Meeting Mr Step - Part Uno

A cool day it was today. The grey clouds providing perfect shades from the bright sun. I was sitting in the canteen stirring my hot cup of coffee and chatted away with my friend, Mr Chicks, about our cars. He drives an Evo and I drive a slighly smaller turbo wagon with an Evo Engine.

Then came along Mr Step (not real name) who has just transferred to my school from Kuala Belait. He is an expat and has been in Brunei for just over 5 years. He is the new french teacher as the former french teacher was transferred to the Sixth form Center in Lambak Kiri to accomodate the 'A' level French classes.

Mr Step hails form the land that provides us in Brunei the best nights of Entertainment. Yes I am referring to English Football. I had only greeted him once on the opening day of school which was also his first day in a new school.

Still waiting for my coffee to cool down a bit more, I asked him random questions about where he was from and all. He was born in Derby, United Kingdom. I did not have the courage to ask his age as he looks quite old. He told me his Mother still lives in Derby and he usually goes back to visit every christmas.

He asked me if I had been to London recently and I told him I did last year in May before heading to the Bahamas and before heading back to Brunei. He looked surprised when I mentioned I went to the Bahamas. Then we started talking about travelling and asked me if I had ever been to Australia and I answered I two years ago in December. I went to Brisbane with my Fiance's family to attend my future brother-in-law graduate. I told him the best time to go to OZ was in december as the weather is more or less the same as Brunei. One thing I realize about our expats from the UK is that they love the sun. So I knew he would love the summer in December as it usually is cold and miserable in December in the UK.

He then told me he has relatives in Perth and he always wanted to go and visit but could not seem to find the time as he usually goes back to UK for Christmas but he will be planning a trip this year he hopes. Because he siad this is the first time that they have lived so near to Australia and they do not want to go back to UK and not go to OZ.

He started telling me that he once went to teach in Africa for a couple of years and then went back to the UK and went around the country to teach. Then the opportunity came and his wife and him decided to go on an adventure and head to our beloved Abode of Peace and he was thankful that his stay has been a most pleasent one.

Sipping my warm coffee slowly, I asked him some more questions. Since he thought french I asked him what is 'Thank You' in french and its 'Merci'. 'Merci buku (excuse my french spelling) means 'Thank You very much'. I then asked what about 'Gradsi' and he said that was italian and 'Gracias' is Thankk you in Spanish. I told him I remembered 'Gradsi' as the way Maltese people say Thank you and told him went to Malta two years ago in November to attend a conference. Again he looked surprised.

He had never been to Malta and asked how it was. I loved Malta and I loved the weather. The people are friendly and the city itself was full of history. But the only draw back was the currency exchange. I told him 50 british pounds could only give me around 30-ish Maltese Lira. I told him I met friends from all over the world. Friends from Gibralta, Soloman Island, Tonga, Tuvalu, Jamaica, Barbados, St Lucia - I mean I met a lot of people.

By this time I had already finished my coffee and was just accompanying Mr Step finishing his 'Teh Tarik' and beef burger.

Then we started talking about football as I asked him if he supported Derby. We talked about the Ian Rush Era as I mentioned I started out as a Liverpool fan. Apparently he knows alot about football in the 70's. Then I told him it is actually amazing how huge the influence of English football is in Brunei. How we have the Liverpool fans and the Man Utd fans and the other team supporters as well such as Newcastle Fans, Arsenal fans, Nottingham Fans and other clubs as well. We live in seperate parts of the world yet we adore and follow the English game so closely.

Students started showing up in numbers to let us know that it was breaktime and we headed back to the staffroom to prepare for the next lesson.

I wish Mr Step an even more happier and memorable stay in our country and enjoy teaching at his new school.

I am missing a chunk of the story as I will use it as another post tomorrow. So come back and this chunk fits right after my Malta story and finishing my coffee. The blog will be related to this riddle a colleague once asked me.

'Can you tell how to tell/say three days
in a row without using Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday'

You may guess the answer and all will be revealed tomorrow. Cheers.