It was a rekindling of long time ago friendships. A couple of years ago or so, has quickly gone by since we first re-connected. Now, when I think back, it was longer than that.

I first met Loraine at one of the dinner get togethers my late sister, Jen; used to organize. Jen had met Loraine through her badminton group. One thing led to another, found out that Loraine was related to the Fredericks (Bridgette, Jane, Terence, Aunty Margaret and Uncle Frank) of Klang (1). Also found out that she was Ray’s cousin. Small world…

It was only a year ago or so, that I linked Loraine with CHOICE (2). I related the times when we were on the national team and the retreat we attended in Port Dickson (3). All this was in the mid -1980s. I was trying to re-collect as much of that time at the retreat as possible.

Loraine said that I mistook her for her younger sister, Sharon. I managed to find some photographs I took of the retreat. Not easy when I had to go through thousands of photos. It was slightly less difficult because the photos were in little photo albums, so, I flipped through the first few photos of each album, until I found the right album/s.

Since then, we’ve been in touch through social media, mainly through Whatsapp. Then, we met recently on my birthday.

They were very interested in the Batik Influencer’s (Jeannie’s) batik cape creations. They arranged with Jeannie to have some pieces made for them and later fixed a date as to when they would come over to pick up these batik capes.

It was so nice of them to come by our home. When they had chosen the capes they wanted; we sat down and reminisced the past. When they were trying out and choosing these one-each-of-a-kind batik capes; I could read their thoughts, “Tell me when will you be mine?“. “This could be mine. And this could be mine”, as they picked each piece up. I thought of Engelbert Humperdinck’s, hit song, “Quando”: .

These sisters – when they get together – always joking, always laughing.

Jeannie usually buys the snacks as she is the food expert, too. This time round, I bought some little snacks for the evening, since I was in the area, at the shops, earlier on in the day. I bought some Malay traditional “kuih bahulu” (4), sometimes knowns as egg sponge cakes. I also bought some Pineapple piah “Tau Sar Piah” (5) with pineapple filling – quite unusual. Some of the best Tau Sar Piah come from little bakeries in Penang and Malacca and you are able to buy them freshly baked, just out of the oven if you are at one of these bakeries.. In Malacca, you will find many of these little bakeries along Jonker Street.

Sharon was the first female Disc Jockey (D.J.) in Malaysia. I am sure she would have been absolutely awesome. She is so quick thinking and witty. The “always joking” part was from both the Fredericks sisters.

They knew many of the people living around where we used to, live in Klang. They spent a lot of time with their cousins Bridgette, Jane and Terrence.

We had such a wonderful evening. Jeannie and I look forward to many more get togethers with Sharon and Loraine.

For food lovers, make it a point to try the very popular Malaysian snacks Kuih Bahulu and Pineapple Piah Tau Sar Piah.😋

NOTES:
1. Klang is a city in the state of Selangor, Malaysia
2. CHOICE is a programme organized and run by the Catholic Church.
3. Port Dickson is famous as a seaside resort on the west coast of Malaysia. It is a town in the state of
Negeri Sembilan.
4. Kuih bahulu is Malay-style egg sponge cake made with simple ingredients like eggs, flour, sugar, and a
leavening agent. No oil is used.
5. Pineapple piah Tau Sar Piah’s general ingredients contains pineapple, vegetable oil, wheat flour.