Saya Charlie Chickadee, the receptionist

*Kids, don’t ever follow this.*

PICT0909

This little packet of snacks or rather, junk food reminded me of something. BTW, Charlie Chickadee is an old snack available more than 10 years ago and was extinct and just appear in the market recently.

Once, I worked as a legal clerk with Cindy, Zakaria and Robert. Cindy and I were the ‘wrap hill, wrap sea’ (pau sua, pau hai) kinda slaves. We practically did everything from serving summons to defaulters, filing court documents, maintain the office, write wills, read law books, sweep floor, make coffee, console old uncles who were cheated off their money, dealt with divorcee, just about everything. Zakaria was our partner-in-crime, an office assistant. And Robert was the Chief Clerk. A old bird who ran the office, smarter than Ah Goo, the lawyer.

Robert’s speciality was farting and burping. We loved Robert to bits because he was very old (I hope he is still around) and very kind. Our slave master was very handsome, tall, deep voice, married a mat-salleh wife lauyar.

But, but that Ah Goo the slave master defaulted our EPF! Can you imagine a man his calibre cheated us teenage girls off our EPF? We were earning only RM180 PER MONTH! Once, a supermarket closed down and the whole gang of suppliers appointed Ah Goo.

So, we worked for about a week until 2am in the morning. Our office was at Wisma Chocolate, Jalan Aboo Sittee which was a red light area. And of course, Ah Goo never paid our OT too.

One day, we got smart and tulan-ted. Cindy was the brave one. She would made coffee with so much sugar that the sugar saturated and the coffee turned like syrup. OMG, it was so hilarious!

Then, when Robert wasn’t in the office we would answer the phone this way….

Zakaria : Saya Charlie Chickadee…… (Instead of Good Morning, Ah Goo & Company)

and

Cindy : Kiki Bubblegum baru….

Me : (I was too gigglish and too chicken to try a prank like that.)

Needless to say, clients thought they had called the wrong office!

Well, Cindy and I were very good staff. We stayed until we got our new job. We worked to the max, even without EPF or overtime.

Later when I was at my new job, I only found out that Ah Goo defaulted my EPF. I lodged a complaint but he called me up and threatened me with ‘Lilian, Penang is a very small island. You never know when we can meet again.”

Cis, I was chickened out again. It was only about RM80 so I dropped the case. I wonder if Ah Goo is still as handsome. And still driving his sport car without his shoes.

Saya Charlie Chickadee, yang rangup enak sekali.

Come, follow me sing?

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13 thoughts on “Saya Charlie Chickadee, the receptionist”

  2. I dun remember snacking on chickadee before so I can’t compare the taste. But I found the current one too fluffy. I still prefer Cheezel and red colour Twisties!

  3. holy moley…my lecturer just waxed lyrical about chickadee today. and made us taste some when we walked into her office. were there so few snacks around 10 yrs ago? lol!

  4. OMG OMG…you blogged about chickadee. My grandma right, everytime when we eat too much junk food, she will always say “Mai chiak ah ne che chickadee” (don’t eat so much chickadee) but the junk we were eating was Mister Potatoe or sum other brands but to her, all junk food are chickadee coz during her time, chickadee was damn famous. Then the other day when I saw chickadee…I was excited! I said to my mom “OMG, chickadee is back!!!”

  5. lilian, 10 years? more like 20 years lor… this stuff was banned in our house dulu, kalau dapat mana2 cousin beli, HEAVEN! but my mom still can smell it in our breath! mmg kena marah lor…

    tomorrow i shall go out & buy a dozen packet as a revenge & eat it in my mom’s house 🙂

  8. Haha.

    Chickadee…

    I’ve heard of him before and your blogging bout him now and gosh, he’s your friend?? 😛

    Cheers!!

  10. i saw it too! in supermarket here in Singapore last week. used to get it from the roti man who sells bread at our taman when we were kids, growing up in Batu Pahat 😉

    i was so tempted to buy, but din buy. Remember mummy’s scolding.

  11. sayalah charlie chickadee,
    yang rangup enak sekali…

    cant remember the last two lines, we used to OD on this stuff in kindy…

  12. I was one of chickadees fan back in my kindy days..got my chickadees from my uncle’s sundry shop FOC.. then later I was diagnosed with some kidney problem and spent weeks in hospital with totally no-salt-diet. Mom blamed the chickadees and I was forbidden from touching any junkfood throughout my childhood!
    but now.. I WILL buy one when i go home!

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