M A C V A Y S I A

Since starting my new job I’ve been introduced to Mee Rebus Tuesday, which involves exactly what the name says: on Tuesdays we eat mee rebus (literally boiled noodles, but with lots of other goodies) for lunch. These lovely lunches take place at the home of Kak Ton, whose sister Kak Ena is TELL’s group editor. Both Kak Ena and Kak Ton are bloggers; in fact, most of the people who show up for Mee Rebus Tuesdays are bloggers.

This week, Rocky attended as usual (I say that as if I’m a regular myself when I’ve actually only attended twice), and Meesh was there for a bit (she’s the one who dragged me there in the first place, actually), as was Capt. Yusof Ahmad, known in the blogging world as the Ancient Mariner, and also Elviza. I met the pro-BN blogger known as Big Dog (and he is indeed very, very big) and a lady named Raden Galoh. She was one of the few people there whose blogs aren’t focused on Malaysian politics. Her blog is called One Breast Bouncing because she’s a breast cancer survivor. I told her maybe I should start calling my blog One Ball Rolling. Heh. There was also a blogger there (Daphne Ling) who’s about to move to Canada to go to graduate school. And I even met a Malaysian blogger who’s been to Cape Breton, imagine that. He’s known in the local blogging world as Zorro and was in Nova Scotia because his daughter was studying in Halifax. It’s a small world, folks.

So anyway, I was just finishing my first bowl of mee rebus when in walked Marina Mahathir, daughter of the former prime minister, who was carrying — of all things — the Olympic torch. She had been one of the Malaysians chosen to carry the torch for the Malaysian leg of the global relay, which she wrote about here. I couldn’t let this opportunity pass me by, so I yelled “FREE TIBET!!!” and lunged at her. She’s strong for a short lady, but I managed to get the better of her. When I’d finally managed to wrestle the torch from her little hands, I promptly blew it out.

That was for Tibet, baby!

Ahem. Well, OK then, I didn’t beat up Marina Mahathir, nor did I blow out her torch. But she did have the real Olympic torch with her (they let her keep it, imagine that) and I did get to hold it. Marina was quite nice.

All in all, I enjoyed Mee Rebus Tuesday. I think I’ll go back for more.