Kak Salbiah (SMSK73-79)

It's nice to be able to meet again after 27 solid years!

I went back to KB on Saturday morning, leaving at 10.30am, from BIL's place in Segambut. There were BIL, MIL, FIL and me.

We arrived in Ketereh just before maghrib (the temporary bridge a bit north of Ketereh town was really congested).

Sunday morning was spent in KB to settle some matters at Pejabat Tanah. Unfortunately my old friend Zamri Ismail @Zamri Dabong who was an ADO there, has been transfered to Tanah Merah (effective 1 Nov 2006 - He's now no.2 there!). However, Zamri managed to get me to meet another officer there who helped speed up the process that I had to go through.

In the afternoon, I visited Kak Salbiah in Machang.

Kak Salbiah was one of the pioneering seniors (i.e. those who had to "tumpang" in SMIP). During our school days she was a state netball player (she was the "Centre" person) just like the other players. To adik2 junior who are reading this, during our time, SMSKel represented the state in many games, esp soccer and netball.

K Sal was one of those who stayed in school all the way from form 1 until form 6. I became very close to K Sal when we were in the same dorm, and had to sit for the exams together (MCE for me, and HCE for her). The exam time was a very memorable one since there was a huge flood then, that Pengkalan Chepa (where our school is) was cut off from other towns. I remember coming out of the exam hall and suddenly stepping into ankle deep water!! The flood water almost went into the hall. It was bad enough that exam paper was pretty tough (I think it was the Add Maths paper), we had our lunch (after the exam) of rice with only very tiny sardines and half a serving of ikan kering. No vegies. We were told by the dining hall staff that the supply could not get to us, so they had to make do with whatever dry/can food that they had in the storeroom!
We found it strange to have such a big flood when the weather was pretty sunny - no heavy rain nor thunderstorm. Later we found out that the heavy rain was mainly in the Ulu Kelantan and there was even a major landslide in Kuala Bala!

Back to Kak Sal, we had some nice time together especially on Thurday nights and Friday nights (free nights with no prep). We would either watch a movie in the hall, or just stay in the dorm, singing the popular tunes together. She was such a sport! I still remember her comment in the school mag on being in SMSKel for 7 yrs. It goes something like this: If I knew I was going to be in this school for 7 years, I would have asked my dad to build our house nearby.

If people ask me what else I remember of K Sal, I'd say it's her handwriting! it's unique - so simple, smooth and elegant. I am sure I can still recognise it now..

I went to her house yesterday with DH (dearesr hubby)'s auntie, Cik, who was the state netball coach in the 70s (together with the late Cikgu Mahmud of Pasir Pekan)). Cik also knows K Sal's mum since they went to the same teacher training college.

Though the visit was brief (K Sal had many other guests over the weekend), we managed to talk about some common friends who are, though distance apart, still very close to our hearts (The Malay's saying: "Jauh di mata, tapi dekat di hati").

This morning I left Ketereh with BIL at 8am, after a breakfast of the well known Nasi Kerabu Bt.11 (with ayam bakar, for me). I even took back some nasi bungkus with daging bakar for another BIL and my kids!!!!
I left BIL in Segambut, then drove back to S Alam alone. I arrived home at 3.30pm.