Monday 18th Sept. 2006 was memorable for some of us in more than one way.
At the class of 60 breakfasts on Sunday 17th Sept. 2006, we decided to visit some of our friends who are indisposed and who live outside Kuala Lumpur, and who have not been able to attend our class breakfasts for sometime. They are too sick, and are on the road to very slow recovery. One had been in and out of hospital. The other is recovering from a not so mild stroke. Both are almost confined to their houses.
9 of us decided to make the journey in two vehicles, the meeting place being in Bangi, a town about 15 km south of Kuala Lumpur where we were to have out morning breakfast. We all were there early, and after a full Malay breakfast at a Malay restaurant we left Bangi for our destinations.
We arrived at our destination, Sdr Zulkernain’s house at about 10.30 am. We saw how painful it was for Sdr Zulkernain to move about to come and greet us. But he did, using his ‘four footed’ helping walker. He seemed happy to meet us. He talked and talked, and we talked and talked, until his wife came back from her meeting (the wife was away when we arrived). And we were with Sdr Zulkernain for an hour of so, when we bade goodbye as we have to be at Imran’s house for lunch. Imran’s house is further south, about another 20 km on.
We arrived at Imran’s house, after taking the Highway and turning into some quiet country roads, and as we were greeted personally by him, invited us to sit on the chairs of his sitting room. The house was large and spacious, seemed to be some sort of an official residence but left almost neglected, most probably it’s not as an official residence anymore. The house is of Minangkabau style, in a large compound by a country road, I am told that it has an area of about 25 acres. Soon a lady cousion of his arrived and she knew one of us, Sdr Mazlan, very well having worked with him earlier. And it turned out also that she was no stranger really, a couple of us knew her brother who was in the Lembaga Letrik Negara (National Electricity Board of Malaysia) and he was at our school for some years, (though he only joined the school in the Sixth Form then).
After lunch we left, Sdr Mokhtar and 4 others in one vehicle as he had to be early in KL, and Sdr Mazlan and the other 3 of us left a few minutes. We stopped over in Seremban again to meet Sdr Mohd Noor Rashid for tea; we were biding him a safe journey to Mekah where he was going for his Umrah (Small Pilgrimage) at the end of Sept. 2006. We were with him for about one hour and we departed for Putrajaya where Sdr Mazlan needed to collect something from a friend over there.
We left Putrajaya near dusk, and just about we were to send Sdr Zain to his ‘house’ in Kampong Pandan KL, we met a small accident near the Tesco Supermarket in Pandan Indah. We had just entered a small lane, not really sure where we were going, only relying on Sdr Zain's instructions; we met a minor accident with a motorcyclist, whose wife got thrown down and got injured in the accident and had to be sent to a nearby clinic by another party and the motorcycle had a little damage. We decided to settle the affairs then and there and we paid for the wife’s medical attention. We trust by now we are cleared of being dragged into a legal situation by the victim.
It was a full day for us all. And we were glad that we met all our objectives for the trip, met all our indisposed friends and bid farewell to a friend who was about to embark on a long journey. The minor accident was just unfortunate, as it happened very close to the end of our day (and our return destination). But that minor incident taught us a very important lesson, we should not have taken any short cut or unsure directions when we wish to reach a certain destination however close the destination is. We are glad though that God had protected us all throughout the journey. Alhamdullillah.
The 9th member of the seniors.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mckkclass60/
