My parents instill in us, whenever guests come unexpected, serve them, even though it is just a glass of water.When he was still in service,I still remember, my father would buy the Sarikei pineapples, the best kind of pineapples before the Pada variety was in existence, and would ask my mother, to peel pineapples, to be given to one of his staff who was pregnant then.To him, pregnant ladies will always want to eat such kinds of fruits. This was just not once, but always, whenever there were pregnant staff in his team.My mum loves to cook for people, the more you'll eat, the more she'll cook.And her bingka varieties are just sinfully rich, with the eggs, sugar and santan pekat. We might not be rich in material kinds, but my parents, and their family members ( their brothers and sisters, and our grandparents) are/ were very kind people especially in providing people with food. Our relatives from both my parent's families come from far and wude, and whenever they do come to visit, food is mostly top on the list, even though there is not much, but some how or rather, there's food on the table.
Now, why am I driving home this point on kindness?
Yesterday, unplanned, we (my family, [without Afiqh, as he was in Auckland playing rugby at the UMNO RUGBY CUP], Shah's family and Syahaneim's family) went for an impromptu trip, to Wanganui. Why Wanganui, I also did not know, just that Shah mentioned it one day to me, and I got to know that the last of Sarawak's White Rajah is currently residing here. There's not much to see there, except that Wanganui is situated at a river mouth, just like Kuching. It was just for drive, just to destress our minds from our studies and writings, as Shah said. It was a two and a half hour leisurely drive, stopping at farm fruit shops, a honey shop,pee stops for all. We had lunch in Foxton, at a park with the only windmill (so the man there claimed) in New Zealand. This community has a Dutch population, thus the windmill. Lunch was in the cold weather, so the warm nasi lemak I brought got cold immediately when we were putting the food on our plates.
It was almost Asar, and we went to look for an Islamic center for solat, as Shah found the address on his mobile. When we arrived at the small mosque, it was locked, and we were about to leave, when a car screeched by and stopped. out came two young guys, whom we thought were Maori, but it puzzled me when one of them had a kain pelikat on his shoulder.
Apparently these two guys are Malays from Johor, whose family now resides in Wanganui, working in the halal meat industry here. After we exchanged introductions, they brought us around a couple of interesting places in Wanganui, and then, invited us to their house, as well as for dinner. We planned to drive home by 4pm before it gets dark, but we only managed to at about 8pm.
Now, where did that come from? Out of nowhere, an unplanned visit, unexpected kindness...
