Last week I wasn't sure if Zalfan's wedding reception for his son would go on because of that horrific landslide, but I met Mohd. Nor Ibrahim, my brother-in-law, who also received an invitation from Zalfan, and he said Zalfan's house is one-and-a-half km away and isn't affected.
So to-day at around 12 noon my wife and I were among the early birds. Which was a good thing,because the big crowd hasn't arrived and there was ample parking quite near to the house. In fact when we left the cars were already coming in droves, and like all Malaysians, they began to park haphazardly with no consideration for other road users. I was lucky to have managed to squeak out in time, before Jalan 1/1 was completely blocked.
Md. Nor Zakaria called Zalfan "Taufan" in those days because of the conflict of contractual matters between the field staff, of which Md. Nor belonged, and the Contract Department in HQ, of which Zalfan belonged. Fortunately, I never had such direct dealing with "Taufan."
Naturally many of the guests that I saw were Felda guys, the past ones that I recognized. The present ones I didn't.
I sat with Azizan and Husain Menggong. Azzizan I know from his Data Processing days, Husain only after my retirement because of the ex-Felda golf. Datuk Alladin came just as I was leaving. He said he was just talking to someone about me. I said "in good or bad light?" He replied, quick as ever, "of course bad !"
Mohd. Nor Ibrahim came with my sister Noraini and we just said hello and goodbye. And there was also Hamdan who took over from me at Felda Transport, who looked much thinner since I saw him last. JJ (Jalalludin Jaafar) asked about my brother, Fadzil, and I said he's either scuba diving in Sabah, or riding one of his two superbikes - a case of second childhood.
Indeed Zalfan's house is very far from the disaster area. Even the approach road we took to-day is way away from the other access road leading to the hillslope development. But my wife was struck, as she often is in such matters, by Zalfan's reply to our query "Alhamdulillah, berkat doa kawan-kawan, selamat !" "What a thoughtful answer" said my wife.
This was the first time I came to this part of Bukit Antarabangsa, because I came once many,many years ago for Ramli Ibrahim's kenduri but this was the other side of this huge development area. One of my nieces also used to stay in one of the apartments that we passed by just now, but she has moved to Melaka. Maybe it was a cloudy day to-day (in fact it rained on the way) but I thought this area where Zalfan is seemed cool and quiet.
If not for the fact that it was a wedding reception I would have liked to linger a while, but as is common nowadays the buffet-style eating means that guests are supposed to vacate their seats as soon as they have eaten, although I probably received special treatment and was seated in the served section. Anyway, we had to go to Shah Alam, so we took our leave, and as I said earlier, we managed to get out before our car got blocked in.
Incidently, I told Azizan this was a Mendailing wedding. Zalfan is Mendailing.
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