids are kids so one should expect to see a few monkeys around…

LOL!!! These are usually playful but quite harmless…and if you can win them over, you can twist them around your finger, no problem at all.

This is the admin block and staff room…

…and here, you can see a few of the teachers’ quarters.

There are not enough to go round at the moment so Melissa would have to share with her colleagues…probably until the new ones – those concrete ones at the back – are given the stamp of approval by the authorities concerned and are available for occupancy.

We got to meet the Headmaster and some of the teachers in the school and they were all so very nice and friendly and it was the same with those at the office whom we met earlier. Perhaps this is one thing about small places – people are a whole lot more pleasant and very much nicer.

Well, that certainly was  a good start and we certainly hope and pray that Melissa will love working and staying there in the years to come. She’ll be home on weekends and during the holidays, of course…

Lucky strike…

I got lucky the other day… Wait a minute! No, I did not hit on any SYT (sweet young thing), I’m afraid…not at my age, unfortunately but I won a little bit of money at lottery.

My mobile phone number came out, all the last 6 digits except the 2nd one…which meant that I only got 4 in a row correct. If I had got all 6, I would have won RM200,000 for my RM2.00 and it would be goodbye to everybody – I would be off on an extended holiday, that’s for sure, and if it had been the 1st or the last digit, I would have got RM6K in total. Sigh!!! I’m afraid that was not meant to be and all I got was RM600.00.

Well, that was an improvement from the time when my house phone number came out and the 3rd digit was incorrect. I only got RM8.00 for the first two and RM60.00 for the last three, a total of RM68.00 so it certainly was a little bit better this time around.

I asked my daughter what she wanted to eat for our little celebration and she wanted Japanese so there we were back at this place in town for lunch that Sunday afternoon…

Unfortunately, when we got there, we were informed that they were out of salmon and fresh beef that day but somehow, we were able to order this very nice plate of salmon fried rice (RM16.90)…

Probably they used smoked for this but they did not have any fresh salmon for their sashimi or sushi or whatever else or at least, that was what I reckoned they meant.

We all loved their kabocha korokke (RM13.90)…

- the Japanese pumpkin croquettes.

My daughter wanted these kani mayo tobiko maki (RM6.90)…

…which she and the mum shared. I did not touch that even though I was pretty sure that there was no crab at all in those imitation crab sticks – I’m never a fan of those. I was abstaining from all seafood at that point in time so that was why we did not order any prawn or soft-shell crab stuff which Melissa would have loved very much.

We also had the chicken karrage (RM8.90)…

…and the chicken yakitori (RM10.90)…

Both were pretty good – my missus and Melissa liked them very much but on my part, I thought the meat tasted bland – to me, it lacked the sweetness of fresh chicken so I was not exactly too thrilled by them.

Well, on the whole, it was delightful enough and we all had our fill. Of course, it cannot compare with the feast we had in Auckland, New Zealand…but as they say, beggars can’t be choosers. At those prices, I wouldn’t say that was cheap though – definitely not something paupers and beggars can afford. RM5.00 for a little pot of green tea, I have to say, isn’t all that affordable…but since it was money from my little windfall, it was perfectly all right. As they say, easy come easy go!