My Tok and Tok Wan

This photo was taken sometime in 1980, when Tok and Tok Wan were the same age as Mommy and Daddy now. Gosh! (Now, I think Mommy needs to go and start her own blog! She is encroaching into mine!!) Mommy says, Tok and Tok Wan are very funny people. I think they just received those headgears as presents and decided to take pictures wearing whatever it is to look ridiculous.

Their lives were filled with so much love and laughter. Mommy never remembers Tok and Tok Wan being at loggerheads with each other. If it did (which it did, according to Tok), it happened behind closed doors and the children (all four of them) never got to sniff anything.

Tok Wan was a person who loved life. Tok loves her books. Tok Wan loves the sea, Tok would bring her books along. Tok Wan loves to go out to sea in his motor boat, Tok would bring her books along (but I don't think she actually read them!!). Talking about the boat, Tok Wan had it painted bright chrome yellow and fixed it on the roof of the car for their PD trips. He also had one when he was posted to NZ. It was silver in colour.

His love for the sea almost took his life in 1981. Tok Wan had to visit some refugees on some remote island in I'sia. The rest of the family and office staff were enjoying themselves in some resort in the mountains. In the midst of calmness and serenity of the place, they heard Pak Yahya's car horn. Out came Tok Wan from the car, his face ,pale, his forehead had a small white plaster. His spectacles, different.

Apparently, the boat they were on had capsized. There were more than ten people on it, most of them top officials in the military and ONLY ONE life jacket!! Everybody struggled to keep afloat by holding on to the edge of the overturned boat... in the middle of the South China Sea ..... at midnight ...for a good 6 hours before they were saved by an oil tanker/ship which had to take a 30 minute u-turn before it could reach them. If Mommy was not mistaken, the crew were attracted to the light which Tok Wan flashed from his Alba watch (lights? from a watch? don't think they have that anymore). They were treated , on the ship, for their injuries and then brought to Singapore, where Tok Wan bought a new pair of spectacles and clothes (they were only cladded in their underwear when they were found).Then, they were flown back to Indonesia in a propeller plane, where much to Tok Wan's horror, did not have life jackets under their seat!!! Luckily, he arrived safely...

Tok and Tok Wan also loved entertaining. They used to have superb parties. Not the usual buffet parties that we have nowadays. They used to hold steamboat parties where Tok Wan would set up so many tables with so many steamboat sets, at home. There were also ones where there would be many 'stalls' that served different kind of food. Tok Wan has an ice kacang machine (the traditional ice grinder - yup, the green one that Mamak's use). There would be kambing golek and a lot of food I wouldn't know how to pronounce. Food was almost never catered. If it meant entertaining 100-200 people, then Tok would 'kerah' the other mommies to help out. Things like preparing thousand sticks of satay would be a norm. Tok's friends would remember "fondly" of those golden days. The parties would always end with a singing session ... many patriotic songs would be sung then ... "bonda senyum riang " .. and the likes .... There was also a time where they used to hold weekly dancing lessons at home .... chacha, rhumba, waltz, foxtrot .. and Mommy would be dancing with Pak Ngah or Tok Wan.

Most of the time, Tok and Tok Wan would include Mommy, Pak Ngah, Pak Lang and Achoo in whatever they do .... Mommy doesn't remember experiencing a dull moment in her childhood. Wait until I tell you about Mommy's expedition to climb Mt. Sibayak .. she actually managed to reach the summit at the age of 10 yo, wearing a skirt and blouse, leaving her family who was lagging behind!! Aha .... tunggu ......

Mommy says Tok and Tok Wan had lots of adventures together. She will share all her memories with me because she would like me to remember Tok Wan as she did. Even Achoo did not have many memories of Tok Wan as he passed away when she was 6 years old. Mommy was 14 then .........