10th International Convention Of Melaka Twin Cities I

Last Monday evening, I drove to Equatorial Hotel from the city campus. My invitation card stated that the dress code was smart casual. As I was not sure how unofficial the event would be, I had not changed my working clothes. After waiting a short while on the fourth floor near Oasis Pool Side, Emmy appeared in an elegant attire.

While I had to show my tag to attend this dinner, my new friend with her Caucasian appearance was treated like a guest of honour as soon as she arrived. Actually both of us were going to work for this 10th International Convention of Melaka Twin Cities 2010.

I had first met Emmy before a meeting for the preparations of this convention one week earlier at Melaka Historic City Council (MBMB). Wearing a short-sleeve T-shirt and cotton long pants, she looked like a typical tourist. She was passionately recounting her life to two technicians when I asked their permission to sit at the same table in the waiting room. Having learnt to keep a physical distance with Muslim men, I was impressed by Emmy who hit on the shoulder of the guy next to her while talking. Later, when we introduced ourselves, I realized that she had been living in Melaka for years and was contacted by MBMB to be the interpreter for Spanish!

After she knew my profile, she was keen to hear more from me and to tell me more about her. When the meeting started, we sat side by side. The agenda seemed to have nothing to do with us, so we held our own language session at the same time to exchange words in French and Spanish and practise the conjugation. In two hours, I gained the friendship of this Cuban born lady of Spanish origin who was only one year younger than Mum. We also left our addresses to each other for future visits.

That evening of 12th March, we were gathered as soon-to-be colleagues again. We were given seats near the stage where four local musicians were singing and playing classical songs in Malay, Indonesian, English and Spanish.

Sharing the same table were my campus colleague KC who was appointed as an interpreter for Mandarin, a friendly Australian speaker whose face reminded me of the crocodile hunter Steve Irwin, two representatives from Indonesia, etc.

I had skipped lunch for this welcoming dinner which was a buffet. The western starter dishes like mushroom soup and salad stimulated my stomach to invite more food. When I approached the lasagna with my plate which was already filled with other main dishes, a new hot tray was being served right in front of me. Imagine my joy when smelling the nice tomato sauce of this Italian pasta in layers...

Emmy's serving was less than half of mine. When she crossed me at the desserts' table later,

she finally made a remark, "I only eat this little, but look at my size! I wonder where the food goes in your body. Life is not fair!" I laughed and comforted her, "I used to be about ten kilos fatter in France and I've lost them. Now I still put on weight when I don't control my diet!"

I also justified my gluttony when we returned to our seats, "There are at least ten types of cakes there. I only took those made with chocolate for the sake of the picture. I don't promise that I'll finish all."

Nevertheless, Emmy said to me, "When your boyfriend asks you for a date, it must be an expensive one." I was reading an SMS in respond to which I needed to make a phone call immediately, so I giggled and absented myself. Otherwise, I would have answered her by teaching her our Chinese proverb "When you are in love, you are full even by only drinking water".

After the meal, we descended to the first floor to take a glance of the ballroom where a group of women in kebaya nyonya whom we had seen at the dinner were rehearsing their dance for the next day.

I offered Emmy a lift to her house which was on my way home. When we were coming out from the hotel parking, we were told by the guard that the parking pass which MBMB had issued to us for the participation in this convention was not accepted there. Emmy kindly paid the fee for me. In the car, she revealed interesting political stories to me until we reached Taman Klebang Besar, the residential area where "all the kuai lao (westerners) lived and an easy target for terrorists to place a bomb" according to her.

Emmy had spent the whole day translating all the speeches which I had forwarded to her that morning whereas mine which I had received Friday afternoon were not yet done. I had no mood to burn midnight oil. So I exceptionally set my watch alarm to wake me up at 5am because we had to report duty at the hotel by 8am.

Now I was eating the fruit of "play first, pay later" which I had learned from "Breakthrough Parenting".