New number, lost phone and Annual Dinner...

I was in front of my home PC on Saturday morning trying to update the Buddies’ monthly accounts (I’m the treasurer) when I heard the SMS tone on my phone. Had a look, and the message read, “Kak, ini nombor baru saya.”

Huh? It’s someone’s new phone number, and I was supposed to automatically know whose number it was? HELLO???!!

I knew it couldn’t be any of my friends or relatives – the sentence simply didn’t sound like it came from any of them. It had to be one of my PLWHA clients… but which one? Fuzi? Maria? Hana? Yah? Jah? Shila? Ifa? Nuri? Ani? Mrs. K? It could have been any one of them!

So I sent a short reply to the message – “Siapa ni?”

A few minutes later, a call came in from that same number. No James Bond ring tone as the number had not been registered in my hand phone yet.

“Saya lah kak!” was what the caller said when I answered the call. Again no names mentioned, but the moment I heard her voice, I knew it was Yah. The tone in which she said “Saya lah kak” was like implying that… takkan itu pun tak tahu! When I asked her how I was supposed to know who sent the SMS without her mentioning her name, she just kept quiet. Maybe she thought she was the only person in the world who had ever sent me any SMS. Duh!

We didn’t talk much as Yah said she was on her way somewhere to attend a kenduri. So I don’t really know why she changed her phone number. I hope it was because she was trying to forget Mr. Darling and she was making sure Mr. Darling would not be able to contact her when and if she succeeds in forgetting him. (well, I can always hope!)

About half an hour later, another call came in on my hand phone. It was from a fixed line somewhere up north. To my surprise, I heard the same voice on the phone. It was Yah again. This time she was asking me for HER new number. HUH??! Biar betul perempuan ni…

Apparently when she called me earlier, she was in a taxi. She then LEFT her hand phone in the taxi (Still thinking of Mr. Darling maybe?). Since it was a new number which she had yet to remember, she asked me for the number. I guess I was the only person which she had given the number to. Yah was actually hoping to call that number, get the taxi driver to answer the call and eventually return the phone to her.

Frankly, I don’t know if Yah managed to get her phone back. I’ll just have to wait until her next call.

Anyway, Buddies had our Annual Dinner on Saturday night. Oh, nothing fancy. Just a simple dinner at a halal Chinese restaurant in Ipoh. There are not many of us anyway, so we just booked two tables. We always love any excuses to gather and makan-makan, so the year-end annual dinner is one of the items in our must-do list.

Nothing formal… everyone came just as casual as ever, had some good food and made lots of noise. I forgot to take any photos when the food was served, so the only photos available here are the ones before anything was served, half way through dinner and after the food was finished by the hungry piranhas at the next table. (My tablemates did not eat so much – so we sent over the leftovers at our table to the next table where all the big eaters were!)

Posing before dinner was served.
The food... halfway thru dinner.

They may not look like big eaters, but these are the piranhas!

Burp!!

Oh, if you're trying to look for me in any of the pics, well, I was BEHIND the camera...

Anyway, the annual dinner was our last fellowship activity for the year. As for my own activity for this year, there is something I have yet to do… I haven’t gone shopping for the children’s schooling needs yet. HEYELP!!!