Hey, sorry to be so long in entering a new blog. We have not been doing much but not doing much takes forever here. You pick one thing to attempt in a day. Notice I said "attempt." Almost never can we accomplish what we set out to do in less than 2-3 trips and each trip is never shorter than 3-4 hours. Last weekend after we picked up Al's race numbers (I'm writing this after the race, he took 12th out of 313 in his age category and ran 7 minute miles!) we went to look at a furniture store and it took 1 hour and 15 minutes sitting in line just to get out of the parking garage! Two days before, I caught a bus down to the huge shopping mall right by his office to grab some groceries. I timed this so that I would finish at about 5:00 and could go home with him if he left on time. He did leave on time and we got home (20 minute walk) in 2 hours and 45 minutes! It has been crazy. It's always bad at certain times of the day but is worse now because of the Merdeka celebration. They are celebrating 50 years of nationhood. It will be this Friday (Aug 31st) and it will be wild. They have been "practicing" all week. The helicopters fly by with flags dangling, lights up and down the streets are tested all various times, they even "practice" closing the streets. I thought we should go out of town but Al thinks the roads will be to "jammed" as they call it. So we'll probably just watch from our windows. It really is festive, they have their flag up EVERYWHERE and it has long read and white stripes so it's very pleasing to an American's eye.
I went to coffee last week (and drove there!) at the American Association. It's not really all Americans that join since you can join by being sponsored by Americans, but everyone is nice and there for the same reason. It was informative. They had various people like Peter Fong, our car procurer, beauticians, gym trainers, and people that will come cook authentic foods in your home. They also had cards to pick up on cultural activities, restaurants and taxi drivers. My favorite was the shoe guy. He draws your foot on a piece of paper and then takes a few measurements. You pick a style from the 30 or so actual shoes he brought or the two big photo albums, pick a color of leather and $35US and two weeks later he delivers shoes to your door that are made custom to fit your feet! Yeah! Now this is for me. I got two pair and we'll see if this is the way to go. I will start Bahasa Malaysian language classes at the association in September. I took a one time Malaysian cooking class this past Monday and it was fun. Learned a few of the vegetables here and their version of BBQ pork and what they call chicken/rice. Yesterday was our required (by Shell) defensive driving class. I managed it but since I have only driven twice it was pretty nerve wracking. Thank goodness Kari and Peter (our apartment floor neighbors) were there to give me some confidence.
The picture at the top of the blog is from the house across the street. I get to watch a lot of curious stuff out of my kitchen and dining room windows. They are Chinese and have altars everywhere. This month is their celebration of the seventh lunar month or something and a few days ago was the Feast of the Hungry Ghosts. Al walked over and got a partial scoop. They were VERY busy getting their stuff out but told him that on that very night the gates of hell would be thrown open and the spirits would come out. They will pass by and if they eat until satisfied they will return to where they came from. These people had hundred of dollars of food out there. Look at the bags of rice. There had to be 8-10 fifty pound bags. They just ordered everything by the case. They also cooked food for them and you can see there is a whole pig and legs of something. What you can't see are all the pots that surround the bottom of the table to the side there is a separate table with all kinds of fresh fruit on it. They had candle tapers all the way up both sides of the sidewalk to lead the way. They did not dress up but it sounds and looks a lot like Halloween. They said they will donate the stuff the ghosts don't eat to charity. Of course, that was everything they put out there! It is pretty amusing here. Hope to have the next set of pictures up in a day or two. Better go wash Tucker Beauregard!
No comments:
Post a Comment