The Great Sofa Hunt

Bye-bye, Salmon Monstrosity! (Donated to Charity)

  Well, it's time to replace the "Salmon Sofa," which was part of the furnishings that came with our "unit."  Nobody around here lives in a home, an apartment, or a condo--we all live in "units" and these units are organized into "blocks."  Your address almost has to include the number or letter of your block. 

     But, I digress . . . .on to the exciting saga of the new sofa-bed for D.'s room.  Now there are those (including the owners of our "unit") who'd consider this salmon sofa a real find.  We think we can donate it to someone easily and that's going to happen real soon!  Next to the giant, monster TVs, this little number was something we were yearning to get rid of.  And now we are!  

     Having taken our almost-weekly bus ride out to Queensbay Mall, we wandered into a furniture store where everything is sleek, modern and not all that comfortable, truth be told.  

Hello, Sleek But Not Too Comfy

But we have found pieces we like there from time to time.  The problem is, the company policy seems to be to hire young Chinese women with the worst possible English.  However they're always eager to help and armed with their ubiquitous calculators, so as to tell you the "final price, lah."  The commission system is firmly entrenched at this outlet, I assure you!  I always feel a bit like raw meat in a lion's cage when I walk in there.  Never mind--our gal did show us a newly-arrived set of "furnitures" that were exactly what we need for holiday hosting of guests.

     After much unfolding and folding of the two-seater and a certain amount of stretching out on it, the negotiations began: " Can you deliver this next week?"  "Can, can!!"  Good!  "Can we get extra cushions for the back?"  The shrieks of "Can, can, lah!" grew even more fervent.  Great!  When can we get them?  "Sofa. . . . . two-tree day, lah!"  Lovely!  The extra cushions? "Two-tree month."  Ooooh!  Forgot this is Malaysia and the sofa cushions have to come by ship from Hong Kong.  Oh, well--the guests are coming for Christmas, so we just won't lean back until then.  

     Adding insult to injury, in "two-tree month" the cushions have to be picked up by us at that mall and transported home by bus or taxi.  They're gonna be pretty expensive extra cushions by the end of September when they finally arrive!  Wanna place a little bet as to whether they'll actually match the two we'll already have?  Or get here by Christmas?

     This episode just underscores our conviction that here in Malaysia, everything takes 2-3 tries to get it right, but they finally do.  Punctured motorbike tube?  It took two long and scary treks on an utterly flat back tire (or "tyre," as it's known around here) back to the motorbike shop to get that one right.

      The TV installer took two visits to get the TVs adjusted properly--thank you for that!  The Internet took two tries and the billing. . . . .well, that could be a three-tripper!  I set up a new bank account last Friday--that one took three return visits, all intricately planned so as to avoid lunch hour, closing time, and prayer time, but it did eventually get done.  And so it goes.  It'll probably take me "two-tree" tries to post this blog entry, so I'll start now. . . .