To Terengganu and back

Arrived this morning from Kuala Trengganu after a chilling bus ride at least phhysically that is, the bus driver must have thought that he was bussing a load from Chicago. Everyone on the bus was crawled up onto the seats bured into the cushions or wrpped in two or three layers of cloathings. My cousin QAhmad Kalam picked me up from the Sungai Nibong bus terminal together with the Ary materials that i had gone to fetch from KTr. I got my roll of canvas and left over tubes of paints. Also found my stack of cheeburger buddha cartoons done over the years and brought them along.
In KTr. things has not stirred much from where or when they were left the last time I was there and my friends are still dealing with the same problems that they had been dealing with since i last talked to them. I spent a nught at Awi's Yellow House on the river in Pulau Duyong and it breought back memories of days gone by. Awi was till his old self selling and buying boats that are not exactly his just as he would buy and sell names, like name a guy and chances are Awi have met him or had some form of dealiongs with him before. Mr.Yes or Anthony is drunk as he has always been running around the place in his underwaer and raving about how dare his mother died on him at such a young age of seventy eight, Life's Bitch he kept telling me and then you die! Have I heard that saying before? That was his mother's saying and I kept playing along with his ravings as I neede a place to sleep the night.
Over the past few years that I have spent my time at the Yellow House I have met all kinds of travellers, some very intresting and knowlegeable while others were simply looking for a cheap and quaint place to stay. Most of the guests to the Yellow House were Europeans and some from Australi, there were a few regular Japamese travellers too who frequent the chalets. Most were seasoned travellers and they have been there before and some have stayed for weeks or months at times, its like a retreat for the international gypsies and universal hobos. Most camr here for the rustic setting and the cheap and laid back life that they can enjoy after their globtrotting or their hectic stint in the big cities and Awi's reputation as an accomodating and discreet host, respected or more or less feared by the locls who steers clear of the yellow House thus giving the residents the feeling a safe and comfort tot be there.
I drove to Batu Enam to visit my friend Azhar the Mechanic and learned that he had lost his boy Mizi to an unknown illness. His mechanic shop sits inside the Kampung away from the main raod and ot was surrounded by broken down vehicles looking like a graveyard of steel and oil. The same guys were crawled underneath the cars with the same greasy pants and elbow grease and Azhar was busy running from spare part to another picking and choosing from among the piles of jig saw puzzles pices of parts that he can use to fix his four wheeled patients with. He is a master creftsman no doubt, a man who knows the ailments of his engines just from listening to their sound or the smell of the exhaust fumes,
I met Azhar through my friend Fadzli, the computer negineer whom I had been working with to set up mu wb site since 2002 and has till now has not accomplished the task for one reason or another. The present web site that is has been set up by my friend David Carlso in LA is a continuation of Fadzli;s efforts which some how never got to completion. I have never really confronted him on the why and why nots simply because i feel that it is up to him to come to realization over the fact of the matter. I always kept telling him that my policy has always been that we should try to carry a project to as far as we could and see what then and thus where we are at now is how far Fadzli and i could accomplish despite all excusses. An un completed task is as good as a task not began and any who fails to see this lives an incomplete life present writer included. I sat with fadzli at his office loading images on to the discs for the web page that David had created with the hope that David can work with them. Well see how far it will take us this time and what each and everyone of us has in mind with regard to this ongoing unfinished project of ours.Who knows one day it will all come together and the pieces will fall into place and i would have decent website whereby I can share my works with the future generatios. A website created by two of my friends from East and West both computer whizzs. In the meantime I have to find myself a place to set up my painting studio so that I can start burning up the midnight oil creating for my upcoming show.