AN EARLY DINNER DATE WITH AN EX-COLLEAGUE

A meeting with Mr. Abdul Rahman Ahmad was set this afternoon. He is an ex-colleague of SMK Dato' Jaafar and then went to serve Johor Bahru District Office before pursuing his Master Degree in Universiti Putra Malaysia [UPM].

The place chosen was D'Markas Seafood which was just near my house. The restaurant was recently known as D'Sofia if I am not mistaken.

This should be an early dinner for me, and maybe for Mr. Abdul Rahman too.

We were there for about an hour and had to leave as the Maghrib prayer time was near. Hoping for another coffee/tea/any-meal session before he goes back to campus in March.

MY DUNGUN GASTRONOMIC ADVENTURE

The gastronomic adventure in Dungun happened on the 13th and 14th October 2023. It was just a one night stay so not much adventure took place, Furthermore, the breakfast was included in the resort package and we had to eat at the wedding reception.

The first stop was at a roadside restaurant when we arrived in Dungun late in the afternoon. It could be considered food for our afternoon tea and there was not much choice at that hour.

We were then served Curry Mee at Mr. Ridwan's brother's house so that should be the home-made dinner.

We still went out to search for something to eat right after the breakfast at the resort on the second day. I had Laksam which I hoped could be something light enough before we started eating again at the wedding reception right after.

Hopefully I would be back in Dungun again one day to embark on another gastronomic adventure, finding authentic Terengganu cuisines.

ONE NIGHT STAY AT ULEK BEACH RESORT DUNGUN

I spent the night in Dungun on 14th OCTOBER 2023 when Mr. Ridwan Wahid, a friend of UPM TESL Class of 1993, invited me to join him and his family to attend a wedding reception of their friends' child there [READ HERE]. 

There was no booking done prior to the journey there, so we had to hunt for our accommodation. We managed to get a room at Ulek Beach Resort in front of the beach in the evening. We stayed in chalets instead of hotel rooms this time and I loved the place so much. It felt as if I was on a holiday, spending time by the beach in a village with traditional Malay houses.

 

Breakfast was inclusive in the accommodation package. We went to the cafe and the breakfast was decent enough to start the day.

PRECAUTION: there could be mosquitoes in your room. However, you could find the mosquito coils in the one of the drawers in the room to chase the insects away.

If I were to go to Dungun again, I don't mind staying at this place one more time.

THE COFFEE SESSION BEFORE SOMEONE WAS LEAVING JOHOR BAHRU AT THE BUS TERMINAL

Mr. Afif Farhan Zulkiflee [an ex-student of SMK Taman Universiti] was home for the Thaipusam long weekends break and the only time we could meet for coffee was a few hours before the express bus which would take him to Kuala Lumpur arrived.

So we met up at Richiamo Cafe at Larkin Sentral at 6:30 p.m. The only pastries left at the counter were a piece of Salted Egg Croissant and three pieces of donut.

I had to make a move as it was already late for our Maghrib prayers so we had to say our "Goodbyes" and hope to meet again when Mr. Afif is back for his next semester break.

ANOTHER HI-TEA SESSION TO CELEBRATE MY RETIREMENT

Retirement should be something fun as friends continuously celebrated your success leaving school by organizing gatherings which involved eating activities. Today, four people gathered at New York Hotel for the high tea session, finally.

We used to go for coffee or lunch after school before this but as not everyone was teaching in school anymore now, it was quite hard to find time for everybody to attend at the same time. Thank god, more people were free today, and a member of the group could not make it as she had to be with her sick mother.

Even after almost a month retiring, I still had to wear the sash. Luckily there was no crown.

There was another end of year annual lunch for a primary school happening at the same time at one part of the dining hall. Consequently, most of the food finished much earlier. We were actually very full without the food being replenished.

There was an ex-student of SMK Taman Universiti who were there to accompany his wife, attending the aforementioned school function. I felt like a celebrity.

Thanks to Puan Mazzelina Mahmood and husband, Mr. Mohd. Khir, Puan Rumaiah Asan and Puan Ida Amiza for the great get together session. Hopefully after this, we could do this more frequently like we used to do many years ago.