After meeting my cousin, Ati at my late aunt’s house on Sunday , we went to have cake and tea ( that sounds very English, dosen’t it ! ) with Derek Hewitt, my father ‘s old English friend who is residing in Johore Bahru. He told me he will be 94 years old in 2 weeks time but he was pretty lucid ( thank gawd ! ) and regaled us with old nostalgic stories of the past and his interactions with my father’s family . We send back my uncle ( who wanted to rest in the hotel ) and drove to Derek’s house in Jalan Serai which is at Stulang Laut , an older part of Johore Bahru. The road leading to his house faces the sea or Selat Trebau so you can see Singapore when you drive into his house . This is where the Lido Beach is and has many Chinese seafood restaurants at the seafront. It is rather pictureseque .

He is like a character from Someset Maugham’s novels as he knew Hussain ( my father’s late younger brother ) first and was introduced to Hussain in Singapore . Though for the life of him , he cannot remember who introduced him in Singapore. Subsequently , Hussain who studied civil engineering then in Brighton would go to his parents house in Hastings , which is only about 40 miles from Brighton. He knew my father from 1956 ( can you imagine that and that was before I was even born !) and knew my aunt ( who is the youngest and in the photo above) when she was a teenager . It seems they went dancing in those days , ha ha ha . He remembers this and remembers Kassim ( my father is Kassim and he says Kassim with a very English accent ) and Kassim’s other sisters too and that my grandfather was a Imam in the Religious Department of the state of Johor and was an important person for officiating religious ceremonies in the Palace of the Sultan of Johor . His mind is still sharp but now walks with a stick , but he is looking pretty good for a 94 year old !

He told me he will be forever grateful to Kassim and Hussain for being his sponsors so that he is able to obtain his PR in Malaysia . He will not ever go back to England because he has nobody there . He has never married and his only sister ( who used to live in Margate ) , she was deaf, had died a decade ago and he had sold his parent’s house in Hastings when she died as she had lived in his parents house .

He gave a personal inscription on the cover of his book and of course gave a complimentary copy of his book to my aunt and myself. It took him so long to get the book printed because of the ding-dongs with the typesetters in Singapore over a period of time but now he wants the book to be published if he can .

We went into his house and into his neat study ( unlike my dad’s study which is like a bomb has hit it !) and I saw he has The Economist and Country Life magazine ( very uppity , horsey, aristocratic, kinda magazine which I teased him about but he says he is not like that , he gets those subscribed from England) because he used to play horse polo and exercises the Sultan horses ( the late Sultan Ismail horses , Sultan Ismail is the father of the present Sultan of Johor, they have stables and played horse polo ) and thats how he landed up in Johore Bahru. Indeed , he has a interesting life story .

Subsequently , the kebun ( his kebun of 28 acres of palm oil) was acquired by Petronas Gas. He got compensated a pretty packet from it so he is considerably wealthy, I should think . This is my dad’s opinion ( which I do agree) but my dad’s says he is “kedekut” ( Stingy in Malay) and thats why he never married ! This is like the pot calling the kettle black !! ( my dad is also terribly frugal and careful with money too ! ha ha ha ).

Now, he is able to employ a man to drive him once a week to Singapore to the bank in Singapore and to his flat in Singapore . He has a young girl to clean it for 3 hours and then off he goes to the Tanglin Club to have his lunch . Its not too bad a life , I think as its like a once a week outing for him but one need’s money to be able to do this sort of thing! Tanglin Club is prestigious and high-nosed but he told me when he became a member , it wasnt ! He is also a member of Oriental Club ( a gentleman’s club in London ) which whenever he flies into London , he spends a night at . He wrote to them that he wants to resign , as he will never go back to the UK but they told him , they will not accept his resignation as the Club has made him a honorary member ! We were with him from 4 pm and stayed with him till 7.30 pm because he was talking so much !

My aunt can also be pretty hilarious at times because when I drove back from Derek’s house in the car, she told me “Ora, Derek seems to enjoy your company. But he is too old so you cannot marry him !!!” . She can be disarmingly frank which can be disconcerting and hilarious at the same time.

I hope he is still alive whenever I go next to Johore Bahru because eventhough he is 94 , the mind is still sharp . He asked my opinion about AI ( Artificial Intelligience ) and this is from a man who does not embrace technology ( has no email or the Internet ) but is aware of technology because he reads . I rather like him ! and I like his Stulang Laut house too , ha ha ha .

Will blog next on my cousin Ati which I visited in Johore Bahru but that is another story , sigh . I need to write final exam questions now , sigh sigh .