I know that I have not been blogging for almost 9 months now. No excuse for that, I can’t find one. But if I were to give a reason, I will attribute it to the Batu Feringghi DVD sellers and Facebook. Anyway, i’m back and I should will try to update this blog as much as possible.
So, ‘General’ Au is leaving us. After he had served us in Paradise sandy Beach Resort for exactly 1 year and 1 month. We the department heads are sad that he is leaving us, we truly enjoyed working with him, though antagonistic at times. I relate much to him because General Au shares the same mindset with me, our idealistic notion regimental management. This is the only way that work gets done here in Penang. Don’t get me wrong, Penangnites are good people, but too relaxed.
Now, he is leaving us and he is so lovable that everyone wants to give him a farewell, thus sending all the department heads on a road trip to Au’s favourite place. Tambun seafood village…
To get all the DHs to go on a road trip similar to this is not an easy task, that is why I will always choose to stay out of it, “tai chi” the coordination to someone else. A new rookie, Mr. Rajah, our new Safety and Security Manager. He did all the coordination, getting all the confirmation from all the DH’s and being on the receiving end, he received various source of information, ideas and comments on where the dinner should be held, what to eat, traffic, weather, timing and everything. Some DH’s would say… “huh? so early hor… cannot la, i have to pick up my kids, send them home bla bla bla…” I feel sorry for Rajah.
So okay, finally we are suppose to meet at the Security check point at 1830 hours, I will drive the company van. All on board we departed the hotel, heading to Mr. Gan’s home to pick him up in Jalan Gajah, a stone’s throw away. As I revved up the engine and gained acceleration everyone in the van … everyone started to pray. I swear I was only doing about 60kmh..
Everyone was very impressed where Gan is living, a gated enclave of semi-D and Town Houses. What cracked the silence in that van that evening was no one else but Au; “… So Gan, this is a nice enclosed place, are you sure you are living with your wife or mistress..?” The pandemonium started from there and it never stopped till we reach Tambun. The decibels went up higher when we picked up vivien on the way. On the way to vivien’s house, i had a very good navigator, Zainal. He practically tells me to turn into a junction at the very last minute.
It was truly an eventful and ejoyable evening in Tambun, we had killer prawns, killer crabs, killer fish, killer clams and everything was a killer, so is the cholesterol! the word Killer was the most frequently used word that evening. Au brought along two bottles of wine served the Ah Beng’s way, not in wine glasses but in small glasses, where it is used to serve chinese tea with ice cubes. I can relate that glass more vividly by … “ah pek, Leong Fan 20 cents ha.. “. That kinda of glass.
The trip back to Paradise was a quiet trip, everyone was either too full with all that ‘killer’ food or too cholesterolized to notice that I was doing 120kmh, except for our new EAM, Mr. G.Nithi, he had been looking at my speedometer all the time… He is a great guy, welcome to Paradise Mr. Nithi.
