Monday, May 25, 2009

Picnic Yengko

1) Lama gler dah tak de aktiviti makan2. Yang ada pun aktiviti main W11 kat rumah Chibiok, malangnya Chibiok telah difitnah menjalankan aktiviti kurang bermoral melihat filem BIRU beramai-ramai menggunakan TV flat screen yang baru, masa bini hantar balik kampung berpantang.

2) Jawapan Chibiok adalah dengan menghantar satu kerat hadith, setakat ini belum lagi ada bukti dikemukakan. Syam telah tampil (sebagai seorang ahli tetap Jemaah W11) menafikan perkara tersebut, tetapi kurang pasti sama ada kredibiliti Syam boleh diterimapakai, sebab dia dikira "interested party" (ye la dia jugak yang dok pi rumah Chibiok kan). Tapi sebab semua orang takut Syam jadi Incredible Hulk (berwarna gelap) tak de orang yang berani sangkal penafian Syam.

3) Eyh posting ni patut pasal Picnic Yengko (issyy ada anak kucing dok gigit ibu jari kaki aku kat bawah ni!).

4) Haaaa sebab dah lama tak de reunion, yang terakhir pun Sukanterer Reunion (actually ni tipu - isssyyy dah la gigit jari kaki aku, tadi geli sekarang SAKIT laaa). Owh actually last event batch Sahur Yengko last year kat Concorde, yang aku kena tapau pau Yut Loy beratus2 bijik buat balik KL sebab Chibiok dah awal2 order suruh aku pick up kat KK.

5) Malam tu jugak la anak Jita (nama dia Adlan Muhammad Azrul Roshazli - AMAR) dilahirkan, melepas Jita melahap pau Yut Loy FREE. Talking about anak Jita, dah dekat setahun baru last weekend sempat pi tengok, tu pun jumpa kat OU tengah2 lahap sushi ha ha. Ni gambar anak Jita (tapi anak kau batch kampung la Jita ha ha... aku akan cuba aim anak aku batch urban :-p ).


6) Eyh eyh go back to Picnic Yengko!

7) Haaaa last weekend aku kena pi buat reconnaissance (or reki, depending on which vocab kau nak pakai) dengan Epit & Family cari a suitable beach spot untuk kita colonialise as nudist colony (ok part tu aku tambah2 la tu).

8) Aktiviti tidak sihat batch seterusnya (tidak sihat sebab kita melantak langsung tak ingat kat pelarian kelaparan di Afrika!) adalah Picnic Yengko. Aktiviti ini dipilih sebab ia lebih casual, boleh have fun tepi pantai, people can come and go without susah2 nak jaga hati porter boy kat hotel, boleh masak2, boleh stay sampai bila2 dan macam2 lagi. Pendek kata, perfect activity lah.

9) Tapi reason sebenarnya PakCik2 Reunion ni nak buat Picnic Yengko - malas nak pening kepala. Tak yah kutip duit banyak2, sewa khemah, masak nasi kawah, buat BBQ, sediakan satu khemah kat bini - lepas tu tengok Aiwa cuba main beach volleyball without causing the tsunami! (Sebab tambahan ialah kalau bernasib baik, boleh skodeng couple2 buat macam2 tepi pantai he he then letak kat Youtube! Ini di-outsource kepada Wong & Gadap).

10) OK berbalik kepada reki tadi. Aku pi dengan Epit, Aili, Emil & Eddin (and Kak Yong - Epit nya maid). Pi lah kat Bagan Lalang as suggested by Chamat.

11) Hampeh! Semua sepanjang2 pantai tu dah di-colonialise by semua jenis manusia. Tak de privacy langsung. Sampai monyet pun buat muka kesian duduk tepi jalan sebab pantai diorang pun dah tak de - dah la batch kita urban, mana nak letak beruk2 kita pulak kena compete ngan monyet2 muka seposen ni!

12) So kitorang buat keputusan - Pantai Bagan Lalang tidak sesuai untuk dijadikan tempat untuk di-colonialise.

13) Destinasi reki seterusnya adalah Port Dickson. Wong kata kat situ ada pantai dekat AKBN - so boleh mintak permission sewa AKBN then pakai pantai dia. Kalau bernasib baik, boleh tengok remaja lepasan sekolah yang kursus kat AKBN mandi (ha ha ha dah jadi Wahid Kasran la pulak!).

14) Kalau ada mana2 pantai yang boleh di-colonialise, sila beritahu aku or Epit. Picnic Yengko 18 Julai ni tak sampai 2 bulan pun lagi.

15) Kita akan bagi award kat budak giler yang boleh menggayakan swimming trunk macam F1 dulu. So Fadli, sila cari short flourescent hijau berkulat kau, yang lain bolehlah cari swimming trunk yang ada buckle. Aiwa aku rasa kau kena cari bikini saiz besar, issssyyyy tak segan ke nak tunjuk t*tek kau depan bini orang, kalau kau berkemban entah2 orang ingat Mak Cik Kapet (kalau tak tengok muka laa....)

16) Next week kitorang start kejar attendance.

17) CAR (Carey Award Race ala2 spamming competition 2006 - 2008) dah start kaaa...?

18) Aku suggest kita still guna blog Sukanterer for Picnic Yengko - blog tu boleh jadi de facto blog for reunion.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Back In Business

Last Friday, out of the blue Bapak Itiks decided to meet again where it all started (Pelita KLCC). Well it was not planned as such, but Red was supposed to meet her friends @ KLCC so Badut took the opportunity to gather everyone.

The turn out was good. Almost everyone was there - Badut & Red, Epit & Aili (and kids!), Joe, KNO, Idzam and Chibiok (hope I have not forgotten anyone; memory is failing).

It was a good teh tarik - we compared notes about what went through our minds when we decided to quit a job. Among us, Chibiok was the first one, then Joe and then myself - all within a space of the last 1-2 years. I did exactly what Joe did - quit first and think about the job later.

Discussion on Mighty Ducks Project could not have been avoided - especially when Pelita KLCC was where it all started and we would never have expected the intensity of the venture to reach this stage.

We updated each other on what had happened since the last Old Boys Weekend and the exploits in Sungai Petani. We discussed briefly on Mr Thaman's request for the court in front of the Pavilion to be converted for hockey training.

Ha ha it was clear by the time we left that the new exit strategy is a mini turf in MCKK ha ha (although I am not sure whether you can call it a strategy anymore, it keeps changing! So it's either a very bad strategy, or it was not a strategy at all. We may be looking at a long drawn engagement ha ha).

There was a brilliant suggestion that I stand for ADUN in Kuala Kangsar should there is a dissolution of the DUN, so that we can channel the money for development into sports development through a turf in MCKK ha ha (1Malaysia, 1Sport kan......) - then I can hold my clinic (in European democracy, the meet-the-session people where an MP attends to the need of his constituents is called clinic) on the hockey pitch while watching the boys play (ha ha). Another bad strategy.

Epit has also started on the next reunion/get together - our batch has never gone through a year without reunion or activities, so it's been a while since Sukanterer in February 2008. Some of us who were usually the people who organised all this have been too busy with Mighty Ducks and work; but it was also due to the fact that Sukanterer was so memorable it took a while before the effect worn off.

So we are back in business - after a topsy turvy first 5 months of the year. There will be changes here and there - but we have definitely re-grouped :-)

Expect an increase in email activities after this ha ha.

(As promised, the photos and videos for the last 2 months)




Wednesday, May 13, 2009

3 Resignations and One Botched Kapet

(Photos and videos will come later, maybe this weekend. The fact that I transferred the videos and photos to a different laptop just goes to show how disorganised I am for the past few weeks ha ha. For once aku tak jadi control freak! Liberating)

A lot has happened since the last posting. What could have taken one year snowballed and culminated into events that took place only in 2 weeks.

Perhaps I should begin from where we left off – Kapet Yengko.

Kapet Yengko was an amalgamation of mixed results. Despite all of us (Bapak2 Itik) coming back for OBW2009, the initial euphoria to re-enact the Kapet did not materialise. I was sceptical from the very beginning. We were all too busy with other stuff and the tediousness of running a food stall was the last thing on our mind. At the last hour (when Epit was already on the way to KK on Thursday night), I called to ask him to tell the boys not to go ahead, because I didn’t want to bring the stove etc.

12 hours later the following conversation took place:

Noni : “So budak2 tu nak go ahead ke ngan Kapet ni?”
Epit : “Yeap, diorang nak jugak”
Noni : “Kau dah cakap ngan diorang semua ke tak, cakap benda tu cerewet”
Epit : “Dah… diorang nak jual ABC and dah bagi list”
Noni : “Let me guess – kau cair ngan diorang? Aku rasa kau dah agree ngan diorang to go ahead..”
Epit : “Ha ha lebih kurang laaa…. Aku tak sampai hati laa... budak2 ni dah semangat sangat..”

Ha ha as much as I thought it would have been a chore to bring everything from KL just for the boys to play around, I could understand the position Epit was in. Either we are getting very old or we really appreciate gullibility especially when it comes from a bunch of budak koleq – it’s very difficult to say no to these boys. So with that I had to pack the big wok, the stove etc to KL for the boys to play around with ha ha.

The sale was lukewarm initially. There were times that I was disheartened observing some of our own old boys. I was sitting at the back all the time together with the rest (Epit, Mpro, KNO, Pak Tuan, Idzam, Chibiok, Badut, Radin, Awie, Abon, Tungkid, Syam) and I can’t help but wonder why it was so difficult for a small minority just to part with a small cash. Sometimes the boys were grilled for the t-shirt they were selling, when the margin was so small and all was going to the hockey fund anyway. There were times when I felt like telling some of them – if you feel that giving RM20 (the margin) to the team is too onerous financially, then please don’t bother to come. We gave a lot more than that and never had any qualms.

This was one of the conversations that peeved me a bit:

Anak Itik : “Abang, beli lah ni untuk team hoki ni”
Old Boy : “Tapi aku bukan main hoki dulu”
Anak Itik : “Tak pe la bang, boleh support team hoki”
Old Boy : “Tapi aku tak support team hoki pun.. Design dah OK dah, tapi ada tulis ni (referring to “In Support of MCKK Hockey Team”) yang aku tak suka” (he then walked away..)
Anak Itik : ??????????

Luckily, they were the minorities and there were many others who helped. Thank you to the ex-hockey players who did a quick collection on the field and bought a majority of the t-shirts, I am sure the boys, when they join your rank in MCOBA Team one day, will remember you. Thank you to Cik Mie (Bro Suhaimi Sulaiman Class of 79), Moqq (Class of 96) and many others who dropped by and helped a lot.

Kapet Yengko was also one of the best team building activities we had for the boys. Because they stay with one batch from Form 1 to Form 5 and never get the chance to get to know each other, the gap between one batch to another is big. It was very difficult to bring out the sense of togetherness – even after camping each year, we still see a lot of rooms for improvement. Kapet Yengko however, brought them together and I hope the eagerness they showed throughout the weekend is a sign that they are coming together as a team.

There were a lot of examples that Kapet Yengko did more to their team spirit than it did to their coffers. There was this group of Form 2 players who went around meeting old boys and persuading them to buy – they were quite relentless and kiasu that most of the sales were coming from them ha ha. The seniors (Holland, Kwang, Muiz, Arape and others) had fun with the keropok lekor (their request to sell ABC had to be turned down, because we don’t want to go all the way to Lenggong to pick up the machine ha ha). All in all, they made a profit of RM80 from the keropok lekor – so we asked them to use the money to buy food for themselves, since it was too small to make a difference to the fund. I was touched that the boys were adamant for the money to go for the fund; they wanted to help in whatever ways they could.

In the end, while we have to re-print the round neck t-shirt, we still have a few of the polo t-shirt to sell. No worry though, since I have identified the victims who will have to buy these t-shirts by paksarela ha ha ha (if suddenly you get a call or an email from me out of the blue, you know what it is for).

There were others who were not a part of the Mighty Ducks who came back with us. Syam and Awie came back to see the Formula 1 boys since the progress has been really slow. We had to send Tungkid (who came with Syam) to accompany Syam and checked on his temper, in case he unleashed it on the boys ha ha. We spent only one day there and as the adage goes – “di mana ada Fadhil, di situlah boleh makan free” – Epit secured a free Thai dinner for all of us that night in Bukit Chandan, courtesy of Fadhil ha ha.

But Kapet Yengko is a customary update to pacify those wanting to know what had happened, after much hype. The delay in the update was due to a series of resignations that took place and would alter the course of a few things in the next few years.

Resignation I

Right after the OBW, the debating teams participated in the UIA National Interschool Debating Championship – a tournament where we had featured prominently for the last 5 years. We either won, or went to the final, or dominated the best speaker awards. Much of my time in the first 4 months of the year was devoted to coaching the new teams – we had never coached a debating team as intensive as this one.

To cut the long story short – we crashed at octo finals for both the English & BM teams. While English could have gone all the way to the final if not for the dip in the performance that night (which I am still not sure what was the reason for the blip), the BM would have to scale a mountain to make it to the final. Not because they are not good, but 5 years in the final is way too long and any organiser, in any tournament as subjective as a debating tournament, would have wanted to see a new face in the final. I feel they are better than most of the schools participating, but we know enough that a marginal advantage over competitors never brings us anywhere. We only win when we dominate. At first glance it is not fair, but we have lived with the higher expectation in good faith and many times, the very unfair expectation is the impetus to make our boys much better than the rest.

Losing is always tiring and disappointing, especially when you have tried everything that you can. One printer later (we have to buy a new printer altogether), various trips to and fro KK and UIA, a few thousands ringgit, countless sleepless night etc. – we still lose. It is quite natural if people want to slow down, yet the junior coaches did not show any remorse or disappointment for their hard work that went down the drain (but then again, they are young and easily excitable with anything ha ha).

What was more draining (mentally and physically) is seeing the deterioration in our (coaches) relationship with the school and the teachers. I have resigned to the fact that after so many years coaching the team, what was initially an invitation from the teachers and school, most probably has become a chore to some of them. It is only human nature that when good things come easily to us, we start to take things for granted.

MCKK is blessed with crazy old boys with crazy devotion to the present boys. I don’t think we love the school that much – it is, after all, a century old building that is not well-maintained and might collapse due to negligence in 50 years! But MCKK continues to receive top 100 Malay boys year in and year out from all over the country – many of these boys come from a working class family, just like me about 20 years ago when I first stepped into MCKK. The boys continue to represent one policy that has worked for 100 years in this country – that Malays are not born stupid, nor are we lazy and if we are shown the way to realise our potential, the sky is the limit. I am forever grateful to MCKK for opening my eyes to the world – so I would be damned if I do not try to do the same thing to these great talents sent to the sleepy Kuala Kangsar town each year.

Unfortunately, more often than not, I don’t think the similar aspiration is shared by many. Lately the strain has become more and more apparent. I can understand that the teachers are torn in between the KPIs and the crazy cluster thing, yet at the same time I have taught the boys that courtesy, decency and putting the team’s interest first override any other motives. I wish the same feeling was shared by other adults around them.

With the latest development, I came to a resignation that the next few years will be a difficult period for the debating teams. As I told the boys, what goes up must come down (although we jokingly say “unless you use a very powerful Viagra!” ha ha). We have been dominant for a good part of this decade that naturally we need to go through a renewal process to reflect what we had taken for granted and the virtues we have lost. The complications with the school mean we have to be a bit more careful in our dealings with them (as if our dealings now are not careful enough) – all adds up to difficulties for the junior coaches to navigate; as they warm up to their new responsibilities.

The good news is that despite the complications, I do not see a single coach wavering – in fact they all dug in and were quite determined to stay come what may, because they cannot contemplate leaving the boys on their own. While I was quite happy generally with the fighting spirit (after all, these junior coaches are the beneficiary of Fazurin’s famous “fighting spirit speech” in Ulu Kenas in 2006), I hope they realise how many heart-breaks are waiting for them in the future. There will come a point when they will start to question the purpose and reason for the devotion in the first place.

Resignation II

Fresh from the defeat for the debating team, Pak Tuan and I were the only Bapak Itik available to accompany the hockey team to Sungai Petani for the North Zone inter-SBP hockey competition. We had to pick Holland & Kwang along the way – who initially wanted to hitch hike on bas lompat to reach Sungai Petani!

We were quite late so Mr Thaman and Mr Bala had to wait for us for a while. We went to get them a room at a cheap hotel in the middle Sungai Petani – it was so chokia I really had to apologise to them, since that’s the only room we can afford for them for the time being.

Pak Tuan and I had also agreed that we should give each one of them a RM100 pocket money – since they would be away from home for one whole weekend for MCKK. When I took the money out from my pocket, Mr Thaman used all his Kalari Payat skill not to accept and the pushing and shoving went on for a few minutes until he said this:

“…please don’t embarrass me, we do this for the love of college..”

I was quite stunned momentarily because no teachers, since I had been coaching MCKK teams, had ever professed their love for the school that openly. With that, I relented and left them quite literally ashamed. Ashamed for many reasons which I will not share here; but I supposed many of us can guess.

We went to see the team that night. It’s a much better team in terms of focus and discipline, than the ones we picked up in 2007. They have the mental cohesion as a team and they are a lot more disciplined than their peers. We collected all the handphones and electronic gadgets since they promised to sleep at 10 pm (which they did. They woke up the next morning much earlier too and was already on the pitch by 730 am, although their game is at 1050 am).

It dawned on me very instantly as I sat down at the hockey stadium – that for every one yard of progress we make, other schools matched that with one metre. We were in the same grouping as STAR and SERATAS – while SERATAS is a powerhouse which we acknowledge, STAR had never beaten us at hockey since 2006. I thought we could have easily defeated STAR remembering how they played in previous tournaments.

That thought changed quickly when I saw their team playing against SERATAS and practising afterwards. STAR drew 0-0 with SERATAS. It was not long before we found out that STAR too has been having the backing of its old boys. Their jerseys and equipments were better and apparently their old boys had hired an ex-Malaysian hockey player as a coach.

We played well against STAR. Though we drew 1-1 we conquered the game and there were 2-3 near misses that could have tipped the balance. We picked up a bit slow, so we ran out of time that it was too late by the time we intensified the attacks. It’s a recurring problem with our boys – the problem of confidence. When they go to the pitch (unlike my thinking back then when I used to go to the debating room that I was going to eat the opponents alive; so they were the ones who should fear me) it took a while before they can shed their fear and doubt. If we are not careful, an inferior opponent can always score first and trailing is not a mental position that our boys are good at.

Nevertheless, it was not a bad result. SERATAS was the one who were in a state of panic, because they needed to at least draw against us with a minimum of one goal, to proceed to the next game. As the cliché goes, it’s all in the mind – instead of capitalising on SERATAS’ desperation to draw; we seemed to be the one more desperate of winning. We made too many mistakes earlier on and SERATAS scored a goal from a penalty corner. We came back and the boys tried their best but it was too late. That’s the end of the campaign for SBP this year.

Pak Tuan and I quickly sent Mr Thaman and Mr Bala back to the hotel room and off we went to Kuala Kangsar, because there was no point keeping them there now that it was all over. It was a crazy thing to drive to and fro Sungai Petani and KK in a space of 3 hours right when we were tired, but I treasured that drive because I got to know them better.

Mr Bala still has a boy in school – a 14 year old – whom he brings to train with our boys every now and then. He lives just beyond the train station and I have a feeling that his life is a far cry from our comfortable life. I was very happy that he brings his son to the training, which I want to encourage more and more, because college boys must see beyond the confines of the Malay mindset surrounding them. They must open their eyes and understand there is a bigger world, with different sets of stories, out there – if they want to play a big role in that world, they must understand those stories.

Along the way, I resigned to the reality that this is going to be a long haul. When we started, we put 2010 as the year to pull back. We spent a good one year thinking of an exit strategy – so when the exit strategy was delivered to us out of nowhere, I felt a big burden was lifted off our shoulders. We have finally given the boys the coach we promised all along, since we could never be a good coach if we can only come once a week.

Yet watching Mr Thaman, Mr Bala and the boys – they need all the support they want. To clean our hands and move on, leaving them to grapple with the school, the inadequacies, the shortage of funds, is an irresponsible act.

Mr Thaman has already pleaded that we consider seriously spending a small amount of money to upgrade one of the unused courts to imitate a turf – so that although we cannot play on the turf all the time, we can at least give some exposure to the boys on the court.

It’s a resignation that comes with a heavy heart – we will be around for a while to do justice to Mr Thaman’s devotion and support him where we can; but it will be a while before we can start seeing any results on the field. Other schools too are making leaps and bounds in progress, if our progress is incremental – it may not be enough.


Resignation III

Ha ha this the real resignation. On 30th April 2009, I handed in my resignation to be effective on 31 July 2009. While resignation is part and parcel of every day’s life, given my path in PETRONAS so far, many would have thought that I would never leave the organisation.

I joined PETRONAS as a manager at 25 years old. At 27, I was promoted as a Senior Manager – while I do not know for sure, I was told that no one has been appointed before or since to a SM position at 27. I have been moved to various postings and covered considerable grounds in PETRONAS, so I was in a better position to understand the organisation from various perspectives – operational, corporate, commercial, downstream and upstream. Naturally, other people in my position could have fixed their eyes on one of the VP-ship as the pinnacle of their career in PETRONAS.

But as I keep telling the boys that life is a pit stop, I too have always treated anything that I do as one of these pit stops. My career is a pit stop and eventually I will have to move on. The only complication is – I am used to a 5-figure salary for as long as I can remember and that had enabled me to do many things that we have been doing with MCKK. My decision to change career, therefore, will have an impact on the debaters, Mighty Ducks etc. – so I am not surprised that some quarters can get a bit jittery with my decision.

It is not proper to explain my decision here, nor do I owe anyone any explanation. I just want to thank everyone for the support, especially my staff (some read the blog once in a while I guess). To answer some of your queries:

1) Nope, I am not leaving because of a better offer. I am not going to Middle East. I haven’t even got a job yet ha ha
2) Nope, I am not going to write a book ha ha. A career change from that of an accountant to a writer is a bit extreme ha ha
3) Yes, I have thought about it thoroughly and I rarely back down from a decision, no matter how stupid is that decision. Most people call it egoism, my mind justifies it as being focused ha ha

Looking back, in the one week that snowballed into a resignation – I understood why I may have the guts to do it, compared with other people in a similar situation.

When it first crossed my mind, I called Jita. Jita is one of the most sceptical persons in the world and if I pride myself as being a good British product due to my cynicism, then Jita can claim to be the best British product. He fancied himself as a good devil’s advocate.

So when Jita was quite speechless and did not argue much, I took it that I would have his moral support. I spent the next 4 days with the debating boys and though they joked here and there about how life would be different for them when I am broke, you get the feeling that they trust you know what you are doing.

When I first announced to the batch that I was quitting – the response that I received was very touching. Even Hazerq who never replied to any emails sent a distressed email ala Rafidah Aziz’s “why why why” so eventually we joked around that it took my resignation for Hazerq to send an email to the batch.

The Bapak Itiks initially thought it was a joke (there was an ongoing bet that I will not quit) but it wasn’t long before Epit sent an email along the line “…errr guys, I don’t think he’s joking” ha ha.

There were then calls after calls – I felt good because these calls, from the batch, were not about finding out the reason I left, but how they could help for what will happen next.

Ezrin was the first one to get through me and I felt touched that to him, it was a privilege to have been the first to speak to me. Badut offered money ha ha (“If you need money just call” // “Ha ha I still have my salary for the next 3 months la..”) and there were many others.

I spent the next weekend with Pak Tuan in Sungai Petani – it was a hell of a good time spent with Kwang and Holland, which included a midnight show of Wolverine. We spent a few hours on the way to Sungai Petani analysing Holland’s failure as a jambu or his often botched up attempts at getting a jambu; that in the end we concluded he is just a born loser.

By the end of the weekend, after spending time with Mr Thaman and Mr Bala – I was reminded of how my life was full of blessing all along. Spending time with these people, away from the office politics and the rat race of people trying to outdo each other to reach the top – convinced me that I should count my blessing. With that realisation came a resoluteness that whatever difficulty that may come about due to my quitting my comfortable life, shall pass too.

Within a space of 2 days since I tendered, there were a few interviews lined up – mostly due to MCKK connections.

There are always people who will be there when I need them. When I fall, either the people closest to me will try to fall with me so that my landing does not feel too rough, or they will catch me if they can. Having the support system that MCKK family provides, enables me to take the path that other people may not have the guts to do.

I thought of Ben when I was drafting my letter. I am sure he would be supportive.

I thought of Shahrol and how difficult it would have been for him. He used to joke around that if I were to become a VP, he just wanted to be my bag carrier. Allah, in His Infinite Wisdom called Shahrol home first, perhaps to pave the way for me to reach the decision – otherwise it would have been very difficult to explain to him.

There have been signs all over the place; it would have been stupid for me to ignore them.

As to whether without my 5-figure salary Mighty Ducks, or the debaters etc. will have to take a back seat – ooo well I am sure we’ll find ways. We always have and help usually comes when you least expect it.

We are, after all, eternally optimistic (kan Chamat, ha ha ha)!

FOOTNOTE

Pak Tuan sat down with Mr Thaman, Cikgu Khairi and a few other teachers from SERATAS, STAR and other SBPs. The following comments from SERATAS’ teacher and coach should put things in perspective:

“Saya respek la old boys MC and STAR ni, macam mana pun tiap2 tahun mesti turun kalau ada tournament, menang ke kalah. Saya sedih dgn alumni SERATAS, saya dah bagi update semua, details perlawanan semua, tak de yang nak turun. Bila saya merungut dan bandingkan dengan old boys MC, depa kata old boys MC lain sebab stabil & ada kemampuan. Kita bukan nak mintak duit pun”.

Pak Tuan mencelah “tapi kitorang datang angkat air je Cikgu”

“Itu lah yang kita nak. Bukan kita nak mintak apa2 pun, kita nak mintak support je. Ni bila saya sebut ni, kena marah pulak sebab bandingkan dengan old boys MC”.

Once, a STAR debating teacher came to me and told me how lucky our boys are to have old boys like us.

But too much of good things are bad, because we tend to take them for granted :-)