Growing Up Part XI

I am in Ho CHi Mihn City this week. No not for the APEC meeting! So while waiting for my flight back to Singapore, I posted this Part 11 for you guys. This part just tells you, as a prelude of our family growing up in Telok Anson. Many a stories there to tell later as we stayed 4 long years there. The longest that we ever stayed in one place. So here goes....

When we got back to Malaysia from UK, we stayed with our Grandma Tok Bi at their Wadi Hassan house in JB. It was cramped but comfortable. I am sure you remember the house that I mentioned earlier.
Meanwhile, before Bah got his new posting, he was attached temporarily at the Teachers’ College in JB. The following week Bah came back home with a new car. It was a Peugeot 403, quite a big and comfortable car. I loved that car because many years later, I took my driving test with it.
Bah put us i.e. my brother and I back to the same school, i.e. Ngee Heng Primary. It was a funny feeling coming back to the same school that I started with on my first year of schooling. Then everything looked huge or large. Now that we were that much older, i.e. Primary 6 & 5 respectively, everything looked small. The playing field that I thought then was so large, was no bigger than the garden at Bah’s Stulang Darat’s house. The primary 1 boys looked so small…..
Anyway, lessons were ok as the medium of instruction in those days were in English. When it came to the Malay language class, I was totally flabbergasted because I realised I couldn’t read Malay! When I was asked to read aloud, I was like an illiterate who had just started to learn to read. I had to spell it out in my mind as quickly as I could, literally word for word. Of course all that while, my classmates were snickering behind me. It took me many months later of intensive reading that at last I could read Malay without faltering.
Bah received his posting about a month later. It was to Telok Anson (now called Teluk Intan) in Perak. Bah went earlier himself to get settled and ready for us to come. After a couple of week, he came back and we had to start loading our stuffs into 2 or 3 train boxes. After that was done, we were ready to leave JB.
On the day we were to leave, very early in the morning, we had to load the car with whatever stuffs were had to bring. The boot was fully loaded to the brim, but Bah had installed a roof rack, and we stacked the rest of the stuff on top of the car, covered them with canvas in case it rained, and tied them down. When I stepped back to look, the car looked quite funny, more like a commercial lorry than a car.
Inside it was full. Bah was driving. Mum sat in front with Fuzi who was a year or two old by then. At the back was my brother, Fizah, Noni and myself. Being elder, my brother and I got seats by the window. I wasn’t keen on the journey as I was prone to motion sickness. In those days, such a journey lasted more than 8 hours. 6 hours to KL and another 2 to 3 to Telok Anson.
As a note, you would have noticed that Noni came with us. She had stayed back with Tok Bi and Mak Siti while we were in the UK. I guessed Bah and mum wanted the whole family to be together now.
The journey to Telok Anson was not memorable except that we stopped quite often along the way for toilet break and coffee, lunch and late tea. Also, I must confess, we had to stopped several times for me (I mentioned that I was prone to motion sickness right!).
When we arrived, it was already dark. Our house was a typical large government bungalow, with 2 main bedroom, large sitting hall, and huge dinning area with dinning table for 12. The kitchen was big and annexed to the house were 3 more rooms possibly for the maids.
Bah warned us before we started exploring that we were not to go onto the garden area, which was very huge. He said that this town was infested with cobra snakes and they are there even in our garden. I hate snakes!!!
The week was taken for us to settle in. Our train load of stuffs arrived. Of course during this time, mum was like a tough general, telling us what to do with the stuff, where to put them etc. It was very trying not to mention tiring.
Bah, mum and Fuzi had the master bedroom while my brother, Noni, Fizah and I had the room opposite them. Our room was like a dormitory, with 4 single beds lined up side by side.
School came next. My brother and I were enrolled in St. Anthony’s School (boys only) while Noni was enrolled at the HIJ Convent. These schools were directly opposite each other. Fizah was not of schooling age yet then during our first year there.
The routine was taking place. Bah took us to school in the morning and picked us up after. He found a piano teacher for me and a violin teacher for my brother and I. The violin teacher was actually my music and arts teacher in school.
So life continued in its own way for us, in a new place, new school and new friends………