Life in La-La Land

    There's no need to read the fine print--it's basically the same for most wine-tasting parties and dinners.  And boy, are there a lot of them!  I'm beginning to think that it's wine, cheese, horses and more wine that makes the local expat society go 'round. Oh, and with a good bit of beer thrown in for good measure. I've never seen so much wine tasting, selling, sampling, ordering, etc.!  Muslims don't drink alcohol--at least they're not supposed to--but the expatriates around here sure make up for it! 


      Here in La-La Land, people pay to have things done.  "I'll have my driver drop it at your condo guardhouse."  "I have my massage gal come in twice a week for two-hour sessions."  "Don't worry about reusing that glass--we'll have the maid wash them."   Expats seem to "have" many aspects of their lives handled by other people.  (And I'm one of them, I guess, since I "have" our lovely cleaning gal do the household chores that I can't stand, and I won't go into what those are!)   That's all well and good.  If they can afford it and they want it, go for it, I say.  If they can't do those things for themselves or don't want to, fine and dandy.  


     But then what happens is they (and their spouses) wind up having nothing much to do all day because they "have" all the normal stuff done for them.  If both persons in the marriage are retired, they often REALLY don't know how to put distance between themselves.  So then they have to seek things to fill up the hours they used to spend doing the things that they now "have done."  Maybe that's where the wine, cheese and horse-race betting come in.  Who knows. . . ?


    Another interesting aspect of life here in Penang--at least among the expats--is how they come and go like the tides of the ocean.  Many are retired and on the MM2H program, so they're free to travel and presumably well-off enough to afford it.  Also, they often have grandchildren or other emotional attachments "back home" in whatever country they came from.  

Me, heading off to a Scrabble afternoon in La-La Land

      Whatever the reason, the ebb and flow of people in and out of here is amazing by my middle-class American standards.  At any one time, half of the people at the Scrabble table, for example, will announce "Sorry--I'll be 'off-station' next week.  Carry on without me and see you just after Christmas."  How very colonial, this being "off-station"!  Kind of puts you in mind of pith helmets and sedan chairs, doesn't it?


   Well, I myself am going to be "off-station" for a few days, but this saga will resume when I get back next week.  Tah-tah and cheerio!