Remember when I said this was going to be my detoxing week? Well, I failed. But it was my car’s fault because it automatically took me to the bar. *sigh* I went to the usual bar yesterday to ascertain whether I’m ‘cured’ from last weekend’s drinking indulgence. After the first sip of Tiger, I thought “hhm…I can do more, surely” and ended up going home at 2am.
The bionic raft that brought us bionic drunkards men to 29th place
Our minimum aim: 23. Why? Because we would have won the RM100 consolation prize. But after looking at our fellow rafting rivals participants alien-like strength, 23rd place would have been too far-fetched for us. So, after an extensive telepathic brainstorming our objective dramatically metamorphosed from 23rd place to “as long as we do not get beaten by the other urbanites”.
When we reached our final destination — not death (although it did feel like it then) but the finishing line — we hurriedly pushed our raft aside and quickly got out of the place, which was already swarmed by hundreds of local villagers. I thought we got something like 48th or 50th place, looking at the number of rafts that had bypassed us. My kanid Dibid was more rational about it: 37th, he said confidently because he actually counted the rafts that were already there before us! When asked, Majiko just said that the jungle looked nice along the river. He’d like to come back there one day and do some wildlife annihilation hunting. Our commander and the most experienced rafter on board, Robert, quickly said: “Let’s go home and drink langkau. Don’t have to wait for the prize-giving ceremony”.
Well, I just discovered last week that our official position in the river safari was 29th! That means we were ahead of 64 other losers rafters. I think this is a great achievement!
I was reading today’s newspaper during lunch and the article’s header “Girl lied about abduction, abuse claim” caught my attention. I seldom read newspapers or watch news on TV, so I do not know the root of this story. But to keep the story brief, it’s about a 10-year old girl who claimed to be abducted and abused by her parents, but later admitted that her story wasn’t true. When she saw that her mother became distraught on TV, she decided to call it quits and go home. Someone found her at a bus station and took her to the police. I thought she had a creative mind for a 10-year old to fool our society, a talent I thought only exclusively belonged to politicians.
I’m not too sure what’s going to happen to this 10-year old girl but the police thought it would be appropriate that she be brought to see a psychiatrist to evaluate her “state of mind”. Remember the story of the 5-year old boy who was ‘abducted‘ last April and later, returned to his parents without any harm done to him (with a new hairdo bald head some more)? Well, he was said to be diagnosed with ADHD, a neurological disorder with symptoms like hyperactive, impulsive and inattention among kids. It is suspected that this 10-year old girl who lied about her abducting may experience ADHD too.
As tragic these tales of abduction may be, such as the recent abduction and brutal murder of an 8-year old girl, sometimes I find our society’s responses to these events rather strange. Not ’strange’ as in mysteriously strange ala Ripley’s Believe It or Not. ‘Strange’ as in mind-numbingly strange, if you know what I mean. For instance, while the cops are working their asses to searching for the felons, we — the civil society of Bolehland — pretend very hard decide to be intellectual and so-called ‘objective’ about the whole matter as if it’s just another subject to talk about at the kedai kopi. There is, of course, the Blaming Game, i.e. who is to blame for this-or-that tragedy, which is a very common thing to do among us Panadol-based conscious citizens. Can someone tell how many times have this highly intellectual Blaming Game produced success in effectively preventing the same crime from happening again in the future?
In the case of this 10-year old girl, her stepfather suggested that the girl should be given to the Welfare Department because he feels that “the state would take better care of her”. Huh? Didn’t they want her to come home in the first place? No wonder the girl wanted to run away and made up such stories. Oh, the police did say that the girl did not suffer from any physical signs of abuse, so she must be ok. But is term “abuse” confined to ill physical treatment?
Also, what do you think about the comment made by Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, who launched the country’s first submarine in France last week, about the ‘abduction’ of the 5-year old boy in April who was said to have ADHD? She said that for the sake of their safety, the children should be put on a leash while taking a stroll in public. Huh?
I think with such the increasing number of strange people we have in our midst, I’m not too sure if our kids feel safe around us these days.
So, I achieved my weekend objective: to drink and drink and drink. My drinking binge started at Ruai on Friday and went on until 3am. Then, early Saturday morning, I drove to my usual watering hole in the village to finish a bottle of langkau before zooming back to Kuching to attend my friend’s wedding. It was a Hindu wedding, my first and it was quite elaborate. I had alcoholic acquaintances sitting at the same table and between the four of us, we gulped a bottle of Johnnie Walker in less than 30 minutes! The food was great though. Spicy hot. Good diarrhea material.
After the wedding, I went off to Ruai and continued drinking until 6.30am before I passed out and slept…at Ruai. Again. At 9am, shortly after I slept, I picked up a Puerto Rican girl as arranged and went to my usual village to drink some more langkau. There was a Dutch girl as well who stayed there for two nights, and we all went to another village further up in the mountains. Yes, to drink some more langkau. We left at around 8pm and headed for Ruai. By then, with so much drinking and lack of sleep, I couldn’t even manage one can of Tiger. I accidentally slept (at Ruai, again) but managed to wake up at 3.30am to shrug off this insanity and headed back home.
Now, I’m feeling like a zombie. No headache, thank goodness, but even the sight of water and thought of food makes me want to puke. Seems like it’s going to be another detoxing week for me.
Heeelp! Heeelp! I’m drowning…help! uurggpph…uurrggpph…help! No, no….(waving hands, eyes closed)….gulp! gulp! Help! I’m drowning, I’m (gulp!) drowning in beers….WHAT?! Beers? Oh, damn! Must’ve have been a dream! *whew* It’s Friday. Beer time. Ruai time. Drinking time. (Tomorrow) Hangover time! wooohooo!
