Kepoi

Kepoi, squatting extreme right... My left arm is visible at the left of the picture.

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I just came back from JB a few hours ago, had something to do there at that university down south.

It was a good trip, one reason being, I managed to meet a very dear old friend of mine - Kepoi. Don't ask me how his nice real name became that, one of those things a long time ago..... But it started with Clairol and went downhill after that......

Now Kepoi and me were part of the quintet - the others being Ding, Che Man and Gigi - in that one-eyed rugby team a long time ago. Kepoi came from that school in Jenan, while Ding, Che Man and Gigi came from that school in Ipoh and of course your truly from that school in KL, all powerhouses in that game, though Ding, Che Man and Gigi outnumber us every time we got into the argument about which school is the best. Once in a while we'd catch one of them alone and we'd - Kepoi and me - get our pound of flesh. He was the flanker, Che Man scrum half, Gigi standoff, Ding inside centre and I'd be the outside centre. In the inter-faculty games, I'd play with CheMan against Ding and Gigi and Kepoi would be all alone in the land survey team. Of course it goes without saying, the land survey team would be sayur.....

The last time I saw Kepoi was in 1986, yes, 24 years ago when I went to JB for a job interview, right after returning home. Now, being jobless then, money was a bit tight, so when it was time for me to go back, I had just enough money for the bus fare and maybe a few ringgits more, but not much. So I asked him to loan me RM 10, for any contingencies on my way home.

We compared notes - mainly on the kids and life nowadays, so long after those days when we were young. I had to leave after a short while as I had a 3-hour drive back home and with work tomorrow staring at me.

"Poi, jangan tunggu 24 tahun lagi ye?"

And I paid him back the RM 10. We had a good laugh. What are friends for. Laughs, for sure.

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Commencement (Oooohh.....A Long Time Ago)

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I think I am slightly to the left of the faculty member in the red robe, fixing my cap....

I decided to participate in the Commencement exercise in my senior year on the morning of the day itself. You could do that over there. Initially the thought was, tak rugged lah, commencement commencement ni..... Rugged mak-ged, gi jugak....

It was a mad dash with Mardzukie to the student union to grab a robe and a cap. And also to register. It's not complicated over there - I was in a Levis' 501, a white shirt and a pair of Converse high tops.

I think Mardzukie still have the robe and the cap - he was supposed to keep it while I go home for good and until I get a copy of my degree from the school, just in case they figured out I pinched the robe and cap and they wanted it back. Mardzukie could then give it back to the school and they would give me my degree. It turned out that Mardzukie misplaced the robe and cap somewhere in his postings in the army but fortunately the school forgot about it too.

I need my robe and cap....

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Pseudo Lina

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A few months ago when we visited Nazzim at his school, I met two ex-schoolmates. So naturally I introduced them to Lina. Somehow I got the notion that something was not right, they were too rigid, for the lack of a better word. But I really thought nothing of it then.

A few minutes later I heard someone calling out my name - slowly.

"Psssttt Eh H, tu your wife ke? Lain lah.", one of them piped out.

"Yalah, I thought so to....." said the other one.

"You gals have met her kan, over at my house dulu?"

"Ya lah, that's why, that's why I said she looked different, that's why I wasn't so sure....."

"Ya lah..."

"Wei, mana adalah, tu sorang aje lah, mana ada I arak orang lain dengan I, tulah wife I sorang...."

"Lain lah...."

"Ya lah, lain lah..."

"Dah, jangan macam-macam, mana ade..........."

No, I have been married to only one person - that's Lina.

No, I have not been entertaining any notions of having more.

No, I have not thought of it.

I might need a new drug but nothing else.

Ha!!!

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