Short Trip To Kuala Kubu Bharu

 

I’d planned for this trip months ago and it finally materialised last Saturday. I took the MRT to Sungai Buloh - I managed to reach the platform with a couple of minutes to spare, any later and I’d have to wait another 15 minutes for the next train and would only have five minutes to exit the train, get down from the platform, exit the station and make my way to KTM Komuter station. That was cutting it pretty close so I was thankful to have made the train when I did. If I had missed the 10:25 Komuter train to Kuala Kubu Bharu, I’d have to wait for the next one at 11:40.

 

I was surprised to find the Komuter train different from the usual Komuter train. Passengers sit across each other in the few cars. As it turned out, not many people were travelling anyway so it wasn’t a problem. We left on time, what a pleasant surprise! The train stopped at a few stations and at one of them, three cyclists boarded the train, wheeling their bikes.

 

We reached Kuala Kubu Bharu station at 11:13 – another surprise as the train actually arrived on time. I went to use the facilities before I set out.

 

Now, I had studied the maps and knew that there were two buses that I could take into town but none passed by in the 20 minutes I took to walk into town. There was cloud cover so it wasn’t too bad to start with.

 

I stopped at the town’s public garden to attend to some work queries (yeah, I know. The pits of working during the pandemic include working over weekends) before walking up Jalan Bukit Kerajaan. It was a shady road and quite deserted. I walked up to the Clock Tower which was built to commemorate the coronation of King George VI and the Hulu Selangor Traffic Police Station which building used to be the Church of Ascension. Then I realised I had walked past the Hulu Selangor Land and District Office so I turned back (it was just metres away anyway). I asked the lady guard if I could take pictures of the Hulu Selangor Land and District Office, a 90-old building. She asked why and I was perplexed. I replied because it was a heritage building, all the while wondering if she didn’t know it. She thought about it and nodded ok.

 

After that, I walked down the hill to the Post Office at the corner of Jalan Dato Tabal and then along the road until I came upon the Old Fire Station (another 90-year old building). I then turned into Jalan Kamarudin and walked around, stopping every now and then to take pictures of the pre-war buildings. I love buildings (old buildings, heritage and colonial)and ruins.

 

While wandering around, I decided to take the 14:55 train instead of the 16:50 train back to Sungai Buloh. As Zul Mee Kari restaurant was closed, I decided to have lunch at Yogi Café. I stood and waited to be seated and was not happy when a family came up after me and demanded to be seated. Like hello, I came first, you shameless queue jumper. And the waitress seemed oblivious to me too. I told her that I came first and only then she acknowledged me. I decided to have assam laksa for lunch and asked for a pair of chopsticks when my food came and while the same waitress said she would get me a pair, neither she nor the chopsticks appeared after five minutes so I went to ask the busy girl behind the counter. What a lousy waitress!

 

I walked back to the station. I and was telling myself that it’d be a long wait if a bus ever showed up when a bus drove past just as I had walked a few metres away from a bus stop. Strewth! I continued walking and arrived at the station 30 minutes before the train was due to arrive. Plenty of time for me to perform prayers although I wasn’t too happy with the prayer room. Oh well.

 

The train arrived on time (I couldn’t get over my surprise but far be it for me to complain about that). I changed for the MRT train and rode back to my station. And that was how I spent part of my Saturday.

Cool Kids

There’s a FB group ‘Nostalgia di SBP’ (or Nostalgia at Boarding School) and I read some of the posts out of curiosity (I’m hardly on FB as it is, I spend 15 minutes a day on it tops). A mate of mine had written some posts to the group too. The few posts I read made me think back of my life at boarding school.

I wasn’t a brilliant student, I found out very quickly that there were some seriously clever and brilliant girls in my class and within our batch. And I could’ve scored good marks but some subjects like Arabic, Art and Domestic Science were the bane of my lower secondary life (funnily enough, I scored an A1 in Domestic Science even though I did somehow manage to sleep during the trial exam until my friend woke me up because there was a correction to the question paper). I was never a sportsgirl and never an athlete (I could barely run to save my life, I just didn’t and still don’t have the stamina), in fact I didn’t enjoy any of the games or sport (I could cheer loudly though). I was never in any drama (be it English or Malay) competition (I have stage fright) or dancing competition either (I have two left feet). I wasn’t in either the band or cadet, wasn’t in the choir group. In short, I was just an average girl trying to fit in, at times in awe (but not envious) of other girls from more privileged background. My dad was approaching retirement and we didn’t have much to spend on branded goods then. So I was donning boring unfashionable clothes and I had a simple haircut. Then again, back then, in those days, not many things were fashionable anyway.

I was not any one of the cool kids. I wasn’t popular, I wasn’t in any clique (thank God!), I wasn’t at all cool. I never had any correspondent with a boy from another boarding school except for one very brief exchange of letters which I didn’t pursue. I was not a prefect. I did enjoy my lessons in upper secondary (I did have to bear with Arabic for another year though) and really loved Modern and Additional Maths subjects. I chose Social Science class as I was definitely not going to be in a pure Science class.

I broke some rules when I was in upper secondary. I was a latecomer many times and had to pay the fine when I was in Form 5 because I slept through the alarm and all the noise and racket around me (maybe someone did try to wake me up but I slept too deeply and soundly through it all). I skipped some physical education classes and hid in the drama props room with some mates. I forged Mummy’s signature so that I could join others and follow my friend back to her aunt’s place. So I wasn’t exactly an angel but apart from PE, I never skipped any other class (even Arabic).

I had fun at boarding school; I didn’t dread either going back home or returning to school after school holidays ended. I had friends, I enjoyed my classes especially in upper secondary. I was neither a goodie, nor was I a baddie.

Like I said, I wasn’t one of the cool kids then but I still fit in somehow. And anyway, people shouldn’t be too fixated about wanting to fit in (or trying to at least for some people). We may not know it when we were adolescents but I should hope we’re all comfortable and secure in our skin by now. And in our own way, we’re actually cool now precisely because we develop self-confidence, gain life experience and overcome life challenges as we grow.