Of PRP (Part 1)

Fatima around 6 months old...when mama was still a housewife.

Alhamdulillah thumma alhamdulillah

that one-year-I'll-never-want-to-repeat of being provisionally registered pharmacist has finally ended (which means a start of something new but hey lets hooray for this first after all sweat & tears).

April 25 last year was the beginning and alhamdulillah I managed to get posted in the small town hubs is currently working in - Bintulu. Small as in "boleh pusing habis dalam satu hari", as hubs said it. Basic facilities/amenities were available - public pool, library, banks, golf club, futsal court, malls, Watson, Guardian, KFC, Secret Recipe (ehh :P) etc. There's no Parkson/Jusco/Tesco here except for the newly brought in Econsave, the rest are local supermarkets that goes by the name Tai Kwong, Sing Kwong and more. Coming from Penang, it was a big shift (a survivable one) in the environment and what's available. Houses' cost/rent rates are similar to Penang regardless of the hugeeee development gap, probably due to the concentration of oil & gas companies here. So does grocery items (maybe ada port yang murah which i'm yet to discover). Kedai makan/street food aren't like what you can find in the streets of Penang (food haven kannn) and the prices here boleh tahan jugak la (Kuih-muih is most of the time 1 ringgit for 2 - 3 pieces so when we were buying kuih in semenanjung recently, hubs confidently ordered for 2 ringgit of this and that and we ended up with plastic-full of segala cucuq bagai, nala punya banyak). But traffic here is a breeze. There's no hassle to go out super-early for work to avoid heavy traffic except on stormy/rainy days.

In terms of what to do on weekends here...there's Pantai Tanjung Batu for lepaking (there's quite a number of stalls there, menu ranges from buntut/kepak ayam, abc, pisang cheese, satay, rojak buah/sotong to the goreng-gorengs like nugget/hotdog and of course beach mestilah ada air kelapa but most of the time we ordered we get old kelapa and rojak consisting of mainly cucumber). Takdak la nak boleh pekena laksa penang/utara sambil kena tiup angin laut bruu bruu. There's a club where members can access badminton courts, pool, meeting halls etc - hubs plays badminton here and some days we'd bring Fatima to the pool. The masjid here has an archery club for kids and there are a few archery centres here. No bowling or cinemas yet but I heard they're coming soon. There's also a recreation park with mini zoo, was poorly maintained but just recently the development authority started renovation. Then there's Taman Milennium, a big park with playgrounds and jogging track. It's basically a small town with a little bit of this and that. One might find it boring initially but once you figure out places/keep updated with public events, you'll find it okay except for prices of stuffs/food/houses/etc, yang ni sakit sikit, ouch! (You'll get used to it eventually but bila balik semenanjung tengok harga, terasa jugak la)

Nevertheless, because here is where me & hubs started living together in our own rented house and because this is where Fatima grew up in her first few months until now that she's 1 year plus, because this is where I started as the lonely and depressed fulltime housewife until I got my PRP posting and became the stressed out PRP mom ....this place, this rented house we're currently staying in hold priceless memories. Memories of making a house a home, watching Fatima's first crawl, first steps, listening to Fatima's first words, going for family outings/vacations... Life is not all pretty but these beautiful memories are the ones that'll make you look back and smile.

Speaking of memories as PRP.....

TBC