Friday Happy Hour

Someone gave me a boost to continue writing, so I'm back after a long break.

Well, since Serian was a cowboy town back in the early 1980s, there was hardly any night life except for two cinemas: Lina and Empress. These two cinemas were quite popular even though there was no air conditioning and the fans were ineffectiveI. I was also told by a colleague that one has to bring along a mosquito coil to keep the blood suckers away once the light has dimmed. For want of entertainment, I suppose bringing along your own mosquito coil is nothing but just a mere inconvenience. However, I never step foot inside those cinemas. I was not that desperate!

My Happy Hour on Friday night was not going to the movies or pubs but going out to town with my housemates. I would wait for them to be back after the afternoon session ends and we would walk to town to get some supplies from the only sundry shop that opens partially at night. Then, we would go to buy Sarawak famous Kolo mee for our dinner. I would also buy a fried chicken wing, remember there's no chicken dish during the week! My eyes were always bigger than my stomach. Each time I would only be able to eat up the Kolo mee and always had to keep the chicken wing for the next day. Since there was no refrigerator and there was one rat too many in the kitchen, I always hung my chicken wing from the door knob inside my room. Luckily I never get any nightmares about chicken wings that go flapping in the dark trying to get out!

Well, it might not be much of a happy hour to most but I cherish the time when we went out together. It was very relaxing and there was much laughter as we chatted and forgot about our school work temporarily to spent the only evening of the week together in town. In today's rat race, how many of us can spare the time just to go for a stroll or call upon a friend.

We do not need to go out in a big fancy car or to a posh place for a ridiculously expensive meal to be happy. As long as the company is right, even hawkers' fair beside the yukky monsoon drain with four-legged creatures scavenging around will make us happy. We should have a Happy Hour everyday in order to keep our sanity in today's world of kiasu!