The kolo mee lover who can't skate

With the test result now a thing in the past, I couldn’t help but feel relief that everything is finally over. The shadows of fear and worry which had pervaded my holiday mood had finally been exorcised. Now, it’s time to fully focus on my second semester studies. But before that, there’s still one more week of holiday to enjoy....

My uncle who is working in kl for a while had decided to drop by and visited us a few days ago. He brought us a whole pile of mails that had accumulated in the mailbox in my previous Sarawak home. My pile consisted of:

A brochure of UPM (but I’m happy staying in UTP ^_^ )

A windfall of Reader’s Digest magazines (issues from previous months)

We ate out almost every night, and two days ago we had our dinner in a hypermarket’s food court. There are many stalls each offering plentiful of choices, but one really my attention:

Sarawak kolo mee

I never expected to see this! I had thought ‘kolo mee’ is not a familiar term in Semenanjung but here it was right before eyes! On top of that, the word ‘Sarawak’ clearly echoed my beloved hometown and added to the resonance. I missed those nights when my parents would always ‘da pau’ some kolo mee for super supper after my usual night tuition classes.

The price was not cheap, which I’m not surprised. But I was slightly downcast when the food came. The meagre clump of kolo mee was so little that I can finish it with 3 or 4 slurps. Yup, this is another proof of inflation and food crisis, or perhaps just a good business tactic. Since hawkers and other food outlets don’t have the power to simply raise the price of food, they will resort to reducing the food served on each plate while maintaining the price.

Anyway, I soon realised that was the least of my problem. The kolo mee was a complete far cry from the kolo mee in Sarawak! It was strangely sour and tasted terrible which made me wonder whether they had accidentally squeezed lime juice into my food or it was just a case of bad improvisation from the original kolo mee. I asked my sister who ordered the same food, and she too agreed the kolo mee tasted weird and completely different from Sarawak.

Obviously, the true Sarawak kolo mee doesn’t taste like this! The cook must have not been to Sarawak before. Sure, I had not tasted my hometown’s kolo mee for quite a long time, but as a self-proclaimed connoisseur of kolo mee, my taste buds for kolo mee will never go bad. Not only that, the stall had inconsiderately bestowed the name ‘Sarawak’ on their failed product!! I had half a mind to scrap off the ‘Sarawak’ word on that food sign.

Nevertheless, despite the horrible gastronomic experience, it doesn’t mean I will stop eating kolo mee while I’m here. After all, I’m only speaking in term of ONE hawker stall. I’m sure there’s lot of other stalls in Semenanjung serving the perfect kolo mee that satisfies everyone’s taste buds. It is quite impossible for anyone to ever hate Sarawak’s kolo mee. If they do, they just have not found the right kolo mee stall yet.

Ice-skating VS roller-skating

The next day, we went to Sunway Pyramid. I tried something new there: Ice-skating.

After watching those ice skaters that seem to glide effortlessly and gracefully on the ice, my sister was tempted to try it out. I joined her too.

Hey, I had tried roller skating before, how hard can ice-skating be? With my father’s permission and some $$, my sister, my younger brother and I were ready to go on the ice.

I soon found my answer to my question the HARD WAY! How hard can ice-skating be? It was harder than I could ever imagine and it makes roller-skating look just like a wonderful stroll in the park.

First of all, imagine walking on two metal pieces as thin as a blade. That’s how ice-skating in. After putting on those shoes, I can never take each step without twisting my foot. It was painful! By the moment I reached the skating ring, my feet were already sore. Then, I carefully took my first step into the skating ring.

Welcome to the world of no friction. Each step I took forward makes me slide backward. So after a few steps I was still stuck on the same spot. Remembering that I was supposed to glide, not walk, I stood with both feet on the ice. Then lifting my left foot slightly, I pushed against the ground and propel my right foot forward. It worked! But my joy was short-lived. I twisted my right foot, lost my balance and fell down. My hand met the sheer cold icy surface that stung like tiny needles. (Those needles probably won’t be ‘tiny’ if I’m not wearing glove) Not only that, a huge patch of my clothes that soaked up the melted ice had become wet.

Then a guy supervising the ring said the size of my shoes was too large. So after changing into a pair of more fitting shoes, I was able to skate more smoothly with less foot-twisting. Although I can’t glide perfectly across the ring like a pro, I still managed to glide within some jerky short distances. At the end of the day, I’m so glad to be able to walk on rough solid ground again with my real feet. Walking on a pair of cutting-knives is certainly a no-no for me. We returned home after that, my ankles completely sore, but no doubt satisfied with the experience.