Friday’s Rambling Log 060811

Friday came and went. Took the day off to fly back to Sarawak, as had been originally planned many months’ back. The day before, had a mini crisis in the office which I felt kind of guilty to leave my colleagues to handle. My boss was away on long leave, and my colleagues and I were holding fort. However, we go on the basis that no one person is indispensable, and somehow, the team would have to cope. I guess I would probably be picking up the tail end of issues on Monday when I return to work.

Took the AirAsia flight scheduled to depart at 11am, and glad there was only a slight delay of about 15 minutes before actual take-off. Actually, booked the 11am flight as I didn’t fancy waking up early to got to the airport, but went early anyway, as I was sharing a cab with my elder sister who was going on an earlier flight. No, we didn’t fly together (contingency planning, so to say). So what time did I get up? I dragged myself out of bed at 5:45am to depart for the airport at 6:45am! Definitely suffering from sleep depravation. As it is, I haven’t been getting enough sleep during the past week, as had been busy with something or rather. The night before, had rehearsals and a discussion session with WP, which lasted until slightly pass 11pm. Got back, showered, prepared what to bring back to Sarawak, checked emails, and nodded off closer to 1am. No wonder I slept in the plane. At least it gave me some “rest” time.

What did I do at the airport? Had a “Big Breakfast” at McD (LCCT), read the news for the day, and tried for the very first time, a game called Sudoku. My younger sister passed me the puzzle which consisted of numbers, and required logical thinking. Have heard of the craze before, but this was my first time trying out this number game. Took me a while (slightly more than half an hour) to crack it, with some peeping of the answers when I got stuck! And then, my younger sister told me that she gave me the intermediate level puzzle to solve, and very kindly also mentioned that there are some school competitions going around where “kids” took about 3 minutes only to solve the intermediate puzzles. Shit! Maybe I should give up my job and go back to school to be able to solve numeric puzzles quicker! I noticed my puzzle was quite messy with me trying to work out the various permutations possible. It appeared to be an addictive game, so I had better stop there! No sir-ee! Don’t want to get hooked and spend even more time not “resting”. Thinking so much gave me a headache anyway.

Still had time to pass before my flight. Came prepared, and took out my music score to learn and memorise while waiting for my flight to arrive. Found a quiet spot after checking in, and I think I managed to memorise Loch Lomond finally! Will only know for sure when I put down scores and sing with WP again for this song. Very haunting tune, but beautiful all the same. One of my favourites actually. Brought along another set of music score to memorise, but slightly more difficult. Will see how it goes over the weekend. Somehow, I never seem to spend enough time learning music. Have usually relied on my sight singing skills. Memorising things come difficult to me, as I have always gone on the basis of understanding stuff, as opposed to pure memorising for answers in exams. Unfortunately, need to memorise for the upcoming concert, and has to be done to improve interpretation and feel of music, otherwise will always be reliant on looking at music scores.

Yep, also read a bit in the plane, but felt sleepy. My body shutting down after a hectic week, and nodded off in the plane. And yes, have finished Adiamante by LE Modessitt Jr. Took a while to get going with the story, but I enjoyed it better than The Parafaith War. Brought two other books back to read over the weekend as a form of chilling. Don’t want to think about work. Can’t escape though, got a couple of sms-es from market peers about work related stuff. Oh well… of course, this was not during the flight. My handphone was off. That reminds me, I don’t have a digital camera, and am reliant on my handphone camera to take photos. Sometimes I am tempted to take pictures whilst in the air, especially for certain spectacular views whilst looking out the window of the plane, but am restricted because I am not supposed to switch on my handphone due to possible flight system interference. Bummer! Getting an extra camera is not feasible, and would be redundant as I have my camera phone. Good though as it is, it does have its limitations.

Arrived at Kuching International Airport. What’s the first thing we do? EAT! We went for lunch at this Hainanese Chicken Rice place near the airport. Not bad! Actually, have been blogging a considerable bit about food lately, and am trying to steer away from food topic, but it is hard!, especially since I have almost been eating non stop over the whole Friday – chicken rice, and then durians (humongous ones!) when I reached home. Had some home fried local snacks (soo-kun) which I absolutely adore (but not good to eat too much – will probably get a sore throat later), and then dinner at Tebakang with the whole family, and close family friends. This was the same place I blogged about before which had the big prawns! Needed preordering though, which my parents did. Had 13 big prawns (3.4kg) which cost about RM129.20 just for the prawn dish. One soon-hock fish (1.9kg) costing RM72.20, which I have been told is very cheap, considering it costs about RM110 per kilo in KL! Had other food too, but am resisting temptation to post pictures of the food. Also had deer meet, wild boar, and er… turtle stew (I only had one itsy bitsy teeny weeny bite) as well as other veggie dishes. Dinner came to RM320 for 13 pax, which was quite ok for the dishes ordered (especially compared to KL!). I picked up the tab for dinner, but found I was short RM50. Had to borrow from my elder sister! SHY! Don’t normally carry much cash with me.

Since returning to Sarawak, what have I heard as updates on local news? Apparently, there was a robbery-cum-murder in one of the kampungs. The thieves were caught, but one escaped and remained at large! So, the locals in the kampungs and surrounding areas are kind of worried and fearful. Crime seemed to be on the rise, what with the influx of foreigners into the area.

My dad finally managed to shoot the monitor lizard “hanging around” our pond area eating up the fishes. He needed only one shot! Wow! And no, the meat didn’t go to waste. It was given to someone for a good meal. I don’t even want to think about how they cooked it. Have you ever seen a bat or a wild animal being skinned? Not a pleasant sight, that much I can say!

Saw some chickens at Tebakang, and initially thought they were the stringy healthy kampung chicken types, but later found out they were actually fighting cocks reared for commercial purposes. Those that “don’t make it” apparently ended up in cooking pots! What gave it away, was that the cocks were individually tied up a distance apart from each other, which was kind of strange, but given the circumstances, logical. It’s a cruel, cruel world. I suppose one never really see real cock fights in the city, but only hear about it in the papers or by other means. I recall seeing one such fight when I was young, and the people attached sharpened knives to the feet of the cocks and watched them battle for their life. Nasty, nasty, nasty.

What else did I learn today? Heard stories about the soon-hock fish. Yes, it is a fresh water fish, but didn’t have the “seng” smell or taste, as it was usually smothered by the ginger and other toppings before steaming. What was more interesting is that in the past, this fish was unwanted, and the locals call it the “soo koo” fish (translated as “stupid” fish). Apparently, it’s hunting skill is to stay motionless while a prey approaches and will open it’s mouth wide and gobble up the prey. It doesn’t go chasing after the little fishes. However, if a predator comes along, it also stays motionless as a defense mechanism, as opposed to swimming away. Hence, it’s name of “stupid” fish given by the locals. Not sure how true it is though, but over the years, the prestige of the fish has been elevated, and is now sold in restaurants at a hefty price.

Being back in Sarawak is a good thing, to see the family and relatives, and not forgetting eating the food! Still, will put more rambling logs later, especially on the big gathering planned for the Saturday. Incidentally, results came out during the week for the exams I took in June. Out of 58 people who took all four papers in one sitting, only 29 got through one shot. Passing mark was 75%, so definitely some pressure there to get through. Yes, am glad I passed and it is over and done with… Pheewww!