Black night…

On the 27th last, there was a blackout throughout the whole state of Sarawak.

It so happened that my friend, Philip, in the US would be flying home and reaching Sibu on that particular day and he had emailed me sometime before that asking me if I could pick him up at the airport. Of course I could…and the same goes to anyone else who cares to drop by this little town as well…but not on Sunday afternoons as I would be sending my daughter back to her school in Selangau and probably not on Friday too as I might have to drive all the way there to get her and take her home for the weekend.

I had just finished dinner at around 6.00 p.m. when it started and I quickly left the house to make my way to the airport. There were massive jams at the traffic lights but I was able to use some detours and managed to get on the road to the airport reaching there well before Philip’s flight landed. The airport was running on generator, it seemed and there were lights – not all but what they had on were good enough. The escalators were not working but I saw somebody using the left to go up (one floor!!!). Gee!!! At times like this, I certainly would not risk it. Shudders!!! There was air blowing out of a couple of those air-conditioning outlets but it was not cold – probably they were functioning as some kind of exhaust to circulate the air inside the terminal.

Philip arrived as scheduled – luckily, his flight was not reverted back to the port of origin, probably because it was not really dark yet at the time the aircraft landed. I heard that it happened to many flights to Sarawak that night. We made our way back to town and to his house and I made sure that I took a long route that I thought would not be that heavily congested. The police officers were at hand at every junction to control the flow…and I drove through Rejang Park. It was pitch dark and all the shops were closed except for some coffee shops but I don’t think they had very much business that night.

I dropped Philip off and made my way home the usual way which would be the shortest and usually, the easiest. Bad mistake! There was a deadlock at the junction ahead, bumper to bumper…left, right and centre. This is what happens when people do not bother to be a bit patient and co-operate – the police officers could not do anything as nobody wanted to budge…and blaring your blasted horns would not help one bit, you stupid people!!! The first detour I was able to make, I quickly got out of the jam…and took another route home and thankfully, I managed to do so…in one piece. Tsk! Tsk!

Anyway, it was fine by me as I had all the time in the world and in no hurry to go anywhere…and at least, I managed to help a friend out and got him home in the midst of all that commotion. He got me these…

…noodles and chocolate truffles from the US.

In fact, there were three but I had eaten one – the Hokkien noodles with teriyaki sauce…

I had taken some photographs earlier but I must have absentmindedly deleted the album/file so I had to go and retrieve this sole photograph that I had shared on Facebook.

The one I had was very nice and I was saving the other two for Melissa – she loves Japanese, not me…and when she came home for the weekend, she had the miso…

…and this was what they had to say about it on the box…

She liked it, of course, and I did get to try a little…and frankly, I would stick to our local instant noodles, Mee Daddy or whatever. It certainly did not get me slurping away, that’s for sure.

They even had this fried rice recipe on the box as well…

…but I am pretty sure cooking it this way, the end product will come nowhere near those that I’ve managed to whip up time and time again.

We’ve yet to try the last one….but thank you so much, Philip. It certainly was so very thoughtful of you to get those noodles for me and to carry them all the way from the US to try and thanks also for the chocolate.

And getting back to the blackout that night, it lasted till around 11.35 p.m. by which time I was perspiring profusely and was seriously contemplating whether or not I should just go and sleep in the car. @#$%^&*+*!!!!!