Free Flow Posting on Apak

 Actually there are so many snippets on Apak throughout my years with him ... He's quite a funny guy despite him being a teacher. Below are some of the snippets regarding Apak, I might have mentioned some of them in my earlier postings but it is worth repeating ...

Once, somewhere in the mid of 70s, our area was inundated with flood - Pengkalan Pegoh, Changkat Larang and small part of Pasir Puteh, Ipoh - for weeks. Apak as I told you had this penchant/hobby of "menjaring ikan" using "jaring" (fishing net) at the "lombong". He normally went to check the 'jaring" early in the morning after "dipasang di lombong" a day before in the evening. That day, he managed to catch"anak tongsan" and was on his way back to sell it at the "pasar'. Coincidentally, there were reporters covering the flooding area ... they took some pictures of the kids swimming & playing in the flood et al. Upon seeing Apak with his old motorcycle passing by ( actually the flood was about to recede and it was at about knee length), one of the reporter asked Apak to post with his "big catch" of the day and he obliged... Voila!!! The next day, there it was - a picture in black and white of Apak appeared at the front page of NST holding up his "anak tongsan" with a caption " Bounty of flood" , something to that effect. The funny part was the "news" was presented as if the "anak tongsan" was caught due to flood whereas Apak caught it by "menjaring" at a mining pool somewhere in Batu Gajah approximately about 10 km from the flood area. The whole "kampung" was talking about Apak being an instant celebrity for almost a month... I think my brother still keep that photo somewhere ....

Talking about Apak's old motorcycle, I remember it was a Honda with registration number A ... 3058 and it was the only "asset" as a mean of transport for Apak. One day, Apak wanted to go to Pengkalan Pegoh - a small idle town not far from our house for an evening "teh tarik" with me tagging along. On our way there, we were stopped by police in a road block, apparently the police were checking driving license ... Apak confidently stopped athe road side upon being asked to do so by the police. The police asked Apak to produce his license ... Then the "waiting game" began ... The "problem" is this ... Apak kept his license in his wallet and it aws not your "ordinary" wallet. Apak being Apak, he kept almost everything in the wallet, you name it receipts, some notes/addresses, money ( not that he has  alot of it anyway!!!), duit shiling and even his old "red card" ( I think it's his teacher's certification or something) and there you are, the wallet ended up about an inch or almost to two inches thick!!!! so you could imagine how Apak diligently standing beside his motorcycle with me still on it 'digging" through the thick wallet trying to find his license!!! I can still remember while waiting for Apak, the police managed to check about 5 to 6 motorcycles and several cars but Apak still at the road side with his thick wallet. After a few minutes, the police said to Apak ' Tak apa la Pak Cik, Pak Cik bole jalan, tak payah la lesen tu!!". Upon hearing this, Pak thanked the police and apologised. At the coffee shop, without being asked Apak told me that actually his "lesen dah mati" the week before and he forgot to renew it!!!

In my earlier posting, I wrote about Apak's old car - yes he always have old things, old motorcycle and old car!! - "jatuh masuk lombong" when he forgot to hand braked the car. After that incident, my brother Asri bought him a "new" second hand car to the chagrin of Mak. The reason being after having that "new" car which was in better shape than the first one, Apak ventured into his "menjaring activities' even further away than the area which he used to go and obviously this worried Mak so much. Thank God nothing untoward happened to Apak ...

This last piece which I wanted to share was an incident told by Apak when he was a 9primary) teacher at Sekolah Kebangsaan Jlan Connolly, Ipoh. This school was a mixed school with Malays (from the nearby Kampung Sg. Pari and its vicinity), a handful of Chinese and quite a number of Indians (from the Indian settlement Buntong). In the class, Apak notice a group of Indian boys sitting close with each other and always making noises in the class room. Apak tried to be "innovative" by separating them, rearranging their seats far apart from each other. Guess what? The result was disastrous ... Being far apart, they became even noisier as they have to "verbally communicated" with each other at the top of their lungs!!! After only 2 days, Apak learnt his lesson and put them closely together gain to "lower down: the noise volume in the class....

There were other interesting anecdotes on Apak but I will reserve them in my later postings ... Good night and till we meet again!!!