JB... here we come

My other half and I were born and bred in Johor Bahru and are proud to be Johoreans. She went to the Sultan Ibrahim Girls School (SIGS) for both her primary and secondary education while I attended Sekolah Temenggong Abdul Rahman (STAR) 1 and English College. Contrary to what you might believe, we never knew each other at school and found out only while courting that our families were related. I don't know if the same is true elsewhere but from where we come, you get found out the moment an elderly asks who your parent is. You begin to acknowledge that it is a small world indeed and really there is no point in starting a fight with a stranger who cuts in front of you at a busy ATM because he might be a third cousin or a nephew of an uncle that comes from your mother's mother's second husband. I like to advise though that it is never a good idea to pick a fight with anyone. I digress.

Throughout our working life, we've never made JB our marital home. KL has been our base from the point we started earning salaries which was 15 years ago! Well, to be technically correct, it's 13 years as we got married in 1998. So, homecoming tomorrow is always a big deal because that event it's far and few in between nowadays, what's with work and the kids having to go to school. We used to be weekend parents back in the early noughties when the elder one was pampered (alt: cared for) by the folks in JB. No kidding that–Friday would see us speeding south, with minds trained on arriving before the little one slumbered and hence, missed opportunity to indulge in babytalk and Sunday, a slow, languishing drive back to workingdom. For four goddamn years. There were weekends of course we didn't get to risk our lives on the road but these were all due to business trips or unfinished businesses.

But above all, it's a big deal because such trips reunite us with my other half's mother (my father-in-law passed away in 2005) and her siblings and not to mention, the boys with their cousins and aunts and uncles and of course, grandmother.

This particular jaunt though is a little special because 2010/11 Champions League final between Barcelona and Man United is on early Sunday morning. What we plan to do is to take away some original air batu kacang (not the copycat ABC which looks and tastes like cendol and yet the perpetrator insists it's air batu kacang), rojak and perhaps sotong kangkung, all from the food court behind the Straits View Hotel (formerly Hotel Mechinta, facing Straits of Johor) and treat ourselves to a feast, while relishing the thrashing of the Red Devils by the Catalans, no prizes for those who guessed right our allegiance... I really shouldn't jinx the match but since damage has been done, just so you know, there are more Devils worshippers in our maternal home then there are the Reds or the Blues, let alone Spurs which is my club. So early Sunday morning promises to be a slot full of trash talk and friendly banter. Actually, I don't know if it's going to be friendly!

Jay Beeeee... here we come.