Prelude to 5A1 Reunion

In my course of work, I receive lots of couriers everyday and that means lots of work. Today the office attendant, as usual, handed me a courier and I, as usual, asked him to throw it into the dustbin. This has been on-going for as long as I could remember and of course it was just a joke. I opened the courier bag. While I was taking out the content, I reaslised it was not my normal document, it was a DVD!!! Suddenly I remembered, it was the DVD that Boston had promised to send me ages ago. Loading the DVD, photos after photos appeared and memories of my class "10"th year reunion brought me back to THE DAY itself.

It was a sunny morning and after a month of co-ordination work, gathering all the contacts of my 5A1 friends in Keat Hwa, emailing them about the reunion and the program on that day, together with Iv, G and Boston trying to coax them into coming and arranging the dinner venue plus the accomodation, The Day has finally arrived. I woke up at 6 am that day, feeling excited, knowing that the hour to seeing my friends that I haven't seen for the past "10" years is getting nearer and nearer. Though my flight to Penang, the reunion venue was 9.35 a.m., I arrived at the airport at 8 a.m. It was my first time taking "Api-Api" ("Firefly") airplane from the old Subang Airport, so naturally I was a bit "lost", (didn't even know where to check in) and was hoping that Iv would arrive soon to rescue me... My "Lady" in her shinning "petticoat" came to my rescue in deed, amid half an hour later, but nevertheless, we still made it into the "Api-Api" fokker plane. I had this fear that the propellers might stopped in mid air and "Api-Api" would fly us into the sea... but after nearly an hour, my fear subsided and my courage increased as I saw the airport from the window.

G was at the arrival hall welcoming us with his 2 bare hands, thus my mind thought, mana itu hula girls and their leis??? Itu tak ada, tak pa, mana kompang or lion dance as promised??? Sigh... Probably because Penang now no longer under the rule of BN, so all these previleges pun kena scrapped... bad timing. G brought us around Penang Island, as part of our Island Tour package... before proceeding to a kopi tiam near Boston's office to meet up with him. As Boston had not seen me for 20 years, I thought that he wouldn't recognise me if i walked past him... but I was wrong, not only wrong, but wronger plus wrongest. From far, he already sniffed me out!!! I guess being a dog lover himself and spending half his time with dogs have trained him well and improved his sense of smell. So, project failed... miserably...

Lunch was at a Japanese restaurant, G's treat. He probably felt bad about not being able to deliver his promises of kompang and lion dance... nevertheless, a free lunch. After the sumptuous meal, we checked into the hotel and rested till the evening. At this juncture, KK arrived to join us and we proceeded to Boston's teahouse 天一茗茶. (Itu tempat mana, i pun tak tau...Tour Guide tak inform. Susah! First itu kompang and lion dance sepertimana yang telah diperpromisedkan tak ada, then itu tempat lawatan pun tidak diberikan nama). At the teahouse, Boston showed off his tea making skill. I wouldn't know whether he's doing it right or not considering that I normally only drink "siut char" (the 40 sen Chinese tea). Anyway, the tea was great, so I guess he did it right. Although the tea was nice, the RM1 peanuts that he served in response to my complaining of hunger tidak boleh pakai, as it was already "chow hong" (masuk angin). After that, we moved on to a hawker centre right across The Northem at Persiaran Gurney, for some Penang delights. However, due to all the excitement and being so happy just to see old friends again, I just couldn't eat anything even if I was served a meal fit for a king.

I remembered when I was in Vietnam, I had the previlege to enjoy the superb performance of a Phillippino live band, so I asked to be taken to a pub that played that same kind of music. And so, off we went to a pub, (also dunno the name, as this terrible Tour Guide never tell) in Evergreen Laurel Hotel. Ya, I got my Philippino band right, and yes there were scantily cladded girls but to my disappointment, their performance couldn't even match our own Simpang Kuala Girls... total disaster!!! However, that was quickly compensated by the fellowship that we enjoyed with each other, G, Boston, Iv, KK and of course, yours truly here. And to my amazement, there were quite a number of senior citizens there and they were ballroom dancing away in the pub!!! Kudos to all of them....

At the stroke of midnight, all the Cinderellas plus one Snow White must go to sleep and therefore we bid each other good night and parted. It was great meeting up with old friends again and I really treasure their sincere and genuine friendship. True friendship will definitely survive the test of time and the furnace of fire and I can proudly say that ours definitely had .... (To be continue) ....

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(P/S Boston, I learnt well)