Grafton Street --- where I used to stay ..
PEOPLE AND PRANKS.
Did I really do all that ? …
I have written this somewhere and thought I use it here. As a student in UK then, most, if not nearly all of my friends are the locals. I wanted to know their life, thinking and everything about them. In a way I was lucky to be able to live with families and to experience all that I wanted to know. I also realized that this opportunity would only come once in a life time. I must say I have no regret
Let me relate my adventure (only those which are ‘tellable’)
1) My three unusual friends from Sabah
I had many teacher-friends doing either the Advanced Diploma or Masters in Education. That was the first experience for me to know anybody from East Malaysia and I was intrigued. Off-hand –I could easily remember about 15 of them and a few of them were unique enough for me to still remember them. Let me relate them but I would have to change their name.
a)
There was P---. Now he has been the longest in Hull and when I knew him, he was actually studying for his third degree. . he was the son of a rich and well-known politician in Sabah. He was a small chap with very long straight hair ( down to his waist actually) drove a Porche and very heavy on marijuana. .
One evening, I was at his place and talking to his house mates when we heard his car coming back, and the next instance, P---- was running straight to his kitchen. We wondered what was happening.
Next second , he ran out of the kitchen with a long ‘parang’ in his hand, and running out of the house. We followed him and were just in time to see him chasing a few people.
Anyway, later he came in the house and told us that he was threatened by some English men who followed him in the car, so he had to chase them away with the ‘parang’.
We had a good laugh and simply shook our head at his antics. There were many more ---but they are unmentionable here.
b)
Next, there was Kamaruddin (not his real name). He was an officer in the Sabah Ministry of Education. Now, he was a gentleman, very suave and smoked a pipe instead of a cigarette..
He lived in a flat with a room-mate whom I would write about in the next paragraph.
Now, Kamaruddin never go out or to have a night out. The reason- he was missing his wife and new-borne daughter very much.
I liked Kamaruddin because when I need to talk to someone serious and sensible—he was the one I would turn to. He was married to very rich woman who was not of Malay origin. So, what was his problem?
Every now and then he would grumble to me about his wife. Apparently each time he phoned or wrote to tell his wife how much he missed their daughter and her, --she would sympathize with him – not with sweet loving words---but by sending him money, money and more money. He showed me a stack of bank draft which he did not even bother to cash – in. Boy---some people are just born-lucky……
c)
Karim (not his real name) was a school principal in one of the smaller towns of Sabah. He lived together with Kamaruddin. He was a really fat but nice, jovial and really funny bloke. His level of English was not that good either.
He was the total opposite of Kamaruddin. If Kamaruddin was pinning and missing his family, Karim was so happy that he was alone and away from the family that he always teased his house-mate about this.
However, he was a great cook though. And I would usually be there for dinner. Sometimes he would invite some class mates – all girls, for dinner as well.
Now, while cooking, he would serenade the girls with P.Ramlee songs - and to the girls--they are nothing but sounds and noise.
I didn’t mean to laugh at him, but seeing him trying to chat-up 2 or 3 girls at the same time with his English was really really really funny!
There was a time he came from behind a girl, grabbed and embraced her and they both fell on the floor. Although she laughed, but later she confided in me that she was terrified of him. And she wasn’t the 4th. or 5th. girl to tell me that. What a character!
2) Midnight grown-up kids.
Weekends are usually the time we go crazy because weekdays were usually occupied with lectures, tutorials, projects and assignments.
However by Friday late afternoon, you can almost feel the electrifying feeling in the air. Go to the refreactory and students are more laid back .
There may be various activities by various groups of students, but amongst us, sometime we would go to a park near our friends’ place – at midnight !
So what do we do ? – nothing--- just climbed over a 10 foot fence to get into the children’s playground.
. The next moment , there would be over-grown kids playing the slides, see-saws , swings and merry-go-rounds – shouting and screaming at the top of our voices and just being silly..
On one occasion, a police patrol-car saw , sounded the siren--- and the next thing you find about ten university students scrambling over the same 10 foot fence and running in different directions so that the two poor policemen could not decide which one to chase !
But we always meet-up again at our friend’s flat, where we just gathered , talked, played the guitar and at times even cooked a late meal.---which would be in the next paragraph
the arch to Pearson Park
the same arch i revisited with my family in 1998
3) Anyone for fresh duck meat? (At 2.00 am in the morning?)
On weekends, we used to gather, usually staying overnight, at a Malaysian friend’s house, which happened to be in a park…
There was a pond somewhere in the park with a small island in the middle. The pond was only knee-deep, that is, the water-level is up to the knees. One of the attractions of the park was the ducks. There were many, always swimming in the pond and being fed by visitors.
Anyway one of those nights, someone suggested cooking for late supper. But there was nothing in my friend’s fridge (as usual). All we had was rice, chili, curry-powder, some spices and NO fish or chicken or meat. So that plan was killed immediately.
Someone jokingly suggested catching the ducks at the pond. But another friend answered “Why not?” Soon a plan was hatched.
Picture this.
Five of us, on a very very cold morning (about 2.00am), stepped into the even colder pond, and walked in the water to the island looking for ducks.
WE were laughing and shouting hoping to find a duck or two for our supper. With a lot of laughing, and shivering and quacking, we managed to catch one. Like great hunters, we brought it back after wrapping it in one of our jackets.
Thus –after more than an hour of cooking we all sat down to our supper. BUT THE WORST PART IS THAT — I DON’T EVEN EAT DUCK MEAT!!
..the duck pond in Pearson Park.
4) Helping an English friend to pack for his Christmas ‘balik kampung’.
Two days before Christmas, one of our house-mates, an English boy from Wales came home one night all drunk from celebrating.
He asked us to help him pack his bag as he was leaving for his village by the early morning train.
What we did was to pack all his forks, spoons, plates, cups, saucers and other kitchen utensils and wrapped them in his towel and one t-shirt. We stuffed everything into his back-pack.
Next morning, like good friends, we sent him off, carrying his back-pack for him. After hugging and wishing each other Merry Christmas, we packed him on the train wished him well.
As soon as the train moved, all four of us broke down and were laughing ourselves sick.
That night, we received a call from this friend. We couldn’t make out what he was saying, but we knew it wasn’t something nice. BUT, he was laughing as well. That is one thing I have to say about them—their great sense of humour.
5) Can you beat this hobby?
I was walking home at about 11.00pm from a friend’s house when I met a class-mate also on the way home. From his smell, I knew he had been drinking – maybe a bit too much.
Anyway when we reached a pedestrian crossing, he asked me to wait.
Next he (his size is on the heavy side) was climbing the pedestrian lights post. I was already quite used to his crazy behaviors before, but this really gave me the scare because usually at that time there were many police patrol cars doing their rounds.
I nearly fainted when I saw him unscrewing the big , round plastic lamp cover of the crossing. I was actually hiding behind a tree nervously. Soon he was walking to me , grinning from ear to ear carrying this big plastic globe. I have never seen him so happy before.
On reaching his house he invited me in. Entering his room, he had about 10 of the same type of plastic globe pedestrian lamp cover. ! That was some hobby! He told that he could never remember how he got each of them. Huh! I’m not surprised at all!
ok--thats all for . There'll be more. To that dear friend of mine -- looks like this is no longer a movie but a TV series ya !
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