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!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Weekly menu
Lately there have been a lot of feasting, a lot of good food being served and most times we over indulged ourselves. All this good food reminded me of my first couple of years in SMK Serian. That was the time when I either survive on cream cracker biscuits and instant mee or join the teachers staying in another quarters for my meals. I had very simple meals then.
I could not expect much as I paid only RM30.00 per month for two meals a day, four days a week. It was actually only RM25.00 but I paid an extra RM5.00 for meat which one of the teachers was not required to pay since she told the rest that she could do without meat. So it was only four of us paying for meat and that meant tenggiri (mackerel) and luncheon meat. There was no chicken or any other meat on the menu. So it was fried tenggiri for Mondays and Wednesdays and luncheon meat on Tuesdays and Thursdays served with two vegetable dishes. The vegetables were sawi (Chinese mustard), white stem 'pek chai', long beans, french beans, canned sweet corn, canned green peas, dried radish fried with eggs and occasionally we had brinjal or ladies' fingers.
The reason for the occasional dish of brinjal which was normally fried with eggs was because one of the teachers does not take brinjal as she was told by someone that brinjal is not good for the skin while the volunteer service teacher who's British doesn't take ladies' fingers and the reason given in her own words: "Who wants to take something which is like the slime that comes out from the nose?" What can all those ladies' fingers lovers out there say to that? It was definitely a tough job trying to cater to each and everyone likes and dislikes.
The weekly menu was the same but luckily for me, I'm not picky about my food. My grandma taught my siblings and I since we were small kids not to be picky about our food otherwise, we would face problem when we leave home to work elsewhere. My grandma had never ventured out to work; she married my grandfather when she was sweet sixteen and yet she showed such wisdom.
I had no complain at all about the food and in fact I enjoyed every meal. Why not, when it was definitely much better than having biscuits and milk or instant mee! Besides, I didn't have to sweat over the cooking; even the marketing was done by those teachers when they were back in Kuching during the weekends. They also shared their fruits either bananas (usually pisang rajah) or the local oranges with me. What more could I have asked for.
In my opinion, it doesn't matter if the meal is simple or the menu is the same every week. As long as the company is right, the meal will be an enjoyable one.
I could not expect much as I paid only RM30.00 per month for two meals a day, four days a week. It was actually only RM25.00 but I paid an extra RM5.00 for meat which one of the teachers was not required to pay since she told the rest that she could do without meat. So it was only four of us paying for meat and that meant tenggiri (mackerel) and luncheon meat. There was no chicken or any other meat on the menu. So it was fried tenggiri for Mondays and Wednesdays and luncheon meat on Tuesdays and Thursdays served with two vegetable dishes. The vegetables were sawi (Chinese mustard), white stem 'pek chai', long beans, french beans, canned sweet corn, canned green peas, dried radish fried with eggs and occasionally we had brinjal or ladies' fingers.
The reason for the occasional dish of brinjal which was normally fried with eggs was because one of the teachers does not take brinjal as she was told by someone that brinjal is not good for the skin while the volunteer service teacher who's British doesn't take ladies' fingers and the reason given in her own words: "Who wants to take something which is like the slime that comes out from the nose?" What can all those ladies' fingers lovers out there say to that? It was definitely a tough job trying to cater to each and everyone likes and dislikes.
The weekly menu was the same but luckily for me, I'm not picky about my food. My grandma taught my siblings and I since we were small kids not to be picky about our food otherwise, we would face problem when we leave home to work elsewhere. My grandma had never ventured out to work; she married my grandfather when she was sweet sixteen and yet she showed such wisdom.
I had no complain at all about the food and in fact I enjoyed every meal. Why not, when it was definitely much better than having biscuits and milk or instant mee! Besides, I didn't have to sweat over the cooking; even the marketing was done by those teachers when they were back in Kuching during the weekends. They also shared their fruits either bananas (usually pisang rajah) or the local oranges with me. What more could I have asked for.
In my opinion, it doesn't matter if the meal is simple or the menu is the same every week. As long as the company is right, the meal will be an enjoyable one.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Immigration woes
Well, even though I had settled matters concerning the stomach, all was not yet rosy. You see, I was given only a one month stay in the state by the officer manning the immigration counter at the airport.
So once the bell signalling the end of school for Friday went off, I joined those teachers from Kuching and headed straight for the Serian bus station to catch the 12.30 pm express bus to Kuching and from there to get onto the Chin Ling Long bus No.18 to Simpang Tiga where the immigration office is located. There was no time for lunch except for a red bean bun which I ate during the one hour plus journey.
Reached the immigration office after two and surprise, surprise, a few others who were posted to the state the same time as me were already there with the same problem including my friend with whom I squatted with at the government rest house and who was posted to St. Augustine, Betong. As it was the usual scenario in those days, we were kept waiting for some time before someone finally approached the counter.
After considering our predicament, the officer told us that we just have to apply for an extension every month. Naturally, we argued as it was most illogical and it was not as if we applied to be posted here; we were after all posted by the education ministry. I even insisted that there must be an exception for federal officers posted to the state which prompted the officer to refer to a book and after flipping through the pages we were told that teachers were not in the list and he even showed us the page in the book related to the education service. I pointed out that educators were on the list but according to the officer, educators do not include teachers. This really makes one wonders what do teachers actually do if not to educate! As no solution seemed to be forth coming, we requested to see the superior officer but as usual, superior officers are hardly ever available when you need to see them. So we had to make arrangement to return the following week.
The second time round at the immigration office was no plain sailing either. One of the guys was allowed to go in to see the officer in charge and he was told to get a letter from the education office. So he went up (luckily the education office was in the same building) to look for our posting officer who then called up the immigration officer and this was followed up with a letter which was handed over to the immigration officer. After waiting for sometime, a decision was made and we were told we would be given a one year pass. Ha, bet you thought everything was finally settled which was what our posting officer thought too.
He was really surprised to see us again the following week (we were not able to get hold of him after being told that we would be given a one year pass as he was already attending to some other matters elsewhere). This time round we insisted that our posting officer go down to deal with the immigration officer as it seemed we were getting no where. Our posting officer didn’t really have a choice because if the problem with the immigration was not settled, it meant packing up and home sweet home for us. After having a closed door discussion, he came out to inform us that the problem has been settled and we finally had our passport endorsed for an indefinite stay. Just imagine having to rush to the immigration office for three consecutive Friday! But, this was not my one and only brush with the immigration department.
The next time I was there was when my passport expired and being very innocent, I did not renew my passport before the expiry date. You know, teachers are forever busy so, I waited until the school holidays before I went to the department to make a renewal and that was when I was told that I had been staying in the state illegally and that I could be jailed for the offence. I didn’t know then about the state constitution and the 20 point-agreement made when the state together with Sabah agreed to join Malaya to form Malaysia. Luckily for me, I was let off with just a caution and told to make sure to get my passport renew before expiry date in future.
My hope is, in the not so distant future, I can stay here indefinitely without having to go through any hassle about passport requirement, etc. After all I am Malaysian and I have spent all of my productive years serving in the state educating sons of Sarawak!
So once the bell signalling the end of school for Friday went off, I joined those teachers from Kuching and headed straight for the Serian bus station to catch the 12.30 pm express bus to Kuching and from there to get onto the Chin Ling Long bus No.18 to Simpang Tiga where the immigration office is located. There was no time for lunch except for a red bean bun which I ate during the one hour plus journey.
Reached the immigration office after two and surprise, surprise, a few others who were posted to the state the same time as me were already there with the same problem including my friend with whom I squatted with at the government rest house and who was posted to St. Augustine, Betong. As it was the usual scenario in those days, we were kept waiting for some time before someone finally approached the counter.
After considering our predicament, the officer told us that we just have to apply for an extension every month. Naturally, we argued as it was most illogical and it was not as if we applied to be posted here; we were after all posted by the education ministry. I even insisted that there must be an exception for federal officers posted to the state which prompted the officer to refer to a book and after flipping through the pages we were told that teachers were not in the list and he even showed us the page in the book related to the education service. I pointed out that educators were on the list but according to the officer, educators do not include teachers. This really makes one wonders what do teachers actually do if not to educate! As no solution seemed to be forth coming, we requested to see the superior officer but as usual, superior officers are hardly ever available when you need to see them. So we had to make arrangement to return the following week.
The second time round at the immigration office was no plain sailing either. One of the guys was allowed to go in to see the officer in charge and he was told to get a letter from the education office. So he went up (luckily the education office was in the same building) to look for our posting officer who then called up the immigration officer and this was followed up with a letter which was handed over to the immigration officer. After waiting for sometime, a decision was made and we were told we would be given a one year pass. Ha, bet you thought everything was finally settled which was what our posting officer thought too.
He was really surprised to see us again the following week (we were not able to get hold of him after being told that we would be given a one year pass as he was already attending to some other matters elsewhere). This time round we insisted that our posting officer go down to deal with the immigration officer as it seemed we were getting no where. Our posting officer didn’t really have a choice because if the problem with the immigration was not settled, it meant packing up and home sweet home for us. After having a closed door discussion, he came out to inform us that the problem has been settled and we finally had our passport endorsed for an indefinite stay. Just imagine having to rush to the immigration office for three consecutive Friday! But, this was not my one and only brush with the immigration department.
The next time I was there was when my passport expired and being very innocent, I did not renew my passport before the expiry date. You know, teachers are forever busy so, I waited until the school holidays before I went to the department to make a renewal and that was when I was told that I had been staying in the state illegally and that I could be jailed for the offence. I didn’t know then about the state constitution and the 20 point-agreement made when the state together with Sabah agreed to join Malaya to form Malaysia. Luckily for me, I was let off with just a caution and told to make sure to get my passport renew before expiry date in future.
My hope is, in the not so distant future, I can stay here indefinitely without having to go through any hassle about passport requirement, etc. After all I am Malaysian and I have spent all of my productive years serving in the state educating sons of Sarawak!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)