Funeral For a Friend

Not that god-damned band, for god's sake. Literally a funeral for a friend. Ivan picked me up from Indahvilla to Khai's place in Subang Jaya before we left for the funeral parlor and we had a bite to eat at his place prepared by his maid. We then left for Klang and got there a bit off time but there were other VU people there already. After that, we went in to light up some joss sticks and then went to look at Chee King inside his coffin. No tears came out. I guess everyone's all outta tears but I can't say the same for some of Chee King's relatives and especially his mum. Anyways, we waited for a while longer and then finally opened up the coffin's glass case for everyone to have their one last absolute last time to look at him. They funeral dudes were again saying the same old thing they say all the time, which was no tears on the body and don't call out his name and stuff like that. After that we looked away from the coffin as usual when they were moving the body and then we followed the hearse all the way to the main road where we boarded 2 buses to get to the Fairy Park Memorial Center (basically, the cemetery). It was a fucking long ride. We went all the way to Meru and then it was located in some desolate kampung area. Man, Chee King, I want to visit you also hard to find you ah. Anyways, they proceeded to the pagoda where they chopped up the roast pig to give to everyone and then we went on the cremation area. The coffin, which was now closed, was placed on a conveyer belt, ready to be sent into the fiery inferno (which most probably would happen later). The medium did the usual mumbo jumbo and then they played some extremely lame (and probably pre-recorded) message telling people to stand up and pay our last respects and then played a lame version of “Auld Lang Syne” to accompany the coffin, rolling into the waiting area of the incinerator. Excellent. After that, the funeral dudes passed out “good luck charms” for everyone. Some idiot fed this charm (which was actually a coin wrapped in red paper) to the monkey in the cage right outside the building. The monkey actually swallowed it. Amazing, innit? The monkey’s gonna have a blast getting that thing outta it’s system, one way or the other. It was a rather short trip back to Klang but it all ended well. Once again, I wish to extend my condolences to Chee King’s family for the loss of such a great person and also to thank everyone who came to his funeral and those who have helped us all through a time of such great grief. Peace out y’all.