A Gift of Egg Tarts

My colleague T would retire next week. 11 August 2026 (Tuesday) would be her last day and we would hold a special assembly to celebrate the occasion. T would be 58 years old on the next day, 12 August. We live nearby to each other. When I fell down in 2024, and could not drive to work, she was the one who picked me up in the morning and sent me home at the end of the day. I troubled her for a whole month until I recovered. After that, when we had to go for school events and functions, we would car pool. She would pick me up or I would pick her up and we would go together.

T is a devout Buddhist, and is very active in the Buddhist community - sometimes when there were events, she would share with me about it. She invited me to go for free vegetarian meals during the Wesak Day period, or contribute to recycling events occasionally, or to painting exhibitions. Sometimes, we would go for vegetarian lunches after school with the other colleagues. T is an avid painter, specialising in Chinese ink painting. She has had her paintings exhibited internationally and locally. The last one I went to was a few weeks ago at The Spring mall, where she exhibited 1 painting in conjunction with Gawai. Although highly knowledgeable in her field of study, and highly talented in drawing, T remained a simple, down-to-earth person. 

T holds a doctorate degree in her field of study. She was offered to become a lecturer at one time ... but after considering the salary and the logistics, she chose to remain a teacher. And she was certainly a dedicated teacher, producing many successful students. I know at least 3 other teachers who are her former students - CCV and NTC and PMM. T is indeed very experienced in her subject, having taught it for three decades - she is wahe trainer for the state, and often attended meetings at the national level. Indeed, she knows all the ways to help students to score. So every year, she contributes the most number of A's to the school for her subject. She can turn all potential students into an A-scorer. 

Last year, she taught my class of students, and Student A and Student B were obviously the weaker of the lot. To ensure that they could master the concepts well, T would go to class every morning at 6.30 am, just to teach these 2. Her efforts paid off when Student A got a B and Student B obtained an A-. When I met Student A recently, of course, he was thankful to have T as a teacher. He promised to come back to school on 11 August 2026 with a gift for his teacher. After all, T had always said that Student A was her "Little Sunshine". Heh. 

At my school, it was customary for us to collect RM50 per pax to buy a retirement gift for the retiring teacher. Teachers knew about this tradition, it was no secret. So, the committee would ask the retiring teacher what they wanted. Some wanted small gold jewellery as a momento, others preferred luggage bags or specialty sports equipment. Some just wanted the cash. Last year, A did not want any gifts but we collected the money anyway. A then used the money for catering .... we makan-ed on 2 occasions courtesy of the money A had given back to us.

It is the same for T. She had insisted that we did not collect the money for her since she had no material needs. We urged her to use the money for donations. She got rather upset, saying that she had the money to do donations and did not need to use our money for that purpose. After some deliberation, we collected the money anyway despite her protests. Of course we had our reasons too and after some discussion with her, she agreed to accept and then to donate the money back to us - a fund for us to use where necessary. 

Last Sunday, I received a text from her asking me about the egg tarts from Oriental Kopi. She said that she had only eaten the original version and not the seasonal varieties. She asked me which other flavours would taste good. Heh .... I did not know since I also went for the original egg tarts usually. The only one time I tried another variety was maybe a fortnight ago when Fourth Aunt wanted the Belgian chocolate ones. So I told her that the original one was good enough for me. 

Heh ... so I unabashedly guessed that she probably wanted to buy egg tarts for us at school. Only that I did not know when. Later on, my other colleague N did share that T had asked him to accompany her to collect the egg tarts on the coming Friday. Heh .... so that was another clue. 

Then on Tuesday whilst I was on duty in the afternoon for my club, I saw my students come carrying a whole bag of food containers. Why are you eating now? I asked my student D. He said the food was courtesy of T and that they had arrived late, so he did not have time to eat his share. I gave him the permission to finish eating the food first. How generous of my colleague T to treat her students before her retirement too! 

Vegetarian Manicai Beehoon 

On Thursday, my colleague R was talking about Oriental Kopi egg tarts. She had a craving, I suppose. Heh. We then talked about the food there. I asked whether she had tried the ayam gepuk, a new item in the meny. She said yes, but she did not quite like it. She preferred the mee kari. 

Moments later, we received our egg tarts from T. The students came distributing them on behalf of T. And we were all taken aback because each of us got 2 boxes! 2? Did T make a mistake? 2 seemed like a lot because in each box were 2 tarts.

Egg tarts from T

We called the students and quizzed them about the tarts. Why so many? Maybe teacher was so happy that she was retiring that she decided to buy a lot of tarts for all of you. Hmn ... not a very convicing answer from the students. 

My staffroom, of course, was delighted to receive the egg tarts ... 

I was just talking about it! R squealed at the coincidence.

Wah ... how much is one box ah? 

I paid RM10.80 for 2 pieces the other day. Don't for get the 6% tax. 

I'm reluctant to eat such expensive tarts. A wanted to keep her box of tarts for as long as possible.

Anyone allergic to eggs? N asked. You can donate your tarts here if you are allergic. 

Mmm, so yummy. D exclaimed as she savoured her tart. 

Eh, why so many pieces? A said again. Come, let's eat them quickly so that when T realises that she has given us the wrong number of tarts, we can tell her that we have finished eating them and cannot return them to her. Lol!!! 

Is P here? If he has gone home, let's divide up his egg tarts. 

Somebody call or text J so that she comes to get her egg tarts. Or else, let's just divide them among ourselves. 

Lol. My colleagues and their creativity! Suddenly, there were a lot of people who were compelled to become egg tart thieves. There was indeed a lot of laughter over those delectable tarts! 

And so I thanked my friend T when I saw her before I went home. Why so many? 1 box would be sufficient, I said. Then she told me that she had a difficult time purchasing those tarts. She called the outlet but could not strike a deal with them over the phone. So she had no choice but to personally visit the outlet at Vivacity Megamall to discuss the purchase with the manager on duty. 

She had actually wanted to give each person 3 pieces instead of 2. She requested for 3 tarts to be packed in 1 box. But the manager insisted that they HAD TO pack 2 pieces in 1 box. Each box would be charged RM0.50. They did not even have plastic bags to pack the boxes in, so T had to purchase her own. She was upset that they were so rigid in the way they did their sales.  

I was aghast that she had to spend so much just on packaging! But luckily, she said that the manager decided to waive the charges since T purchased a huge number of tarts. 

Who sent the tarts? I asked.

Since they did not have free delivery, T paid for one of their workers to deliver the tarts to school. However, the tarts were freshly made, she said. They only started making at 8.30 am and when it was delivered at 11.30 am, the tarts were still warm. 

I told her that my entire staffroom was overjoyed to receive her thoughtful gift and shared with her some antics of my colleagues so that she knew that her tarts were appreciated. 

On Friday after school, a few of us brought T for lunch at Cafe Cafe. 

Iced Lemon Tea

Garden Salad

Thai style Pineapple fried rice, RM17.90

Fettucine Alfredo with Grilled Norwegian Salmon, RM26.90

Chao Chai Big Beehoon Soup with Prawns, RM27.90

The 5 of us ladies shared the food over school gossip. It was good fun. Of the 3 mains, I think my favourite would be the pasta ... the cream was rich and garlicky and paired well with the grilled salmon. I'd love to eat this again. I did not quite like the fried rice, I thought the meat floss was a bit too sweet. The chao chai big beehoon was alright, a tad sour and no wine, since this is a Halal eatery. I like relaxing vibe here too. It's cool and a comfortable place to sit for a lengthier time to chit chat. 

A few more days, and T would retire from service. I will definitely miss having her as a colleague because she is so level-headed and reliable and responsbile. But I will revel in the fact that she has more time for herself to keep herself active with painting and travelling and also with all her charitable work. I wish her all the best in her undertakings. Since she lives in the neighbourhood, I have no doubt that I will see her around from time to time. 

Happy retirement Dr. T!