langkau fiction

It was sort of a miscommunication between us. I thought it was Friday but she informed me that my years of alcohol consumption had devoured most of my memory cells. As a result, I forgot.

My ex-classmate Liz wanted to do another reunion dinner over the weekend. A friend, Juan, was coming down from Miri and we haven’t met for about 20 years. “Alright,” I told Liz “I should be back in Kuching by then!”

On Friday afternoon, I texted Liz saying “I can’t wait for tonite’s dinner!”

“Hey, it’s not tonight lah! Tomorrow, 29th!” she replied. I told her  “Nooo, you told me it was on the 28th and…” And as usual, before I could finish my sentence, she said “See, I knew this would happen. You wouldn’t remember. I told you she’s coming down on 28th evening and we’re having dinner on Saturday, 29th.”

It was pointless arguing. I just told Liz that I couldn’t make it on 29th because I have a wedding dinner to attend. “Okay, no problem. Next time,” she told me. I’m sure my demented kanid was more looking forward to this occasion than I was.

At 7am on 29th morning, I received a phone call from my friend in Gumbang. “Hey, come over to the kampung. My cousin’s getting married today,” he told me enthusiastically. I looked at my watch: 7.12am. “You mean, the wedding is going to start now?” I asked him groggily.

“No, no…the wedding ceremony is at noon but we’re drinking ijok now. Come, come!” he replied, sounded very convinced that I would come. I told him that I have to attend a wedding in Mundai in the afternoon. And that I also had to attend a reunion dinner, that was just cancelled due to the wedding in Mundai.

As if he wasn’t convinced, my friend listed all the things they had in front of their eyes as we spoke: babi panggang, langkau, ijok, ayam kampung and some beers. I told him I couldn’t concentrate as it was too early in the morning. “Alright then. If you’re free later, just come over. We’ll go on until tomorrow!” he told me.

Yeah, right. I was not in the right mind to think about it that early in the morning.

Then, shortly after noon, another friend, Ark, asked me if he could borrow my car as he had to attend his cousin’s wedding in Sogoh. He told me “You’re invited too!”

I asked Ark why are there so many weddings today? He said “I don’t know. I only know about my cousin’s wedding.”

I told Ark he could use my car. “What about you? Aren’t you supposed to go to other weddings as well?” he asked. I told him I can’t make up my mind which one to go to. It’s ridiculous to be invited to many weddings at once. “Okay, then I’ll use your car,” Ark quickly decided.

I remembered Charlie Charles wanted to do a babiQ on that same evening. I told Asparagus and his girl to pick me up from my house to go to Charlie Charles’ babiQ since I was car-less. So, Asparagus and girl picked me up from my house and transplanted me at Charlie Charles’ babiQ set at his house.  Truth be told, though it was nice and all, my mind was scattered all over the place.

Not to mention my kanid swooning over his “ex-girl” – so he claimed – during the reunion on that same evening.

*sigh*

I woke up and looked at my watch. 5.43am. More or less my usual wake up time. It didn’t take me long to get off the couch. Went to the kitchen to warm up the dog’s food. All five of them outside were already biting each other, with Chelum being the common victim.

“It’s that like your way of greeting me in the morning, by biting each other?” I asked them. They looked at me, wagged their tails and continued snapping at each other. Silly dogs.

My dogs don’t seem to know how to sleep at night. They bark at random movements outside the house in the middle of the night. All of them howl when there’s a siren and they’ll only stop when you tell them to stop. Even then, you’d have to shout at them.

This fellow discovered that his life isn’t worth living anymore. So, he decided to jump into the water and drown himself.

What a pity…

I saw some guys drinking Tigers at the kedai kopi this morning while I had my breakfast. That’s Sarawak lah, I thought. hhm…dang! I need some beers now. Ciao!

One day, sometimes last week, Kee asked me “Hey, what’s the name of your friend who bought us dinner in Penang? That was very nice of her.” I told him that her name was Christine. “Huh? Another Christine?” he asked in puzzlement, after being introduced to the other Christine the night before.

“Okay,” he said as he tried to make sense out of the Christines, “and what was the name of your friend that was supposed to meet up with us in Penang but didn’t show up?” I told him her name was also Christine.

“Waddafak, man. How many Christines do you know?” he inquired further.

That made me think, a bit. Yeah, how many Christines do I know? Let’s see. “Six or seven? Not too sure,” I informed Kee.

He told me “Okay, the next time you meet a girl and ask for her name, and if she says her name is Christine, you know what you should do?” What, I asked him.

“Just say ‘Hey, hey…I don’t think I can take that name. I’ve got many Christines already. C’mon, c’mon give me another name’,” Kee told me, obviously amused with his own wit.

“Okay, I’ll think about it,” I told him.

Overexposed (l-to-r): Diw, Syam the sotong man at the back, and Kee during ‘jam gembira’

Yes, Christine seems to be a popular name. The Social Security Administration in the U.S. and A even has a simple statistic to rank the popularity of the name Christine. In 2007, for instance, the name lost it’s popularity and ranked 518 out of 1,000 popular names.

That’s probably why my mechanic changed his name from Christine to Ah Chung.

My friend, Kee, came to Kuching for a visit last week. His last trip here was in 2000, a few months before I embarked on that stupid mission to Kobenhavn. He now lives in Canuckland.

As I drove Kee around Kuching, he looked outside the car window and said “My goodness! What’s with the gaudy buildings, man?” I looked at him and asked “What’s a ‘goddie’?” He pointed at the brightly colored buildings “That’s gaudy.”

I looked at the buildings. Somehow I just didn’t realize the buildings have changed colors. Was this recent? They do look strange though. Or maybe I wasn’t paying attention.

Okay, okay…so, this is not a gaudy building laa but I liked that small patch of sun hitting the wall on the left. We were about to start our jam bergembira session at Ruai on this day.

Now, really, what’s with the warna warni?

Huan Lok cafe next to Tun Jugah building. It’s part of that old buildings you see along the Padungan area. I liked these colors but hopefully they won’t paint every old building with bright out-of-place colors.

Okay, I’m tired now. And got nothing better to write about. There is another really, really brightly colored building which houses The Star cineplex. Can’t remember the name of that building but I’m too lazy to resize the photos and post it here. Next time, maybe. The building above is on Carpenter Street. They’re probably gonna paint it pink.

Grazie tiger…tigre

I got a call from a friend this evening telling me that she’d like to discuss some of her thoughts. “During happy hour good for you?” I asked her. “Yes…where?” she replied (or asked) in return. I told her any where else but Ruai. “I’d prefer that kedai kopi behind Ruai,” I told her, before she thought of somewhere else. She agreed.

I was on my second can of Tiger when she arrived. Formality ensued “how’s life; how’s it going; how’s work” and things like that. Then, we talked about her project which was quite interesting but my frame of mind doesn’t allow me to expound on it at the moment. I’m about to hit the bed couch.

We talked about plans and how bored we are with the office. Well, actually, I was even more bored than her because all her work seems to be more interesting. Than mine. She suggested that we should do those jungle hikes again. What a brilliant idea, I thought. “But where?” I asked her. True, we’ve been to most part of this part of Borneo. Either she’s been there and I haven’t or vice versa.

Then, suddenly, we thought about why not do Borneo, as in the ‘real Borneo’, as in covering Sarawak, Kalimantan and Sabah? We’ve both done either one or the other or both at separate times, separately. So, why not do all three together? Then, we made plans of the trails and people to contact. The most interesting part is that we’ve to do it in 10-12 days over this coming Aidilfitri break. Okay, so that’s like 5-6 weeks from tonight. Done. Get to work.

I was actually thinking of going to the upriver Balong over the Aidilfitri holidays but since this idea – over some Tigers, thank you – came up, I might as well focus on that. It’d be interesting. At least, something for me to look forward to…