Swimming Coach

Today I received a surprise call from my sister, Audrey. These days we hardly get to meet each other. She is living in Lahad Datu, a small town on the east coast of Sabah; it's about an hour's plane ride from Kota Kinabalu.

She said her son, Wiwin, has just finished his form five exams and will be coming over to spend the holidays in KK. When he's in KK, he will probably stay with my brother, Dennis. He enjoys playing TV games with his cousins—Dennis' sons—Mohd Aqil and Mohd Arif. Dennis' wife, NorShidah, is always busy doing her sewing stuff, so she'll be quite pleased that her kids will be occupied with Abang Wiwin.

Audrey is a bit concerned that Wiwin will be selected for the so-called National Service, which is of course basically something like a summer camp in the western countries. I don't really understand the term National Service up to now.

Anyway, Audrey is worried that this giant, whom at the age of 17 is almost 6ft tall, doesn't know how to swim! He can eat a few BigMacs like drinking water, yet he just doesn't grow fat. With his slender body, he could probably be someone like Ian Thorpe. But no, he is the poor momma's boy; he doesn't know how to swim!

A little over 10 years ago, I used to swim 3 to 4 times a week, making it a point to cover at least 10km per week. I didn't really enjoy swimming that much, but I didn't like the idea of letting Mia come home from the pool alone at night.

Well, according to Audrey, she asked around and was surprised to have been told that a swimming coach here in KK charges RM180 for 6 one-hour swimming lessons. But it comes with a guarantee. To be quite honest, I didn't think RM180 is very expensive. I mean, everything is expensive these days, so what's RM180, right?

But Audrey is asking me to teach Wiwin to swim! She feels safer that way. I haven't been to the pool for at least 10 years now. I probably have to turn my whole wardrobe upside-down to look for my swimming trunk and goggles. And I have an issue with my bulging stomach too; not to mention the breasts that I have developed over these recent years. I might even need to put on a pair of bras. And then knowing how to swim doesn't mean knowing how to teach others to swim.

But I have always loved new challenges. So bring it on! Just in case one of these days you see a new swimming sensation representing Malaysia named Erwin bin NoorAzmi, then you know that this uncle was the one who started coaching him! I just hope that I won't get into the headlines for putting on bras at the pool. That's not my idea of becoming famous.