Jiman's aborted kenduri.

 Sat 25.5.24.

Jiman had invited me through Calit for his daughter's wedding at the hotel in Mara building in KL today. The four of us - me, Calit, Dekma and Yamtek - gathered at Calit's S 2 house at 10 am, and left more or less on the appointed time. We watched in amazement at the crazy south-bound traffic on the PLUS, and were relieved our side of the traffic was much, much better. That pleasure was short-lived. For around 10.30 Calit's NAD 9000 stalled and luckily he  pulled to the road-side just 100 m. past the Nilai R&R.

The weakened belting of the power-steering box had jumped out of its track, pulling out with it the wire connecting to the engine, thus cutting power. That seemed straight-forward enough. Fixing it was more time-consuming. Would Jiman's kenduri  be aborted ?.

Help seemed close at hand. The PLUS emergency box was just a few m. from where we stopped the car. It worked. The other side answered. But the voice was hardly audible and both sides couldn't understand one another, though the state of emergency must have been registered. 

Calit got his friend on his smartphone, and I got "PLUS hot line" on mine, and both helped. The PLUS patrol arrived in about 30 minutes as promised. Calit had got the tow-truck, but it didn't come in the time promised. The PLUS patrol conceded we'd better take up our tow-truck option. PLUS could only tow us to the nearest R&R. They arranged several cones to alert the speeding traffic of our position.

The tow-truck took more than one hour. Workshop bound, Calit sat with the driver. The 3 of us sat in the car on top of the tow-truck.  The workshop is at Nilai 7. The parts had to be collected by motorcycle from the supplier. Dekma and Yamtek were transported to a nearby restaurant to wait, and get some refreshment. Calit and I remained at the workshop.

When the repairs were done, it was about 2 pm. Jiman's kenduri definitely was out.

Calit stopped at the first Petronas station we saw. I did my zohor, while Calit refuelled. We took the Lekas Highway via Batang Benar-Pajam road, then to Seremban via Temiang, and stopped at Deen's Rojak & Cendol at S 2, near  the walkers' lake garden track.

Meanwhile I'd whatsapped to the cousins, Bok and Zainab, a few photos of our mid-morning misadventure. Both acknowledged, so Jiman should have been alerted.

I did my Asr prayers before leaving Calit's house, just as Ribena & family arrived to pick up the mother. I didn't want to be caught by the evening rain that has been the Seremban ritual these several days. I'd come on my scooter. And it was a good thing. The jam (on this Saturday, of all days !) stretched from Aeon Mall all the way to the Gateway. I simply cilok between the stalled cars and lorries, and even did 120 on the Lingkaran Tengah right to TDS.

Calit saved some money meant for Jiman's. But the towing & repairs cost him much, much more.

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The kids' first chess tournament..

 Sat 18.5.2024

Wafa:  3 wins, 4 losses.  Final position:  82 / 121.

Muadz:  4 wins, 3 losses.  Final position:  54 / 121.

Those are the final accomplishments of  both my grand-daughter, Wafa, 10, and my grand-son, Muadz, 9 in their first ever chess tournament. Both were introduced to the game by me only in February. The results are not great, but under the circumstances, not bad.  And they made up the 5-member KGV School team. Muadz became no.1, Wafa no.4.

Incidently, this was also the first chess tournament I'd ever attended.

Kip Mall, Senawang, this morning, was the venue. Certainly there were surprises aplenty.

My own introduction to the game was late in life. I was already working, at that time posted to Seremban. Ari  was also working in Seremban, and he would hang around some of his friends in their rented house in Ampangan, and one of them played chess. So I tried my hand, losing to the same guy every time we played.  He always found his way around the board, and had me trapped again and again. But I never took the trouble to read up about it, until Bobby Fischer came around to beat the Russians and won the world title. That was in the early 70's I think. Only then did I browse round a few KL bookstores and bought a couple of books on chess I still have with me somewhere. Still, it didn't strike me to learn the concept and main principles of the engrossing game. 

The Felda head office I was at also used to organize a few matches, but I never took part.

For the last couple of decades I did not touch  chess at all. I used to have a nice tournament-standard chess board with solid wooden pieces with felt bases, but that was then, and with all the transfers and moving houses, they have disappeared.

Early this year, browsing in a bookstore in  town, I came across some chess sets. I looked for a regular tournament set, but only found some plastic ones, and the tiny magnet sets. I buoght one tournament-size plastic set and one tiny magnet set. I started playing against myself. I thought it was fun. Then I went on-line on my pc and played against the computer. 

Simultaneously, I introduced chess to my 3 school-going grandchildren. Wafa and Muadz liked the game straightaway, and we would play  after school.  Muadz, one of the twins, is particularly keen, more than Wafa. The other twin brother, Miqdad,  shows little interest.

The surprises I mentioned were:

Our family, coming full strength to lend support, was the least prepared. Other families came well-stocked with food-and-drink, and parked themselves at chosen spots complete with matts and pillows. Obviously this wasn't their first time.

The contestants were provided with clocks to record the passing of the game-time. I knew this, but for my grandchildren it was a novelty, and clearly it was a distraction.

I'd warned the kids about touching the pieces when playing - to do so only when they have decided on the particular move. The big shock for them, because they were careless, was that their opponents made full use of the rule, and in one lost game each, both lost because of this "illegal move" brought to the officials' attention when they raised their hands to complain.  This means that substance is not the only requirement of a chess match. Rules and etiquette reign supreme, too, fair or not. That was a harsh teaching experience for my first-timers. Muadz took his losses in his stride.  Wafa was more emotional.

And of course, the calmness that can come from experience is vital for an intellectual game like chess. One match that Muadz was on the way to victory was lost simply because he was so eager to "Queen" his pawn, and had touched the offending piece before his opponent made his move. Of course the opponent was quick to protest, and was rewarded.

Hanif has ordered the chess clock which the household chess players will now use. Dekna has been asked to keep track of local competitions. Next time Wafa and Muadz should be better prepared.

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