Day 12 - 14 Oct 26 - 28 Petaling Jaya Part 2

We got in to PJ in the late afternoon and it was good to be back home. I had not told my mother about the ride - somehow the opportunity to tell her and explain it to her never arose. She was not surprised to see me, but was surprised I came in Gan's car, not my own. When I took the bike out, she didn't express any surprise or make her usual exclamation when confronting any of the Cheong boys' latest adventures or misadventures 'You're mad!'.

She just smiled and said 'Oh.' I was home.

That night I finally met Ong Jin Joo, whose blog is linked here and another Asean scholar whose name I shall not attempt to spell here... I can probably find it out from Jin Joo's blog, but will not now, not with the slow connection I'm having.

Gan had arranged the getogether and we had teh tarik in SS2. The conversation was, as to be expected when one engages brilliant minds, exciting and invigorating.

In the morning, I cycled down to Gan's for a chat and then on to PJ Old Town to get the bike attended to. It was weird cycling with such a light bicycle! I made it through the mad traffic that is Jalan Templer and on to old town, to the shop I used to go to when I was 16 and regularly doing 50 kms a day. Instead of studying...

The chaps who run the place are still there, though they didn't recognise me. The bike had been getting a little rough and a spot of oil here and there and on the gear cables cured the reluctance to change gears I had been experiencing.


A little trip down memory lane here to recall an old friend I have been trying to trace for years: Ng Kien Hoon. We were the best of friends and were both into cycling when we were 16 or 17. One afternoon, I got a call from him saying he'd had an accident and was in hospital and needed my help. He was fine - he'd been looking away when some lady stuck her car out too far at a junction and he hit the front wing of the car and took flight over her bonnet.

The help he needed was was for me to go to 'our' bike shop in Old Town and tell the owner he'd be coming soon with the lady (who'd offered to pay for all the damage to the bike) and could the owner please quote her a higher price so he could get a new and better bike? Geee... even in those days, there were things my friends knew that I could simply never get an instinctual grasp of. I believe he eventually became an accountant...

In the afternoon, I went shopping for a replacement front light. While climbing Bukit Pelanduk, my front light which I hadn't properly pushed into place, had fallen off and broken. I eventually found one at a bike shop in SS2 which stocked some very good parts. I picked up an LED Cateye for just under RM100. Small and light, it can be used as a torch or attached to a helmet too. Great stuff.

Some of the Lasobans met up on Saturday night at my old haunt, Rennie's House of Oxtail. Replete from a dinner with Patsy and Gan at a Thai place in Petaling Gardens, I had to forego the pleasure of an Oxtail Soup. I did note that the price had gone up from about RM4.50 to RM18 though! OK so it's been 20 years...

It was great to catch up with Jo, Prasad, Tchi Yu and wife, Pam. Why is it that the conversations I have in PJ are invariably exciting, involving, passionate, demanding, opinionated...? I do enjoy getting together with these guys - the passion stays with me for a long time.


The next morning, I had breakfast with Tchi Yu and Pam - thanks, guys for changing your Sunday routine and making the effort to meet up - and Tchi Yu was telling me of his problems at his internet cafe. It makes me quite angry that an honest person trying to make a go at a business is being thwarted by corrupt officers. More downer...

The afternoon was spent shopping for books _ I'd finished the two that I'd brought along and needed something to while the nights away. My last few hours in PJ were spent having Hokkien Mee (mmmmm..... yummy) and adding to the blog. WHo knows when I'd get broadband again?
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