Thanks, That Was Fun

I was supposed to handle an event in early December and had reluctantly decided to stay put, i.e., not travel in November. Only to be informed a dozen days ago that the intended event would not materialise (yippeeeee!!!) but that I had no plans for last week (two days of public holidays meant if I took the week off, it’d only be three days off work). Dang.

Luckily, I managed to secure (with the help of my colleague) a unit at our PD resort for three nights. Well, I guess beggars can’t be choosers and all that.

So we left on Thursday just after noon prayers and drove down to PD. Dad was anxious to beat the holiday traffic and to arrive before it rained. Well, he needn’t have worried after all as the traffic was kind to us and it didn’t rain a drop. It had rained earlier in the morning so I guess that was that. Akak and family arrived closer to 4 pm. We checked in after 4.

My two nieces and nephew couldn’t wait to hit the pool and they went as early as 5 pm. I waited a bit before walking down to the beach. I wanted to take a stroll along the beach but the tide was high and the sea was almost reaching the edge of the resort. I wasn’t keen to get wet so only ventured out for a short while.

It didn’t rain on Friday either. I went to check the beach in the morning and the tide was higher than ever and the waves were already lapping the resort boundary. I sat by the pool watching over the kids until they were finally ready to climb out – after almost two hours. It was my niece’s birthday today; we had a modest celebration.

We drove out to Cape Rachado (name given by the Portuguese. It means ‘Broken Cape’) or Tanjung Tuan in the evening and hiked up to the lighthouse. This hilly cape is a gazetted forest reserve and wildlife sanctuary with several beaches and a historical lighthouse at its summit. It is administrated by the state of Malacca for some reason and is also a favourite bird watching site, especially during the migratory season when the birds flew from one hemisphere to the other. The biggest naval battle in the Malay Archipelago between two naval superpowers at the time (Dutch and Portuguese) took place off the cape in 1606. We left after 45 minutes and went to Sri Purnama beach for some refreshment before going to Darul Hilal (one of the spots for moon-sighting) and returned at 7.30 pm.

After two days of glorious sunshine, we woke to an overcast Saturday. It was bleak and rain didn’t wait long to fall. It rained hard and lasted for hours. It finally petered out after 3 pm and we went for a drive (sans the kids) to Pengkalan Kempas historical complex. Here is one of the oldest Islamic graves (a 15th century tomb) in Malaysia, that of Sheikh Ahmad Majnun, a leading historical personality who was slain during a battle with Sultan Mansor Shah’s army. Next to his grave are the famous stone inscriptions which depcit his struggle and victory. We then went to check out the nearby jetty before stopping at a fishermen’s area. Unfortunately, because of the earlier rain, it was slippery and dad fell down. We returned back to the resort shortly after.

We checked out mid-morning on Sunday. Until the next visit then.

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It was the North London Derby on Saturday. Good thing the resort subscribed to some Astro channels including ESPN. I was not amused when Adebuywhore scored first for the scums but the idiot then managed to get himself sent off. We were labouring until then so this was very welcome (plus he very much deserved it). And we were awarded our first goal from an unlikely source, the BFG himself, straining his neck muscles to open his account for The Arsenal from a Theo cross. Poldi slipped one in (deflecting off Gallas, hahaha) and my gorgeous scored despite being marked and despite having fallen from a Cazorla pass who heroically lifted himself up and ran before crossing it in the box.

Cazorla himself became a scorer in the second half thanks to a Poldi cross and made it look oh so simple and stylish. Then the ape-man pulled one back. I could sense the nervousness at the stadium (after all, we did let a two-goal lead slip in our two preceding matches) and we were a bit quiet at this stage too but we overcame that nervousness and awkwardness soon disappeared. Ox came on for Giroud and at the death, he unselfishly put a cross to Theo to tap home. And the result was exactly like the one in February, nine months prior. AR5EN2L / 5PUR2 hahaha!!!