People…

One thing that I like most about travelling is that I get to meet people. While flying from Sibu to Penang, I made friends with this young guy, Kennedy. He was an ex-SMK Sedaya student and completed Form 6 in SMK Jalan Oya in Sibu. Now a new police recruit, he was on his way to Penang for training and incidentally, he’s in the narcotics division! Hmmm…somebody had better watch out eh? LOL!!! Too bad he was shy and did not want me to take his photograph. Other than this new friend, while I was at LCCT, KL, I also met my former students, Allen and Doris…

Allen was going for his convocation at USM, architecture and is now working in Penang while Doris is in interior design. Now, aren’t they just compatible? Hahahahaha!!! And while on transit, it so happened that there were a group of Indonesian artistes who had just arrived…and as the entourage walked past me, I managed to snap a couple of photographs…

I did not know who they were but I gathered that among them were Samsons and Peter Pan. I thought this guy looked like Ariel…

…but he did not look as thin and appeared very much older than in his “Mungkin Nanti” video clip. Well, I was in Sungai Petani to see my daughter,

…always the same little girl in her papa’s eyes.

Then, when I went to mass on the Feast of Assumption, I bumped into Arthur – one of the very very nice students I had in Form 5 last year in my former school, prior to my retirement.

He is presently going for a degree in medicine in AIMST here – the Asian Institute for Medicine, Science and Technology. There are two others from Sarawak doing the same course as him, and he was telling me about how one of them (from another school in Sibu) could only smile when somebody spoke to him in English. I will not bother to comment on that but I think that speaks volumes to some parents out there (who probably will not be reading this anyway, even if they can!).

I also had the opportunity to meet once again a fellow-blogger, the very nice and pleasant Dr. Bernard Chan of bernardchan.net and his equally nice and pleasant wife when they came to take us out for lunch yesterday…

I have met him before when I was in Penang around the Chinese New Year period this year and he dropped by the hotel to see me (I was down with shingles at the time!). He and his missus are so amiable that even though it may be your first time meeting them, it will seem like you’ve known them for years. They took us out for Sungai Petani char kway teow (Will be posting on this separately) and they are coming AGAIN to take us out to lunch today.

And have you ever met someone and somehow or other, the two of you just clicked? Eng’s from Penang and right now, he’s lecturing at a teacher-training institute in Bukit Mertajam. We first met many years ago in Port Dickson when we were roped in to work on the modules for the implementation of the Literature Component in English Language for secondary schools..and we met again once or twice in KL to finish off what we had started in PD. We got along really well even though we are as different as night and day…and over the years, we have always kept in touch. We got to meet again when we were marking examination papers and we would get to meet once a year in KL then…and there was also a Literature conference at Sheraton Subang where our paths crossed as well.

Despite the sporadic occasions when we managed to get together, it’s like we’ve always been together all these years. Eng has been so helpful since my daughter got accepted into the institute in Sungai Petani. He met us at the airport on Penang island, drove us all here and even took us around, otherwise we would have been quite lost…and since then, we have met a couple more times already. This trip, he was away in Perlis on a lifesaver upgrading course and on the way home last night, he went through all the trouble to stop by Sungai Petani just to take my daughter and me out to dinner (This post coming up pretty soon!) even though he must be pretty tired from the gruelling course and the long drive. When I consider the fact that I have friends like that, I really feel that I am truly blessed…..