cucuan
09-10-2005, 11:03 AM
The Outward Bound School (“OBS”)
I joined the OBS in 1965 after my SC results were released somewhere in March. I went on a partial sponsorship. I was asked to pay RM80-00 and the rest of the fees of RM170-00 was sponsored by the Rotary Club. RM80-00 was quite a sum at that time but my uncle sponsored the RM80-00. The course was for 21 days and it was known as Course 101. The warden was an Englishman called Mr. Tucker and the chief instructor was Mr. VA Allan. Mr. Tucker’s wife was a Chinese Malayan and she taught us English Literature in school when we were in Form 4. I am sure Toh Muda and Jamaluddin remembers her.
There were a few amusing occasions which I like to share with my fellow Forummers and till today I can still remember them. The OBS was then located in Batu Gajah, Teluk Muroh where the present naval base is. Believe it or not we have a Batu Gajah near Sitiawan which is a stretch of white beach about 10 km from Pekan Teluk Muroh.
Altogether there were about 50 trainees in course 101 and we were divided into watches of 10 trainees each and mine was known as Samaritan Watch. Sailing was one of the activities where we were taught how to handle the sailing dinghies. But then there were, I think, only 6 sailing boats and therefore 4 of us had to wait at the shore for our turn to get our hands on the dinghy and of course the instructor was standing by supervising us. The instructor, I think his name was Mr. Syed, whilst scanning the water on the sailing boats suddenly asked one of the trainees, Foo, to get him a stool so that he could be seated comfortably to watch over us. Foo, I think was Chinese educated, stood still and stared at Syed and the instructor repeated “Get me a stool Foo, come on, come on, on the double get me a stool.” We were too dumbstruck to be able to translate the word “stool” into Hokien for Foo. Then the young trainee asked “what’s a stool, sir?”. Syed replied: “Oh s..t, a stool is one of those damn thing you put your ass on”.
On another occasion, we were on a 31-mile hike and the instructor accompanying us was a Scottish volunteer, I think his name was Mr. McClew. I was told prior to him coming to Malaya he was a London Bobby. After walking for about ½ an hour, the instructor stopped and asked “Have you seen the trook?”. We couldn’t understand what he wanted and stared at him. He asked again, “Has any one of you seen the trook?”. We looked at each other and were dumbstruck and before moving on he commented “The trook must have been stook in the mood”. Suddenly I realized that what he wanted to know was about the school “truck” and that he thought the truck must have been stuck in the mud. When I told that to my fellow trainees we all laughed.
One of the worst things we had to do was cleaning the toilets. Each watch occupied a dormitory and behind each dormitory there were 2-3 toilets. Every morning we have to get up at 5-45 and the first thing we did was to assemble by the beach for the morning dip in the sea. After the dip we have about 15 minutes of exercise in the field followed by about 45 minutes of cleaning up and doing up our beds, the dormitory and the toilets. The toilets were of the pit type with a wooden cover. We were warned not to splash too much water in cleaning the toilets otherwise …….. At 7 would be inspection time. Cleaning the dormitory and making the beds were never a problem for all of us but cleaning the toilets was really one big headache. During the inspection, more often than not, the walls of the toilet would be crawling with white maggots and getting fired by the instructor was inevitable notwithstanding nothing could be done to stop those maggots from crawling out from the pits. After the inspection and the maggot-sighting, it was breakfast time. Those who had to go back to squat in the toilet after breakfast will have to do their business with their wriggly friends crawling all over the walls in the toilet.
For all the cleaning chores we had to do, one that was particularly popular was cleaning the school bell in the morning. It was hung right outside the school. Across the road was the warden’s house. Initially we felt it strange that the trainees seemed so willing to clean the school bell every morning. Later on we discovered that these people were very curious to see the warden kissing his wife goodbye every morning when his wife set out to school.
cucuan
I joined the OBS in 1965 after my SC results were released somewhere in March. I went on a partial sponsorship. I was asked to pay RM80-00 and the rest of the fees of RM170-00 was sponsored by the Rotary Club. RM80-00 was quite a sum at that time but my uncle sponsored the RM80-00. The course was for 21 days and it was known as Course 101. The warden was an Englishman called Mr. Tucker and the chief instructor was Mr. VA Allan. Mr. Tucker’s wife was a Chinese Malayan and she taught us English Literature in school when we were in Form 4. I am sure Toh Muda and Jamaluddin remembers her.
There were a few amusing occasions which I like to share with my fellow Forummers and till today I can still remember them. The OBS was then located in Batu Gajah, Teluk Muroh where the present naval base is. Believe it or not we have a Batu Gajah near Sitiawan which is a stretch of white beach about 10 km from Pekan Teluk Muroh.
Altogether there were about 50 trainees in course 101 and we were divided into watches of 10 trainees each and mine was known as Samaritan Watch. Sailing was one of the activities where we were taught how to handle the sailing dinghies. But then there were, I think, only 6 sailing boats and therefore 4 of us had to wait at the shore for our turn to get our hands on the dinghy and of course the instructor was standing by supervising us. The instructor, I think his name was Mr. Syed, whilst scanning the water on the sailing boats suddenly asked one of the trainees, Foo, to get him a stool so that he could be seated comfortably to watch over us. Foo, I think was Chinese educated, stood still and stared at Syed and the instructor repeated “Get me a stool Foo, come on, come on, on the double get me a stool.” We were too dumbstruck to be able to translate the word “stool” into Hokien for Foo. Then the young trainee asked “what’s a stool, sir?”. Syed replied: “Oh s..t, a stool is one of those damn thing you put your ass on”.
On another occasion, we were on a 31-mile hike and the instructor accompanying us was a Scottish volunteer, I think his name was Mr. McClew. I was told prior to him coming to Malaya he was a London Bobby. After walking for about ½ an hour, the instructor stopped and asked “Have you seen the trook?”. We couldn’t understand what he wanted and stared at him. He asked again, “Has any one of you seen the trook?”. We looked at each other and were dumbstruck and before moving on he commented “The trook must have been stook in the mood”. Suddenly I realized that what he wanted to know was about the school “truck” and that he thought the truck must have been stuck in the mud. When I told that to my fellow trainees we all laughed.
One of the worst things we had to do was cleaning the toilets. Each watch occupied a dormitory and behind each dormitory there were 2-3 toilets. Every morning we have to get up at 5-45 and the first thing we did was to assemble by the beach for the morning dip in the sea. After the dip we have about 15 minutes of exercise in the field followed by about 45 minutes of cleaning up and doing up our beds, the dormitory and the toilets. The toilets were of the pit type with a wooden cover. We were warned not to splash too much water in cleaning the toilets otherwise …….. At 7 would be inspection time. Cleaning the dormitory and making the beds were never a problem for all of us but cleaning the toilets was really one big headache. During the inspection, more often than not, the walls of the toilet would be crawling with white maggots and getting fired by the instructor was inevitable notwithstanding nothing could be done to stop those maggots from crawling out from the pits. After the inspection and the maggot-sighting, it was breakfast time. Those who had to go back to squat in the toilet after breakfast will have to do their business with their wriggly friends crawling all over the walls in the toilet.
For all the cleaning chores we had to do, one that was particularly popular was cleaning the school bell in the morning. It was hung right outside the school. Across the road was the warden’s house. Initially we felt it strange that the trainees seemed so willing to clean the school bell every morning. Later on we discovered that these people were very curious to see the warden kissing his wife goodbye every morning when his wife set out to school.
cucuan