Festivity, Beer And Fuel

It has been one hell of a week for me.

I was over at the longhouse for the festive thing and it was all good considering I missed two years of the same. I was informed a month beforehand that it would not be as fun due to the passing of two elderly folks early this year and as tradition would dictate, the festivity would be drastically minimised or 'scaled down' as one brother aptly put it.

After 6 hours of driving, I arrived at the longhouse late that Saturday evening and was greeted at the main door by a small crowd. A small quiet crowd. The un-festive atmosphere was obvious and missing were the shouting and yelling and loud blaring Iban songs synonymous during such a season.

I was also informed that a few drinking suspects were not expected to make it back home this time around. One or two had married and were at their spouse longhouses while another is now doing time for robbery or something. That Aji, who happens to be one of my favourite drinking partner, is now rendered invalid due to an accident late last year. He broke his neck in an illegal racing incident. But that didn't dampen my spirit a bit because it was just good to be there. And in true Iban spirit, I was immediately served with tuak. And just like that, the liver damaging activity commenced. I was not even allowed to take a quick shower.

I can't remember much now except Bear Beer is still the longhouse favourite. Most of the men here works on oil rigs around the world so it is the norm for these folks to bring back with them an assortment of beer and liquor not commonly found back home. Brands like Pig Eyes, Castle Lager, Kingfisher and other good shit. One of the boys proudly showed me his addition to the varieties of beer that was being served and so enter Huda Beer from Vietnam. I thought it was a little bit raw and harsh on my taste buds but in all honesty, I really can't remember how any of the beer tasted but that one from France was really nice. It was the closest to Tiger Beer I could get my hands on. Pelfroth or something like that, I think. But all was good except I had the worse case of constipation the whole time I was there.

And then the news of the fuel price hike came and the mad rush to the gas station the other night. Just so you know, I got my share of text messages and phone calls from concern friends to tell me to fill up but because I'm above this kind of stupidity, I naturally refused to conform and continued watching porn. It was Japanese night so fuck that.

I'm not so cheesed off with the increase because stupid as I maybe, I knew this was inevitable. But didn't the fucking idiots up there in the big office told us before March that there won't be any price hike this year? Okay, so they fucking lied. They're politician and all politician lies. Fine. But what bugs me the most is when they tell me to change my fucking lifestyle. Like, hell I am. Why don't they fucking change their lifestyle first before telling me to? Fucking idiots!

And then I lost my phone. For three days. Misplaced it in a drinking establishment last Thursday night. The good bar lady boss found it yesterday evening and somehow got a friend to call another friend who tried calling me for the past three days but failed, who then remembered I was the only one in the group who uses a Motorola and then immediatley got hold of me. Suffice to say that Thursday night drinking do was pretty heavy.

And now for some random longhouse photos I took.

The unusually quiet longhouse ruai

Getting ready for some serious drinking on the eve.

The aftermath at 4:30am