Lutong

..continuing from where I left off:
Life in Lutong then was good. There was always enough even though horde of relatives came to stay,I never heard my mum or dad complained. According to my mum,my dad's take home pay after deductions from the chits at the LRC, usually came up to 180 ringgit. The chits I mentioned were chits that either my dad or I (usually it's me) signed at the club,after ordering food or drinks, and before the end of the month, the signed chits were sent to Shell office, & there they made the deductions for payment to the club...and my poor dad only had that much to take home to my mum.
Each time after payday,my mum walked to the Lutong Bazaar or Pasar Lutong to see Ah Kim,whose shop is No.2,in present day Lutong. Most other mothers did likewise as well...maybe different towkays. (grocer) Ah Kim and wife smiled when they saw my mum walking towards their shop and from a distance my mum could see Ah Kim's hand opening the drawer to take out a stack of '555' booklets. He took out one & counted how much my parents owed him for the month's food ration. After paying that,it's time to get groceries for the current month. This went on,month after month.
I studied at the Chung Hua kindergarten and I could speak fluent mandarin and cantonese. Most mornings,when there's no class, I went to the pasar,to the market to buy the famous mee Lutong..MEE ATAK as it's known now. Atak's parents were always happy to see me when I made my order in either cantonese or mandarin. A packet of mee then cost 30 sen,then 50sen, & then 1 ringgit. Now,when my brother or I buy Mee Atak,it would be between RM2-RM3 because we ask for 'special' - more char siew. For those of you who have never eaten Mee Atak, drive to Lutong market & ask the people around where Atak's stall is..give it a try. I know there's a lot of people who used to be Lutong folks but move elsewhere, are 'addicted' to eating Mee Atak that they would 'ta-pau' back to say, Kuching. Next,I'll write about Lutong Cinema & the stalls at the panggung.(Cinema)

MIRI - Home Sweet Home

After all the travelling, it is good to be back in Miri. There is some truth in the saying that 'Home is where the heart is'. ..no matter if one lives in a shack,a mansion ,a flat or a house,if it is yours,it belongs to you,then it becomes a part of you. Ever since I was born in 1959,I only left Miri for about 5 years before I returned to base again,got married and thank goodness,settled down in Miri again. D likes Kuching because he spent most of his earlier years there,studied there and most of all,Kuching is only 4 hours drive to Samu, his home sweet home...hence that's the reason why he's getting the apartment. He ever thought of relocating to Kuching in our earlier years of marriage..now that we're entering our 27 years of married life together,maybe..we stay put in Miri. Keep my fingers crossed.

Let me write about life in Lutong first: As earliest as I can remember, my family and I lived and stayed at a semi detached wooden lodge built by SHELL for its employees. Our lodge was situated at the empty land facing the present Good Shepherd Church,Lutong. The present carpark for Good Shepherd Church was our playground,where we played soldiers with 'lastic' & buah cherry as the pellets. There were12 semi detached lodges on that plot of land.The lodge had 2 rooms,a verandah,one bathroom & a kitchen. Some time,when my dad's relatives from Kapit & my mum's relatives from Kanowit came,on transit,before continuing on with their 'bejalai', the verandah was used as the sleeping area. The verandah was nicely decorated with 'selabit' - olden days version of the knapsack made from rattan/rottan when relatives from Kapit came. Our lodge was in the middle of the other lodges;the other family that stayed next door was a nurse called Mdm Kathy Lau,a nurse at the Lutong Clinic,who's married to an Iban called Noel Bunchol, a Customs man. After Indai Ann moved back to Sibu(she gave birth to a baby girl called Ann there), it was James Empungan & family that stayed there. Within the vicinity of the 12 lodges, the families that stayed there were,Kadet & family(related to Tunku Bujang,the ex-Governor),the Nanta (Daisy Nanta,Rebecca & Allen Crock),the Lim Ban Joo ( Janet, Jennica,Jessen,Sparrow Lim ,Esther),the Chempian(Evelyn,Julia,Nancy,), Sonny Lack (Rubu Lack),the Koh (Edward Koh,Richard Koh,Patricia Koh), the Kepol (Sadiah,Dabek of the Petronas Kiosk at RPR Batu 6),the Joseph Bilal ( Bonny,Doris aka Puteri),a kadazan family,Anthony Lajuta,a chinese family( one daughter was called Anne).
In those days, the lodges provided by the company indicated what job group the employees held. There was the labour post catergory (liba pos,ko bala indai-indai kami suba),clerical work catergory,Grade 1,Triple S..something like that. The labour post personnel lived around the present Carigali main office,Kampung Tulang area. Those a little bit higher up lived around the present site of Kelab Shell Lutong.(has changed its name to Kelab Petroliam??). In my days,it was called the Machinda Club. Those,whose fathers held better job groups stayed at the Grade 1 houses,somewhere behind the Lutong Recreation Club,the rumah tinggi (tall houses) and the houses where Rumah Harapan inmates were housed once. When my dad got promoted,we moved to the red detached house which had 3 rooms,next to Rumah Harapan. I think that red house was also part of Rumah Harapan. The Roman Catholic Church,St. Christopher's Church,Lutong was just a 'stone throw' away from where we stayed. Of course,the highest job grade personnel were entitled to stay at Piasau,as it was called then.I t was only in later years,I would say,in the 80s that there's Piasau Camp to distinguish it from Piasau Link,Piasau Jaya,Piasau Utara & so forth. It used to be just Piasau,where the orang putih or pangkat orang putih stayed.
Stay tune..for more.

Along Orchard Road.....

1. A mail box
2. A place called Food Republic where you could get all kinds of food.(di pelaba ka aku)
3. A granite bench to cool your bottoms after all the walking.
4. A young boy working for SingTel ( our equivalent of Telekom) distributing pamphlets.
5. One of the many ice-creams vendors trading along Orchard Road. Business was good.
6. S'pore has its fair share of street buskers. Any resemblance to Rod Stewart.?
7.SWAT? Nay...3 young men cleaning the wall tiles of Mount Elizabeth Hospital.

As I was passing........

I could not help wondering if the Mat Salleh tourists were able to read and understand what the words/message on the signboards were trying to relay...how were they going to react? I dreaded walking along the Kuching Waterfront during my other trip with the SIDS ladies. We did not want to take the taxi as we thought it was a good exercise to walk back from India Street to Crowne Plaza Hotel. Little did we know, the darker it got, more 'rowdy' bunch of youngsters appeared..goodness knows..from where...teasing each other. It is from these kinds of teasings that eventually led to misunderstandings & fights and more so, if arak was consumed. Here are 2 signboards that I saw on the fencing at Kuching Waterfront. The presence of Police would be most welcome at this area so that people can walk hand in hand or in groups with a peaceful mind,admiring the goings and the comings of Kuching Life.

Food for thought

Breakfast in Orchard Road;
1.Pancakes with fruits topped with butterscotch sauce
2.Corn bread topped with smoked salmon
3.American breakfast
4. Half a loaf of 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Bacon' - that's what its called.

See if you could....................

I would buy breakfast for those of you who could spot the other beauty contestants in the following photos by naming which countries they come from...apart from the obvious Miss Australia.


Sorry folks, I was not able to snap pictures of the others. It was only too late that I realised who they were. On your mark,get set,GOOOO!!!

It so happened that on the flight that we took to Kuching,the Miss World Tourism contestants & about 7 Bujang Runggu Ensing who were on their way to 'kerja di tasik Saudi Arabia' were also on board the flight.. The Bujang Runggu Ensing, got quite excited when they saw the beauties walking down the aisle locating their respective seats. Two Bujang Runggu Ensing sitting behind us were 'hoping against hope' that one ofthe contestants would eventually 'fall' on to the empty seats next to them. First,Miss Columbia came, Miss America, Miss China, Miss Japan, Miss Nigeria, Miss Venezuela..all these seemed to pass by the 2 Bujang Runggu Ensing until Miss --------& her sister/chaperone kindly seated themselves onthe empty seats next to the 2 Bujang Runggu Ensing.ApOOO!! Enggai enda seduai tu ke duduk enggau kitai,ko seduai nyebut...uji sida ke burak,manah gamal anjung kitu..tu, ke chelum..nadai nasib endar,ko sida,nundi diri sama diri. Ha..ha..ha..Nemu kita sapa duduk enggau BRE dua iko nya? Miss --------enggau menyadi iya, ti enda chaperon iya..di pelaba ke aku.Ha..ha..bendar endar ngarap kediri duduk enggau,sekurang-kurang iya enggau Miss Australia, Miss India,Miss Mexico tau ke Miss Columbia. Ha..ha..ha..men! enti kita nemu Miss menua ni ke duduk enggau Bujang Runggu Ensing ke duduk belakang aku, aku melanja breakfast ba 2020.

The rain in Kuching...............

Choon Hui's - where there's good laksa,jam tarts,roti kahwin & popiah

Pictures taken in the rain. The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plains/in the plains..in Spain.