Sunday, June 16, 2024

A Scary Experience of A Brief Memory Lapse

On 18.05.2024, I sent my wife to attend a reunion lunch organized by one of the former students of a class in St. John Tuaran. The gathering was at a road side restaurant along Jalan Sulaiman called D' Dalit Transit Tuaran at Kampong Lok Batik. Since the restaurant is just 7.5Km away from Tuaran Town, I decided to have my lunch at one of the eateries in Tuaran after dropping her at the restaurant. 

My plan was to have Tuaram Mee at the original founder outlet, Lok Kyun Restaurant. This I believe is the Tuaran Mee Junshi likes after first tasting it in January 2009 during her first visit to Sabah (Read here). The Tuaran Mee we ate in Restoran Tuaran Mee (Read here) in March this year when Sam's family spent a week holidays in KK unfortunately was not up to mark. 

Lok Kyun, unfortunately was closed on 18 May 2024 apparently under renovation when I drove to my first destination. I instantly did a search in my handphone and found another outlet called Tai Fatt Restaurant that also served Tuaran Mee. This outlet is also within walking distance from Restoran Tuaran Mee. After parking my car at a car park behind a row of shophouses, I walked to look for Tai Fatt. Somehow, I had difficulty in locating it and decided to go and pick up the car and drove to locate the outlet. Finally, I parked at a parking lot just beside a row of shophouses. 

After the meal at Tai Fatt, I proceeded to the original car park to pick up my car. To my horror, the car was not there. My instant thought was - "My car has been stolen!". After considering various options, I decided to make a police report about my stolen car and then call my wife about alternative transport arrangement to go home later on. Just before going to the Police Station, I decided to walk around to have a final search for the stolen car. I was hoping that the stolen car may still be in the town driven by the carjacker! As I walked, I saw a familiar car parked beside a shop which instantly reminded me of me having moved my car from the first car park earlier. I was overjoyed to see my car but also sadden by my brief moment of memory loss!
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With the car "recovered", I was able to drive to visit Kampong Panandawan before picking up my wife later. Panandawan is a sizable native settlement just next to a bay which is 8.5Km from SMK St. John Tuaran. Many of the children in this Kampong choose to study in SMK St. John.
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When I went back to the restaurant to pick up my wife after their meal, I was asked to be their photographer for their group photo! These high school students are now in their early 50's after a span of over 35 years since my wife was their school principal in mid-1980's to mid-1990's!

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