I would love to say that I was amazed, stunned, overwhelmed by my visit to The Historical Rock, Pangkor Island today, but I can’t. On a tour round the island the Lawrence Clan came upon the Dutch Fort, named because it was built by the Dutch in the 1670s to secure their iron ore trade in the Straits of Melacca. It was only used for a short period and soon fell into disrepair until the Malaysian Government took over the upkeep of the site in the 1970s. However of much more interest to the discerning traveller is the Historical Rock, about 30 metres down the road. It is probably one of the strangest antiquities around. Let me describe it. It is in fact two rocks that look like they were once one and gives the impression of having been cut in half by a cheese wire. The Rock is about three metres tall, oval in shape and about 4.5 metres long. It is covered by a wooden shelter and has a helpful, informative sign by the side of it reading “Historical Rock.” Some websites describe it as a “historical tiger rock,” others call it “pirates rock” while one describes it in terms of being spiritual. However the long and short of it is that it is a moderately sized rock with a shelter over the top of it and what appears to be a bit of paving slab sticking out of it near the top. Could it be a fraud? There were quite a few people photographing it and looking admiringly at it so I thought that I really should too, hoping that I would gain some sort of spiritual insight from the thing or, at least, learn something of its heritage. Sadly beyond its signage there was nothing to be learned officially. Rupert and Trixie climbed on it and I sorely wished that they had been eating sandwiches at the time so that they could have had a rock and (cheese) roll experience. Staring at this under-whelming thing I was left to recall the episode of Father Ted where Ted and Dougall try to get a local stone classed as a grade two relic to try to bring more tourists to the island. Had the writers been to Pangkor and got their idea from their visit to “Historical Rock” I wonder? I also started to wonder whether I could set up a natural phenomenon and market it as a tourist attraction. All you appear to need is a sign and a shelter. “See the amazing Lawrence Wall!” “Buy your souvenir Robin’s Raspberry Bush T-shirt!” “Why not walk on Lawrence’s Lawn?” The possibilities are endless.
After such an amazing morning it was hard to top this really. I took the ferry back to the mainland this afternoon and then drove back to KL ready for tomorrow’s school Sports Day. The sat-nav of course took me the most direct route, but clearly not the quickest, as I found myself following the coast road all the way down to Selangor and then in land. Yes it was 35km shorter that the motorway but it was at least an hour slower. After sports day I will drive back to Pangkor and we will all travel home on Wednesday. I have been allocated duties on the high jump tomorrow. If ever that was a place to put the new Drama teacher then the high jump clearly is it. An expert PE teacher is in charge and they are being assisted by eight others, of which I am one. I know absolutely nothing about high jump but I am assuming that the bloke who has put the whole day together, and has clearly worked very hard on it, has thought “Put Lawrence there. He shouldn’t bugger it up. But if he does there is a chance that the other seven staff might be able to cover for him.” In my days at school there was a competitors’ pecking order. All the really cool lads would run in the 100m, and boys got progressively less cool as the distances got longer. Generally speaking the more obscure the field event the more hopeless the boy. I seem to recall that I took a very reluctant part in the shot put and never dared go anywhere near anything as technical as the javelin.
The Lawrence Clan is celebrating one athletics semi-triumph though. Edwin got second place in his class’s boys 400m. Well done to the great man. Based on my theory of athletic coolness that puts him somewhere in the middle. He and I can live with that. Let the games begin.