Swamp

Swamp
Atchafalaya Swamp

Friday, July 27, 2007

Tagged for Malaysia's 50th Independence

Last night, while I laid my tired and battered body down in my bunk I heard the familiar beep from my Nokia. It was an SMS from Kak Ena (of 1450 Sudin Avenue) . What a nice surprise . . . I'm on a swamp barge you see, but never too far away from a Telkomsel base station so I'm able to send and receive SMS's. I had not cleaned my teeth yet, so it was a good excuse to indulge the remaining few sticks of my Made-In-Malaysia Dunhill gaspers (Duty Free, of course). Whether in the hot and arid bushes of Sudan, or the freezing winters of Niigata on the north coast of Honshu - I will ONLY smoke Made-In-Malaysia Dunhills. That goes to show what a patriotic Malaysian I am. I quickly headed out to the bow of the ship.

Her message simply said, 'Brother, I hv tagged u. Cheers'

'Hmmm,' I thought at the time, 'We'll I'll just have to wait and see what this all about tomorrow...'

My work PC with the satellite link sits in my work container outside of the accomodation area. Since it was also raining I'm not about to put on my workclothes, boots and hard-hat just to get to my "office". Besides, the cloud cover usually severs my satellite link anyway ... so I went inside to lay my body down again. . .

Ohmigosh, so now I discovered that she saw fit to nominate me as post #4. Thank you, Kak Ena, although I had sms'd back to say that I don't think I'm deserving of such accolades. But whom am I to argue, eh? Especially with Kak Ena?


So that's how my most recent post , becomes part of a "Dedication" to our nation’s 50th Merdeka.

Yo Galadriel , so I'm tagging you, Sis. So, you're #3. Now go and choose your victim carefully, 'o Merdeka girl!

Happy Brithday, Merdeka Girl Galadriel . . . Happy 50th Birthday, Malaysia!

17 comments:

Daphne Ling said...

Hi Mat Salo,
Happy Merdeka to you too!
Not bad...I posted on Friday that I was going to add you to my blogroll, and I managed to do it in over a day!
Hehe...To know what I am merepek-ing about, kindly read my previous comment in 'Your Own Special Way'...
Cheerio!

J.T. said...

My honourable Mat Salo,

Referring to your last posting, which is also your Poetic Justice project, I think "those bad boys" deserve the bogeyman. "Spanking" those bad boys would do not good. In fact, they may even enjoy it! :D

The bogeyman gives them nightmares. Nightmares make them nervous. Nervosity leads to making more mistakes, which leads to awareness among voters. In the end, as you said, the politicians fear the voters. So our momok makes a difference.

Mat Salo said...

Aiyaah Daphne..

Even the pretty check-out girl at the mini-market call me "PakCik" *so malu one* makes me feel old .. ;) I know, I know.. I AM old...

So please don't call me uncle, call me "Abang Mat" Ha-ha.

Anyway, I think you're doing a great job there. Happy Merdeka!

JT,

That's exactly the conclusion that I want readers to make.. Thanks!

The momok DOES make a difference!

Yes, let the momok roam free and give these bad boy nightmares!

I think there's still hope for our and our beloved country, JT. Happy Merdeka (err, how you celebrate in Rhineland? Ada ramai Malaysian's kat sana ke?)

Pi Bani said...

Typical smoker... nak show patriotism pun guna cigarette... tsk, tsk, tsk... ;)

So where will you be on Malaysia's 50th birthday?

Mat Salo said...

Ayoo Pi.. dah kena kutuk! Heh :) But being a "typical" smoker, I've not only hardened arteries but thick skinnes as well...

I'm afraid to say that I'll probably in the swamps here. But I do plan to ciluk before that (masa school hols), I can't bear to be away from my family too long..

J.T. said...

MS,

Happy Merdeka to you too. I believe too that there is still hope for Malaysia.

Since leaving Malaysia, I haven't celebrated any Merdeka except for the times when my trip back home coincided with our independence day.

There are many Malaysians living in Deutschland but they are far away from where I live. I am not able to join any Malaysian clubs because of the distance.
If I could then I believe I won't miss Malaysian food so much. haha

ZABS said...

Salam MS: Teringat dulu semasa belajar kat Wales tahun 1995/96, semasa Hari Merdeka, kami yang ada lebih kurang 30 orang dari 13 keluaraga, siap buat sambutan Merdeka siap ada sukannika lagi. Balik kat sini semangat hilang gitu je.

tokasid said...

Salam bro MS:

I just knew you would 'cilok' for the school hols ni. And it will be more than 4 dalils (like before.).

Bro , ppl say do as the local do. Abis, ngapa ngak ngisapin saja gudeng garem dong pak? Amat enak skali lho.
Lagi bagus jika yang kotak merah lembut tanpa filter dong!

jaflam said...

MS, I envy you commitment, near my rootsland in the swamp and still doing nation building and creating social responsibility among voters. You have done well and keep up the good work of writing reminders to the cyber community. I believed no effort is too small to ensure Malaysia be the trueland for our future generations.

I am in Kuching until Wednesday but unfortunately could not hop over to Balikpapan to pay you a visit.

Maybe one of the days I will pay homage to my rootsland Banjarmasin - when it happen I will need a bit of your guide. For your info I am from Mersing, Johor but now settled down in Klang Vally. You remind me of my early days of inspecting and auditing the drilling rigs, but we just stayed a couple days onboard instead of weeks like you. Take care brother.

gram.kong said...

Hi, Mat Salo,
Drop by just to see how your're doing.Hope there are not too many mozzies where you are.

I remember about 20 years ago I was in Niigata in the middle of winter and it was horrifying, I left my coat on the train when I disembarked and only realised it after having left the station.

gram.kong said...

Mat Salo,
Thanks for dropping by my place.I have responded to your comment.You may want to read it.See you.

IBU said...

mat, merokok tu membahayakan kesihatan. budak koleq tak merokok tak sah. tapi dah dok jauh merantau tu, puffing out only from the scrolled msian tobacco doesn't sound so bad after all.

i've linked your blog to mine, permissi ya?

Cheers!

p/s Address Kak Ena tu silap nombor daaa....

shar101 said...

Guess what, MS?

The MRT session yesterday had a discussion on this 'tagging' thingy and it was surmised that you guyz were waaaay too fast in posting.

With another 30 days to go, there are only two bloggers left aaaannnnd...they decided to slow it down. Hahahaha!

Next post is on 15/08/07, I think.

And somebody suggested that EVERYBODY do a posting on M-Day itself.

Btw there'll be an All-Blog's gathering of sorts on 25/08/07 though details are sketchy. Will keep you updated just in case you want to 'ciluk' around the same time.

Cheers, bro.

tony -stand-up philosopher said...

Hello Bro Mat,
Drop by to catch up on what I've missed thus far. I admire you for where you are right now. As for me, I'll go where the music takes me... Happy Merdeka Day and hope to catch you at NPC.

zorro said...

Swamp Man....you have been away too long....give the mossies a break will ya.

A Voice said...

Aren't you supposed to write something for the tag

zewt said...

so looong... i got lost half way.

but yeah... there is much fear in the blogosphere at the moment.