Stop stop stop…

I left Sandakan at 8.50 a.m. and my first STOP was at Kota Kinabalu, landing on the dot at 9.30 a.m. Kpenyu was there waiting and upon my request, we proceeded to my next STOP and headed straight to…

Ok! Ok! I just had breakfast in Sandakan…so this is lunch, alright? ROTFLMAO!!! This place is at Hillview or something, somewhere around Bukit Padang…or is it Padang Bukit? Never mind!!! I had the char siew pau and they looked kind of different and small…but they were nice!

I decided to tapau some back to Sibu…but when I arrived home, I found that what I got were different – they were bigger and had tits! LOL!!!

It didn’t matter as they were nice too except that there were fewer to go around! Then I had the siew mai from the trolley…

as well as those on special order…

but they all tasted pretty much the same. Of course, I must have the har kau – huge ones with lots of prawns inside but to my bitter disappointment, they had shrunk…

and inside, there were only two miserable prawns.

The last time I ate there, they had at least half a dozen, all stuck together in a ball! Humph!!! And while we were there, Kpenyu insisted that I tried the beef noodles from one of the shops nearby…

Omigawd! It took my breath away, honestly! The soup was so thick with the flavour of beef…unlike the very diluted watered-down ones that we have here, and look at those giant chunks of beef…

Next time, I’ll go for the beef noodles (TWO bowls!) and give the dim sum a miss! So after that “lunch”, our next STOP was at a church. I did not get the name, but I had to attend a funeral. My mother’s cousin passed away on Sunday and the funeral was at 11.00 a.m. I was glad that I was going home on transit that same day and was able to stop by to pay my last respects.

When we got there, I met two old friends of mine – Gertrude…

and her sister, Julia. Coincidentally, one has my mother’s name and the other the name of my mother’s sister. Both sisters are now principals of schools in KK. They’re related to my auntie’s late husband…so in a way, we are distant relatives but I got to know them at those courses and seminars that I used to attend a lot. See! Didn’t I mention in one of my earlier posts that by getting involved in all those, I was able to get to know a lot of people far and wide? Anyway, here is a photograph of my auntie’s children…..

and their friends who had come for the funeral. Now if you scrutinise the photograph carefully, you may catch a glimpse of Kpenyu (though I don’t see why anyone would bother as it sure isn’t worth squinting and straining your eyes for!!! LOL!!!) After the service, I rushed back to the airport and got on the 1.20 p.m. flight.

By the way, should anybody be planning to come to Sibu, do not, for heaven’s sake, take that flight. Get on the one at 1.45 p.m. which flies direct to Sibu. The office people in Sandakan booked the ticket for me and as a result, I had to STOP at Miri where I had to disembark for immigration clearance and return to the aircraft immediately…and then I had to STOP at Bintulu but we were not allowed to get off, so the transit passengers to Sibu had to remain on board, sweating away…and it did not help one bit that a woman close by was pouring hong eyew (Axe Brand oil) all over her face!

I only reached Sibu by 4.20 p.m. Just imagine that! Three hours to fly from Kota Kinabalu to Sibu and more than SEVEN hours from the time I started the journey in the morning at Sandakan!!! But all in all, everything considered, it was definitely worth it…and I wouldn’t mind going again, should I get another chance!

One more night…

I hate to admit it but I’m really no spring chicken anymore. After the “marathon” from 8.00 am to 4.00 pm, I was really totally drained out. My friends asked me out again but I had to decline as I badly needed a rest. So the moment I got back to the hotel, I had a nap…and when I woke up at around 6, I bathed…and went looking for dinner.

I still remember on my last trip to give a talk to the students of St Michael’s here in Sandakan, some of the lady teachers took me for lunch at this place called De Palm…

We had the set lunch then and it was very nice, so this time around, I had the set dinner. First, I was served this rich and creamy chicken tikka soup with toasted garlic bread…

After savouring the soup to the last drop and devouring the two slices of french loaf with garlic butter spread down to the last crumb (which were very small), the main course came – mushroom sirloin steak…

It was heavenly and I loved the gravy. I can’t remember the name but it certainly was a welcome change from the usual mushroom or black pepper sauce. I liked the way they did the potatoes too; gotta try it sometime! Anyway, the usual ice cream and coffee followed…and the total damage was RM28. Reasonable, right? After that, I went back to the hotel and slept till morning, so don’t bother asking me about any Filipino chicks. I wouldn’t know! LOL!!!

The next morning at around 7, Lily came to pick me up and on the way to the airport, we stopped for breakfast at this fish noodle stall…

The specialty was fish noodles…or noodles made of fish. I had never had anything like that before and so I agreed to try the fish noodles – konlou style…

It tasted like fish cakes cut into long thin strips like kway teow and if that was konlou, it certainly is different from Kuching kolo mee or Sibu kampua. I saw somebody having the actual konlou mee…and it looked more like Sibu kampua with soy sauce but I am pretty sure that they taste quite different. I think I would very much prefer our own homegrown delicacies. Well, there was also this soup to go with the noodles…

That was in fact yong tau fu…and I’ve always liked that…or any clear soup for that matter. And then Lily dropped me off at the airport to catch my flight to KK. It was a good trip, no doubt about that, and I certainly hope to get the opportunity to go there again someday…

Listen…

I must say in no uncertain terms that I was extremely impressed by the positve attitude of the English Language teachers in Sandakan or at least, the 70 over who attended the talk that I gave on how to help students do well in the English Language 1119 papers in the SPM Examination. They actually signed up on their own accord and paid RM30 per head, and they were punctual and attentive throughout…

Here, the department would organise such courses or workshops for teachers and they would go grudgingly (forced by the school authorities) even though it was free of charge and they could claim this and that (Of course, this was what many would be most interested in!). I had on many occasions seen teachers who would appear around 8.00 a.m. to go for breakfast when the thing was supposed to start at 8.00 a.m. sharp, or teachers who would drag themselves in and the first thing they would ask you was, “At what time is this thing going to finish?”, or teachers who would sulk all day or spend their time talking in their group or outside the room on their handphones. Some would grumble to you blatantly that in school, they would only teach (I wonder how much of that they would actually do!) half a day but when they had to attend a course, they would have to stay till 4 or 5.00 p.m. Sometimes I really wondered why the people concerned would even bother to “cast pearls before swines”! Well, to be fair, there are some good ones here too, but sadly, they are outnumbered…especially when it comes to paying money to attend something that may be of benefit to them!

But the Sandakan teachers were not in any way like that. There were some who had attended a similar talk that I had given a few years ago and yet they wanted to come again. It felt good when they told me that they had tried out my suggestions and it had helped their students and the school examination results had improved, for instance the lady in white in the photograph below…and there was this Mr Lim from SM Sung Siew who was at my previous talk and he came again even though he would retire in 2 years’ time (He would have retired this year but he has opted for 58!). Even during the afternoon slot, they were all ears, participating actively by asking questions and giving opinions and laughing at my jokes…and when it was all over, so many of them took the trouble and time to come up front to say “thank you”. Thumbs up to everybody who was at the talk that day! Keep up the spirit and I am sure things can only be better in the days ahead…

There were two tea breaks – one in the morning and one on the afternoon and lunch was provided…

(Actually, I am including the above photograph because I thought that guy resembles Gundot’s handsome hubby aka Tom Selleck! LOL!!!) It was nothing fanciful…just the usual stuff like curry chicken…

…and a fish dish as well…

and also a vegetable dish (bean sprouts) plus fruits (watermelon) for dessert. It wasn’t much but I did not hear a word of complaint…unlike when we had courses here and meals were provided by the hotels used as venues; there were nothing but complaints…complaints…and complaints! I would blush each time I went through their feedback forms and saw where their priorities lay. One would really wonder how pathetic they could get!

Anyway, we had a long lunch break from 12 noon to 2.00 p.m. so my lady friends suggested that we went to 7-Heaven…

 

Now, now! Wait a minute!…..I hope the name did not conjure all kinds of wild imaginings in your head for actually, it was just a dessert palour as you can see from the above pictures. LOL!!! We had this Yo Mango Supreme which is 99% fat-free…

and this 99% fat Banana Boat…

Which one do you think I had? ROTFLMAO!!!…..At 2, it was back to the grind and I wrapped up the whole thing at 4.00 p.m. on the dot. I would always start punctually and never believe in keeping people any longer than the time stated. To close this post, I wish to dedicate to all the Sandakan teachers who were present that day these lines from one of my favourite songs…
“…I hope life treats you kind,
and I hope you have all you dream of,
and I’m wishing you joy and happiness,
and above all this, I’m wishing you…love!!!” 
Till we meet again, God bless you all in your true devotion to your vocation.