VETERAN'S PUB in LABUAN

Yesterday was where me & my friends allowed the evening events to go on Auto-pilot. Auto-pilot event means where you allow circumstances dictate what you are going to do next. We played football after office hours and went for dinner at about 7pm.We ordered Kangkung belacan (Vegetable mixed with shrimp paste), Chicken Tomyam Soup, Mince Pork Omellette with salted fish and Fried Omellete with some more pork. It sounds so good and it looks good.

We went to a place called 126.In Cantonese-English, the place sounds like "Want to 'Sek'". Sek in Cantonese means 'to eat'.126 serves good pork ribs, Japanes Tofu & other chinese style culinary delights. Make sure you visit it if you are in Labuan.

After dinner, we chat about stuff and what to do when 2 of us will go to Filipinas in May this year. Some of the suggestions were good, some were ok but others were plain 'skodeng' stuff. One of us said we should do something that touch all the human senses i.e. Sight, smell, taste, touch, & sound. See the sights in Clark or Manila. Smell the B.O. of Filipinas's whorespitality. Taste the foods. Hear the songs played in 'Sana'y Wala Nang Wakas'. Touch the soft skin of a feminine being. After all those cock-talk, we decided to go to Veteran's Pub.

Veteran's Pub is run by Vincent Pereira. He is a retired Air-Force guy. He served the country when he was with the Royal Malaysian Air-Force . He said he visited a lot of places in the world and somehow landed in Labuan. You can find out the details of his journey when you see him. The pub is a nice cosy little place where everyone there knows your name. Very much like 'Cheers'. 'Cheers' was a TV Sitcom with Kirstie Alley & Ted Danson.

Vince wants to put up more photos of his Air-Force days. The local authority saw the pics on his walls and they want it for free. Typical Malaysian government officers mentality. They want free stuff all the time. This attitude is one of the factors that breeds corruption and incompetence.One of the most sentimental topic of the evening was about Pakcik Rahman.

Pakcik Rahman is the only local WW2 war veteran left in Labuan. He is somehow a mascot of the locals when Labuan has its ANZAC Day in Labuan or the Labuan Landing Celebration every 10 years. Again, the 'free-stuff' mentality crops again when the local authority wants his war medals for FREE. They want the medals to be put up in the local Muzium and his name engraved on some monument. I hope to do an article about Pakcik Rahman's life in the future since the local authority is not serious on the welfare of Pakcik Rahman. Currently, he only recieves RM170 a month since he retired ages ago. If you feel he deserves more for his WW2 services, please call Vincent at 00616-836 3864.

So, we settled down and played pool. Vincent has installed a new carpet on his pool table. It looks new.

Suddenly, one of the customers rang the bar bell. This means all drinks are paid for up to then.He bought us drinks and we ordered a new drink in town, Murphy's Irish Stout. The stout is really nice compared to our local Guinness Stout. The can is massive too. A serving is half a liter and its on RM3.50 per can.

We stayed longer and basically had clean fun teasing the bar tender, Oli. Oli was sporting enough to play pool with us and and she basically kicks everyone's ass.I blame it on the beers and stouts we had.

We had fun and stayed until 1 in the morning.It was one of those days.