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I was at a bus stop in Aberdeen when I heard,
"Uncle, uncle orang Malaysia ke?"I thought there was a dearth of Malaysians in Aberdeen but right in front of me, there were two of them. Faiz and Jeff. Students. Alamak, uncle, you........ Uncle pun uncle lah. Then it was the usual barrage of questions......
"Bila uncle sampai....?""Bercuti ke....?""Ada kerja ke...?""Bila balik....?""Dok mana.....?"As they were in a hurry to be somewhere, I just managed to tell them the hotel I was staying at and Faiz gave me his phone number.
"Kalau ada apa-apa lah......", that was what he said, if I recalled it correctly.
I was busy the next three days but the day prior to me leaving, I thought I'd give Faiz a call.
"Faiz, ni uncle yang kat town the other day. Uncle just want to tell you that I'll be leaving tomorrow.....""Oh ye ke? Then uncle come over to our house lah, have dinner with us tonight....."Ya, why not eh? I was bored and anything is better than watching TV....... I took a bus to town and stopped by a grocery store and got some fruits for dessert. Well, seven apples and seven bananas should be enough for Faiz and his two or three roommates.
Boy, was I wrong. There were more than three of them. More like a dozen.... They were a motley bunch of architecture, medical and business students, studying at the University of Aberdeen and the Robert Gordon University - other than Faiz and Jeff, there was Borhan, Razif, Razi, Big Show (they would not give me his name), Liyana and the girl working for what was Kellogg Brown and Root (but I didn't get her name) and not forgetting Razak and his wife. I have forgotten what it was like being a teenager or a student but throughout dinner, dessert and everything else, them kids were bergurau like mad with each other, everyone asyik gelak aje all the time. Yalah, kutuk mengutuk membawa bahagia kan? I thought I'd be back at the hotel by 10 pm or so for a good night's sleep but it was well after midnight that I finally made that cold trudge back to the hotel. It was a good night.
"Budak-budak Aberdeen baik-baik uncle, tak sombong...""Tak macam Melayu London......."Weeiii, dengar budak-budak London, marah dia orang nanti.......... Gurau aje lah ya?
As I am in an internet cafe (my access to the net at the office has been down since I came back) I'll stick up a photo of them later.
Here's to a fine bunch of Aberdonians. Here's to a fine bunch of young Malaysians.
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