I came, I saw and I'm glad!

I just came back from my third time or perhaps the last journey of Telupid and Tongod. As the name may sounds strange it has nothing to do with the Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean! Both Telupid and Tongod are the small town within Sandakan province and they are not depicting a single-merged town. Telupid is two and a half hours driving distance away from Sandakan while Tongod is 45 minutes driving distance away from Telupid.

Since the lack of government dental officer is still a lingering issue, it is Sandakan's prerogative to send out their officers to do the out-station job on rotational basis. It is not something that I or perhaps other colleague willingly to put on our calender of event as I pretty sure that nobody are fond of this out-station thing. As a matter of fact, going to both places are not as if we go to the hype and cool urban city such as KL or JB. And the idea (more to implementation, though!) of must-be-having an overnight stay in petit and fusty lodges in Telupid makes my head spinning asking for beheaded. Perhaps I'm too much with the discouraging idioms it makes my juniors scare to come and work in Sandakan. But, hey, every place has their own signature. Just don't look at the world through the rose-colored glass. Be young and bold!

We stayed in Queen Alice Hotel in Telupid. Yes, the name surely sounds funky even though I didn't even have a slightest clue who this Queen Alice was. The room was relatively small and musty. The space was matter-of-factly modified from the back garage of the terrace shop. Intriguingly, the owner didn't even remove the garage roller shutter, well, I guess he was trying to preserve the au naturale of the room.
Perhaps, I'm too exaggerate and asking too much from a small town like Telupid. But, sincerely I'm not intended to patronize or condescend anybody. I just want to highlight about the experience we have been through  and how privilege we are to work in this beautiful part of Borneo.
 'Palis-palis' as what local says to deal with something that they don't want to occur.
 

 

Telupid wooden dental clinic

Tongod on the other hand has 'less' to offer. The town or perhaps it is a misnomer if not overwhelming to say that Tongod is a real town. A row of terrace shops was all about Tongod. Too odd to be true but that was the fact about Tongod. But, ironically, the health clinic was as good as Sandakan's. Spacious and large the Tongod health clinic was also furbished by government quarters that was way better than 'Layang Apartment' the so-called Sandakan's government quarters. They even had a volley ball court!

Tongod Health ClinicOne row-shop town (Tongod)

Since I was there, I couldn't refrain myself from having at least a lunch in the town. Despite the thought of cholera wandering around my head, the hunger was more killing. So, we stopped by at a decent halal restaurant (the halal was a big question mark as I spotted Dutch courage empty bottle all around the restaurant). But there were none in the restaurant so that relieved me very much as I consoled myself that perhaps they (the bottle) came from the gloomy pub at the other end. I bought the lunch for the team thinking that Dutch treat won't do anybody good as it was a middle of the month. Furthermore as an officer I could score more on the daily and food claims.

p/s: You may notice that at the last paragraph I wrote a couple of idioms involving the Dutch. If you are a British-educated you may catch the meaning in instance as these idioms are originated from the English people. I accidentally bumped into these idioms while I was looking for Dutch Lady milk, though!

Selamat Hari Mama

Being the youngest child in the family is not easy. Most people will say you are the spoil-brat. Your wish will be granted in a second etc. But least will say that your life is going to be miserable and hard. Yes, it is hard to be the last one at least for me. Even though I am not really the youngest child technically as I had a little brother. He died of tragic motorcycle accident way back in year 2000. That was a grieving year especially for my mother. I remember when she was bursting into tears the night of the tragedy. I never seen she cried so hard the way she did that night. She lost her precious diamond that would never be found again.

And now me being the the last one. Not that I loath the hierarchy tier but the fact that I have to be the youngest one as a result of loosing my brother is too disturbing. I loved being the second youngest and I loved to have my little brother around because I know my mother's love is the sky. Limitless and endless. But in the end, who am I to tell The Almighty not to take my little brother away...

So, as this year Mother's Day I have some stories to tell about my mother. It is true when people say what comes out from the mother's mouth are genuine wish (doa). I find it totally unfeigned. When I was a small kid I was a bit petit in size as relatively compared to my elder sister. There were three of us in the house when everybody went to work. My elder sister, myself and my little brother. My eldest brother was not in the picture then as he was grown up and attended boarding school. My sister was well known of her strong head and fierce. Yes, fierce is the word. And her favorite word back then was 'bully'. As the eldest in the house she self-appointed herself as a chief of both of us. We were given house chores such as washing dishes and hang the wet clothes and even go to the market to buy her favorite asam. As a result of not obeying her command, she sometimes would do everything to make us regret for being disobedient. She would locked us outside just to make sure her asam was there at that particular time. We, being a small kid and scared the most that we could do was cry our lung out. And when my mother back from work, she would say this consoling words "Don't worry Didi (after my nickname), your time will come when you will be more superior than your sister and have a better job and she will be embarrassed for what she did to you"
And yes, my mother's spell worked as what I become today. I still love my sister though.

There was another story involving my late father and my mother. When I had my UPSR result and it was quite a good one I must say, my mother decided that I go to the religious boarding school in Seremban. My father was quite skeptical about this whole idea of sending me to the religious school thinking that I would end up being an ustaz. And after a long discussion before dinner and had dinner and post-dinner discussion again my mother reached her temper and put her feet down and said "I'll ensure that Didi won't become an ustaz after he finished his school!"
And so it was, I am not destined to become an ustaz but in-stead being a dentist. Tongue in the cheek I once asked my mother about why was she specifically wishing me to not being an ustaz, while she better of wishing that I would become an ustaz and at the same time being a dentist. And she replied, "Oh, I was too furious to your father back then and all I imagined was that you become a dentist!"

Oh, my jaw dropped. My mother had this me as a dentist imagination since I was still standard 6!

So, this is me wishing all mothers in the world Happy Mother's Day especially to my mama Hamimah Muda mother of myself, my mother in-law Che Husna Azhari mother of my wife and my wife Ilham Wan Mokhtar mother of my son.

You are the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us deserts us; when trouble thickens around us; still will she cling to us; and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the cloud of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.

Postcard from Melbourne

Well well, I'm so over the moon at this particular time. Thanks to the lovely letter that brought world to both Ilham and I, also happened to be the letter that we have been waiting for almost a year. The thought of we'll be coming home for good is undeniably a smell of thousand roses. Anyway, I am home (Sandakan) and everything is back to routine. Not that I'm too excited with the routine I must say but the feeling of being home is priceless. Ilham, baby Achan and I just have got ourselves back from a long hibernation. One week of Ikhlas's wedding preparation and another one week of the wedding itself we had a family vacation a week after, yes, the three of us.

I still remember Ilham once said to me during our first delayed honeymoon to the UK last year that I would totally addicted to travel. Knowing that it was the first my extra-country sojourn I was a bit apprehensive and had loads of uncertainties went through my mind. Never occurred to me at that point that I would go browsing around for another cheapest flight tickets in any time soon. But hey, suddenly I realized that we have just bought a non-refundable return ticket to Melbourne!
Melbourne it was!

This time around we decided to fly with Singapore Airlines thinking that we could make a transit in the world famous Changi Airport. Perhaps, some shopping for Chanchan would save the trouble of waiting for the next flight even though his mother was more enthusiastic about it. Changi Airport as expected was nothing short of remarkable and enormously huge. The distance between Terminal 2 to Terminal 3 simply could make an average Joe like me gasping for steps while stumbling upon the retail terraces which were all over the place. The in-flight meals were totally a major turn off for Singapore Airlines. The Muslim meals were so horrendous I'd rather eat the throw pillow! But despite the hiccup, the Singapore Airlines remained an airline of hospitality. The cabin crews were full with smile and kind of cute too! (caught red-handed by my wife while staring at one of the stewardess handed out the bizarre cabin foods). Not that I was all mesmerized by the pan-Asian look of the stewardess but the way she handed me the meals was so quick I couldn't even make a sound to stop her to skip the course. Sigh!

One thing I noticed that even though the batik ensembles of the cabin crew were much or less the same with Malaysia Airlines (MAS), personally I think MAS has it better in term of design and pattern. The round necks of Singapore Airlines ensembles were just as awful as the meals.

We stayed in Hotel Sophia right in the heart of Melbourne downtown. Not so luxurious hotel I would say but the room itself was surprisingly comfortable. The hallway was relatively narrow as Chanchan's pram failed to get through it without hitting the snag. Bounded posteriorly by the majestic Etihad Stadium also laid the vital junction station of Skybus, the Southern Cross Station. Skybus is the most convenient transport to get to the downtown from Tullamarine International Airport. Thanks to Melbourne's straight forward public transport system made discovering its delight easy in just a couple of days. The only thing that I regret the most was the fact that I had forgotten to bring along my sport shoes which seriously came in handy when we had to walk for miles from one point to another. The weather was too good to be wasted on the train. Even Chanchan had a chance to get some nap while we were wandering around the city.

We had our breakfast on the first day at the end of the block cafe called Hudson Cafe. This is the place where I never thought I would fall in love again with the almond croissant. For your information, my first crush with the almond croissant was when we (Ilham and I) were in Paris. The almond croissant was so good we decided the Hudson Cafe would be our official breakfast cafe in Melbourne. Believe me, it was godsend! The texture was so incredibly soft and on top of that the almond essence filler seriously would make any taste buds singing the world.

We've been to the Melbourne's Aquarium to see Chanchan all fascinated with hundreds of friendly two-legged penguins. Since Phillip Island was way too far to reach, all three of us could only watching the penguins behind the thick aquarium glass. But Chanchan seemed content and that all that matters. We went to get some academic books in the University of Melbourne book store. I was looking for Oral & Maxillofacial Radiology books but it was a bit pricy I had to give way to Ilham to buy her Special Need Dentistry pocket book. Perhaps, some other time will do me some good.

There was a vast different in public transportation service between Melbourne and KL. I also noticed the same view when I was in the UK. The buses or the train in both Australia and UK were very particular and concern about their special needs passengers especially those with wheel-chair and prams. Not only they concerned but the implementation worked as well. The concrete curbs between the waiting area and the buses doorway were specifically designed to meet the need of the special needs where the level of the two of them were at the same level. The interior seats also were so flexible to cater the needs of the special ones by flipping or pushing the seats upward to make room for wheel-chair or pram without compromising the way or the crowd. It is something that hard to see in our country.

Oh, due to the need that I have to publish this post at this particular time, my pen meets its last chores. Please bear in mind that this post is a draft I've been waiting to post for months after I came home from Melbourne. A bit delay in progress.