Last Wednesday, I drove up to Sarikei to play scrabble for the Headquaters. I wasn’t selected to represent Kuching, but HQ a.k.a JPN Sarawak offered me a spot, so I accepted without relenting. I was happy to be playing Scrabble. I enjoy the game, and the company.
Arrived at Sarikei a little over 3PM, after some stops at Sri Aman, Betong Rest Stop and Jakar. Located SK Sarikei where I was to spend the next few days, and contacted our team manager, Mr Charles.
I wasn’t suprised when I learned that we were asked to sleep on the floor. Nonetheless, the location of the school was a little far from town, so moving around Sarikei would be difficult, at least for my team mates. The competition was sceduled on Thursday, going on to Saturday. Pretty packed during the day, as the nights would be used for some last minute traininig and chilling.
To cut a long story short, we lost to Betong, Sri Aman and Samarahan (coincidently all the divisions we passsed to get to Sarikei). It was all narrow defeats, and we concluded that the defeat was due to poor strategizing and lack of proper training. Mind you that we only received the letter to represent HQ a day before we were suppose to go. Our rivals, Kuching on the other hand had one week to prepare with their centralize training well coordinated.
As for the whole Sarawak PSKPP experience, it was indeed an enjoyable one. I made new friends, particularly among the senior teachers and staff, and experienced Sarikei for the very first time. The whole event, which was organized by Sarikei was a huge massive success as they ensured the whole event was even bigger than previous years. Met a few familar faces from school which was sort of like ‘jejak kasih’… lol.
Representing HQ brought us teachers ‘imported’ by HQ, smiles. One in particular was when a senior teacher came up to us and said “Hey, you two are from HQ right? I’m going to retire soon, so help me look into my pension.“.
There is no doubt that I will play again next year and hope to go for the Sarawak PSKPP again. Heard it will be in Limbang this time, so if you are in the education line, do join in any one of the games. Winning during PSKPP is second to building new friendships and networking among ‘our people’. And hey, it’s definately a great way to destress yourself from all that work, plus you travel free.
