I Thought It Would Be An Uneventful Day Today

The election fever gripped the whole nation for the past week and ended with a convincing PAS/PR win over UMNO/BN. Though it was just a by- election for the Parliamentary constituency of Kuala Terengganu in the laid back state of Terengganu, the concern for the outcome kept the whole nation and me glued to the internet till late evening of the 17th January 2009 to know the result. Read al the SOPO blogs to feel the mood.

Since today is already the second day after the election day and I have fulfilled my promise to write a short article about the Tomoi Scene In Kelantan for the soon to be published BoxxTomoi magazine's maiden issue, I felt relaxed and wasn't in a hurry to do anything. I didn't even bother to switch on my phone. Afterall who is there who would call me? If they are close relatives or friends they can always get me on the housephone.

It was quite a surprise as immediately after switching on the phone a call from Sherry of Kuantan came in. A call from Sherry can only mean something to do with Mat Cendana. It is always that way with Mat Cendana lately, everything must be routed through Sherry in Kuantan. I wonder why he cannot deal directly with me. Then I remembered that I had just switched on my phone. So how could he reach me? Maybe he had tried.

Sherry's call came in at 10:37 AM asking me to meet Mat at the Pasir Mas' Syariah court to bail out Mat Cendana or something which she herself wasn't clear about. Later I saw Mat Cendana's SMS at 9:38 AM. The SMS read (dengan izin) ,

"I'll be sent to prison if you don't come to jamin me. No need money...just to sign."

Poor bloke. He must have been desperately trying to get me for the past one hour. In desperation he must have called Sherry to try and reach me somehow.

After a quick bath I put on my clothes. Initially I wanted to put on my sloppy dress. Realising that I was going to the Shariah Court I had to change my mind so I dressed up in my Baju Melayu with a black pant. A skull cap would give me a more respectable look I thought.

Sherry did mention something like RM1000.00 was required and she asked for my account number to remit the money. My call to Mat confirmed that the money will only be necessary if he failed to come back to court on the coming hearing on the 11th of February 2009. This time the court had to impose this bail because Mat had not made his presence at the first hearing sometime ago. I know he didn't go as he went to Kota Bharu instead. It was quite foolish of him as it will give the judge a bad impression of him and can be charged for being in contempt of court. Anyway he must have his reasons.

When I reached the Syariah court I was surprised to see a well dressed Mat Cendana wearing a white long sleeved shirt with a shiny songkok a size bigger than his head. He looked rather smart. I was surprised too as he was not being handcuffed. I had wanted to bring a coat along as it seems to be the fashion when you are handcuffed, a coat is used to cover the cuff. Or fashionable still to have the face covered like those in the Altantuya murder case.

One of them asked me about my relationship with Mat to which I gave a single word answer of 'kawan' and they didn't pursue the matter further.

Back to Mat's case I was told by the female court clerk to produce my identity card. I asked whether I have to pay the RM1000.00 cash to which she initially said yes. I told them I had to go to the bank to get the cash as I didn't bring much cash with me and I was in a hurry to stop at the bank earlier. After consulting her other colleagues she decided that there was no need for the cash there and then. Cash will only be needed if Mat were not present on the coming hearing on the 11th of February 2009. OK fine I thought.

I really looked foolish when I can't locate my identity card in my wallet. All the other cards such as credit cards of which I have several and loyalty cards for Bonuslink, Tesco, Mesra and what have you (loyalty my foot hehehe) but my identity card was nowhere to be found!. Flipping my wallet over several times failed to get an identity card. My hands was shaking from the failure to produce it and the lady clerk told me to take it easy and be calm. To her eyes she must be thinking that I was another drug addict who was craving for a dose to keep me calm. Well for a hypertension fellow like me, a situation of high excitement will always result in such shaky hand condition with my heart beating in hyperactive mode. Then I remembered that I had scanned my IC to email it to my daughter in Labuan for something she needed. I must have left it there in the scanner. I asked for time to go back and get it. Then the lady clerk said my driving licence would be enough in lieu of my IC. Smart girl.

After both of us had signed the letter of guaranttee, Mat was allowed out. We went for a small makan. I wasn't hungry but I guessed Mat could do with one so that he doesn't have to have lunch again after that. After the meal Sherry SMS me to thank me for the help to which I shot back: "What friends are for?" to which she replied "To help and 'basuh' @kutuk2 as well..ha ha." She seemed to be in a happy mood even though she wasn't feeling well.

We drove to my home. I had wanted to let Mat knows where I live as when he needed me, he knows where to come and look for me later.

At my home I switched on my wifi and asked him to try the wifi with my notebook. He was ecstatic at the speed of the broadband and was almost on the verge of orgasm when he downloaded my website even though it was full of pictures.

"I am so used to driving a Kancil and now I am driving a BMW" he modestly quipped.

"Next time you just take a bus and come over here to enjoy streamyx at a higher speed". I offered him an advice.

I had to send him back to town to enable him to look for something he wanted and take the bus home. While in town he told me that now there was free wifi at Bangunan Serakai Mas provided by the Majlis Daerah Pasir Mas (MDPM). The wifi will be provided free for a period of 3 months ending at the end of March after which a fee of RM30.00 per month will be charged. This is something to blog about.

From Adi Cafe this small notice can be see.

Amother notice on the other side of the building

While moving around the building I saw a technician servicing a printer. I asked him if he could service a Lexmark printer to which he said yes. This is something good as my printer had not been able to print for sometime after the first ink had dried out and no amout of ink refilled could bring it back to satisfactory printing situation. Leaving Mat there I went home to get my two printers the other one being the Jurassic Epson Stylus C20SX which the boy said he could try servicing too. I brought along my camera and laptop to test the wifi provided by MDPM. My initial try at Adi Cafe was unsuccessful as my notebook failed to detect the wifi from MDPM. Moving to the center of the building my notebook detected the Kel PMnet with two bars of strength with the speed of 11kbps. High enough speed to download my blogsite.

A call to MDPM confirmed that it was on free trial for 3 months and I came to know that they were available at several other spots beside Bangunan Serakai Mas, there is the Dewan Majlis Daerah, Plaza MARA, Sekolah Menengah Sultan Ibrahim 1, Sekolah Rendah Abdul Rahman Talib and at another location in Lemal of which he wasn't sure exactly where.

Just to check I went to Dewan Majlis Daerah to test the speed there and I got the same reading.

I had a nice surprise as there was a function going on over there. The hall was full of people and outside of the hall, long tables were laid with food for lunch for those attending the event. Hey there was no publicicity about it and I didn't know about the event. Otherwise I would have made an attempt to cover it.

With my camera I took some shots of the event. Everone was smiling at my camera thinking that I was from the media. 'Sinaran' was the one being mentioned by a few of them which I managed to overhear. I just kept mum and not reveal that I wasn't from any media but just a blogger.

From the back drop, this was the infomation I could glean:

PROGRAM CAKNA KESIHATAN DAN KEBAJIKAN BAGI WARGA EMAS, OKU DAN ORANG MISKIN JAJAHAN PASIR MAS.

The event was officiated by the Director of the State Welfare Department.

Some of the VIPs.

I was in time to witness the handing over of a mock check for RM20,000 to a village committee.

These were some of those who attended.

Well those were the events of the day. I will make sure that Mat Cendana attend the coming hearing on the 11th of February otherwise otherwise either me or Sherry will have to fork out RM1,000 for the failure. Mat Cendana, dead or alive I will get you there hehehehee.

Read Mat Cendana's side of the story here.