La Salle Alumni 50th Anniversary Dinner

Last night we attended the La Salle Alumni 50th Anniversary dinner held in downtown Kota Kinabalu. The old boys of class '82 invited the teachers who had taught them in school. The attendees who turn up every year are Datin Hiew who taught Geography, myself who taught English, John Wilfred who taught Physics, Philip Tan, Mathematics, Mrs Yong Su Cheng, Physics and Mr Koh, who taught them Maths. in lower secondary school.

The guest of honor was Mr Martin Chee, a past president who had flown in from Canada. Another distinguished guest was the Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah, Tan Sri Joseph Pairin who is also an old boy and of course the patron, Datuk Bro. Charles O'Leary. They made a grand entrance preceded by nubile plumed dancers who also entertained the diners with a number of dances from the sixties through to the current era.

The old boys were merrily drinking and catching up with singing and dancing in their particular spots, many impervious to the happenings down at the front end where the stage was.

Datuk Bro Charles was in his element, hale and hearty, pleased to see the huge turnout and happy to see us there. It was great to see him, large as life each year at this annual function as he is not only the patron but the inspiration that keeps the old boys united as a body from so many years ago. Indeed Bro Charles is an institution by himself. Without him La Salle would not be what it is and I'm sure many old boys' success can be credited to him. Just mention Bro Charles and many 'boys' will look back with nostalgia at the old days which I'm sure hold many memories for them. Here's wishing Bro Charles good health and many more years as patron of the La Salle Alumni. Also a big thank you for Teo Chee Kong and the class of  '82 for inviting us each year to this auspicious function. In fact he has already told us to reserve the date for next year's do!

The largest turnout award was won by the class of  '82. This is their third consecutive victory. Congratulations and well done! 

Hari Raya Aidilfitri Delights

These are some of the food commonly offered during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri Open House.

The lemang is an all time favourite. It is glutinous rice cooked in hollow bamboo over an open fire. When cooked, it is removed from the bamboo, cut and eaten with chicken curry.

Another dish which is de riguer is the satay ( charcoal-grilled skewers of chicken and beef ) which is accompanied with ketupat (rice flattened and packed into casings) and eaten with a sweet and spicy peanut sauce.

Beef rendang (dry beef curry) is also served.

There are many varieties of cookies to tempt those with sweet tooth and the children. A traditional cookie is the kuih makmur.

Pineapple tarts and peanut cookies are perennial favorites.

Dodol (a sticky soft sweet) is a must.

Here are also some of my favorite kuih which I absolutely must have whenever I "balik kampung".

Balik Kampung & Open House

We are enjoying a stretch of holidays. This year the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays coincide with National Day which is also a holiday. A replacement holiday is given so that there are three consecutive days where everyone enjoys the holidays which fall on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. These three days fall within the mid-semester school term break so what most people ( especially parents ) do is to take leave on Monday and Friday so that they will have a stretch of nine days’ holidays, from Saturday to the following Sunday.

Malaysia is truly a paradise in that there are so many public holidays and school holidays. There are always celebrations to look forward to as we are a multiracial society with our own festivals to celebrate.

A few days before a festival, there will be a mass exodus from the capital city, as well as other big towns, with vehicles clogging up the main motorways as people hurry to “balik kampung” ( go home ) to celebrate with their families. All siblings and their families will do their best to return home to celebrate with their parents. It is this reunion which sees people driving long distances or flying in.

This practice is not limited to any particular community. All the ethnic communities in Malaysia do this. We all “balik kampung” when our festivals come round.

Some “kampung” may be located in the smaller towns or rural areas while others may be the big towns or the capital city. It is usually where one was brought up and lived in the formative years of one’s life.

This is the event that almost all elderly folk look forward to. Their homes are spruced up for the return of children and grandchildren. A lot of planning and cooking has been done to welcome home the youngsters and their offspring. Money in green packets ( for Hari Raya Aidilfitri ) are kept handy for distribution to the children when they greet their elders with good wishes.

The practice of “open house” is unique to Malaysia whereby anyone is welcome to join families to celebrate the festival. There is no need to issue invitations and it is a done thing to welcome even strangers to your home and your table.

This is a very good way for friends to renew acquaintances which might have gone slightly stale over the year. It is not unusual for some one to ask “Hey, what day is your open house?” to which the response will be “ The first day. Please come and bring all your kids!” Or it could be the second day as some people would pay their respects to their elders and relatives on the first day of the celebration.

The atmosphere is one of goodwill, camaraderie and partaking of the elaborate spread of food. This goes on throughout the day although these days some people will specify the time say from ten in the morning till five in the evening.

That’s when the hosts are ready to drop from exhaustion !!

A Good Day

Today can be counted as a good day as I accomplished a few things.

The morning started off with a visit to the fish market. We hadn't had fish for a while. We bought three different types of fish, altogether totalling 6 fish and I also bought a chicken thigh.

Cleaning the fish took almost an hour after I reached home. Descaling it isn't a pleasant task, neither is cleaning the stomach cavity of its entrails. Then I boiled winter melon soup with chicken feet and carcass. This would be for dinner as I had been away and my grandchildren hadn't had any soup in my absence. I prepared one of the fish for steaming and also seasoned a few pieces of chicken for my grandson who doesn't like fish. A vegetable stir-fried with garlic completed the dinner menu.

Come afternoon, I did a bit of gardening, clearing the flower pots of weeds and adding new topsoil so that the flowers will bloom in abundance. Luckily it wasn't a hot afternoon so I was able to tidy up the potted plants and flowers before starting dinner.

Seeing my family, especially my grandchildren, enjoy the meal that I had cooked for them made me happy. My granddaughter likes fish and soup and she had two bowls!

It was a good day for me as I also finished reading a thriller that had a good story line.