Irene's Green Green Grass of Miri: November 2008

Thursday, 6 November 2008

It is the fruits season again! I just love to see the fruits on the trees! Thanks Angie for allowing me to take pictures of your fruit trees :)

Red Rambutan Tree

Yellow rambutans from another rambutan tree

Who or what is the king of fruits? Durian! First time I tried in Matang-Kuching, I fell in love with it. I was almost in my mid-20's then. Before that, I only knew it from the smell. It was stinky, rotten. We would know when a neighbor had durians and I would moaned over it to my mother. The smell travels! First time I tried it I closed my nose.

I think it is an amazing fruit. I like the dodol durian, the durian ice-cream, the durian cake, mooncake, cooked tempoyak. I don't know what else is made from it. They are delicious.

You can get sick eating too much of it because it is 'heaty' - sore throat especially. So what we did, as per beliefs, is to drink salted water, that we make, from any of the emptied pulps section of the durian husk. So far it works for me :)

Local Oranges

Banana

Red Ginger

Heliconia

Sunday, 2 November 2008

Thanks Siew Kuan, for giving me the permission to use your pictures.

Finally the LGSS's 45th Anniversary Reunion Dinner was here!

I came to know about it when the four of us visited the school on the 5 September.

I had just came back to Miri on the 2 September and I was excited when Angela asked me on the 4 September if I would go with them to visit our school. She didn't tell me about the 45th Anniversary celebration then. They asked that I stay back for the special occasion. The date fitted into my schedule!

It didn't fit in Catherine's (who was our class and school head prefect) schedule. We missed her this night.

Our dear KK, who is best in gathering the classmates together, emailed on the 21 September 2008:

Hi Folks, First of all, this is not meant to be a disrespect or an insult nor be offensive to those observing the Ramadan.You may have already known or heard about it. Just to inform those with email box and some of whom I had also smsed on the LGSS 45TH ANNIVERSARY REUNION organised by the school.

Please now book your calendar for this event and do spread the news to relevant others.

Time & Date: 7PM sharp Sunday 2nd November 2008.
Venue: EASTWOOD VALLEY GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB (somewhere at the Miri Bypass - that between the Padang Kerbau flyover to Miri Airport)
Ticket Charge per head:RM40.00

Those interested individuals at KL/Singapore/Kuching, etc., are to timely email or sms confirm attendance with Aisah (she had affirmed 3 definites but would furnish the names soon) or me for the ticket reservation, pay to Aisah/me during collect the ticket at the venue.

Attendees from outstation are to advised make their own early online flight booking (MAS or Air Asia) or via travel agents to Miri. Our MASWings " globe trotting " MD Dr. Amin Khan maybe available for request to assist in getting the MAS flight seats under specific dilemma situations.

Though comfortably confident with the current confirmed and not withstanding an interim booking of just 1 table for 10 people, all message recipients in this distribution loop are to let Aisah or yours truly know/updated timely in order to possibly address the booking for adjacent tables - birds of same feather flock together.

Those who had already sms or phone called to me in confirm attendance, where in this email loop do not have to response.

Your timely return confirmation is awaited. If you do so via sms, please do not transmit at odd hours.

Regards,
KK

The evening came! KK and Angela picked me up and passed me my ticket.

There were a lot of people attending. It was good to see familiar faces again - students from other classes, senior, juniors, and not forgetting the teachers. The best part was meeting our own classmates, some of which had been my classmates since Primary.

Reception

Pictures of the activites of the school

Long Time No See - Nee Joon (whom I have not met since we left Form 5), Ahmad, Peggy, Angie, Irene, KK, Sha

Nee Joon, Angie, Ahmad, Peggy, KK, Jamel & Sha

A photographer being photographed! Siew Kuan took this shot unaware by her.

The Banquet hall in the Eastwood Club. Incidentally, this was my first visit to the Eastwood Club. I had been invited to join New Year Eve Dinner and other occasion there but didn't join.

I think this is the SMK Lutong Choir. The school was renamed Sekolah Menengah Kerajaan Lutong when the medium of instruction was changed from English to Bahasa Malaysia.

What was disappointing for me was we didn't get to visit with each other much ! There were about 22 of us, and therefore 2 tables. Each table seated 10 persons. Jamel was not seated in either of these 2 tables and that was not very nice. Worst of all these 2 tables were not next to each other!

Talking about reunion. Yes, it was a reunion for all the students that have studied there since its formation in 1963 but it was not much of a reunion for our class. That was what I am disappointed in.

Table 54 where I sat with Peggy, Angela, Nee Joon, Alison (who unfortunately couldn't turn up because she was sick), Mee Kiaw, KK, Siew Ming, Thien Hock and Siew Kuan.

Table 45, were Virginia, JamilaS, Aisah, JamilahB, Bibi, Razak, Hamim, Mohsin, Dancy and Ahmad.

Visiting each other

The night's programme:

Performance from the SMK Lutong Traditional Dance Club. I didn't pay much attention to what was going on the stage because it was not clear watching from a angle from a far distance.