Befores and Afters

Manger Before

Manger After

     Things do change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.  A while back, I wrote about the manger scene at a nearby charity home.  It was quirky and charming as it was initially.  But then Santa visited the world and decided to stay for a while, bringing with him various stuffed bears, fluffy dogs, etc.  It evidently snowed a bit, too, as you can see by the "snowdrifts" on the concrete and up on the palm frond roof.

Fishing

No More Fishing!

         
    A few months ago, I posted aboutone of our neighbors who went "fishing" in our condo pool every afternoon at 3:00 sharp. I chatted with him, and he explained that he was actually practicing fly casting for a particular kind of fish called a "snake head"  (I think it was.)  He was very dedicated to his craft and never bothered anybody, at least that's what I thought.  But evidently someone complained, and pretty soon this letter appeared on the communal bulletin board.  I heard that the "party/ies involved" went down to the condo office, fishing pole in hand, to complain that there was too much chlorine in the pool.  Hmmmm.

      And lastly, this is a picture of the Christmas installation that went up in the nearby Gurney Plaza Shopping Center before Christmas.  ('Waaaay before Christmas!)   It'll be sad when this one disappears after the holidays are over.  Our first "tropical Christmas" is about to end. . . . .

Gurney Plaza Santa House  (2+ stories high)

Golly Gee! -- Christmas Dinner at the G Hotel

Orange Cheesecake

   Oh, wretched excess!  When we started to roast our turkey last weekend, the oven shorted out and blacked out the whole apartment.  That electrical crisis gave us a great excuse to go out to the nearby G Hotel for their Christmas buffet dinner.  And what a feast that was!  

Authentic Yule Log -- My favorite!

                             Mini-mince Pies    


  It was a pleasure to go to that particular hotel because Hubby and I had had month-long stays there for the past several years for his work.  So, the dining room staff  remembered us and welcomed us warmly. They also made sure the sparkling wine was constantly topped up.  Thanks for that!

       The spread laid on by the dining room staff was truly superb!  We're still talking about it (and groaning from stuffed tummies.)

Seafood -- Duh!

    
 Most of the pictures here of the desserts because they were so cute and charming.  But truly, everything was marvelous.  There was terrific turkey, four kinds of stuffing, carved roast beef, sushi and sashimi, roast potatoes that were super-delicious, and seafood in vast amounts. 

A Very Talented Balloon Artiste!

    There were chocolate fountains, kebabs, and a vast assortment of food of all sorts.  Each table had Xmas crackers, party hats, noisemakers and all the other stuff that British people have on their Xmas tables.  A balloon man went around entertaining the many kids at the tables.  


     Best of all, we're members of the G4U Club, so we got a sizable discount on this lovely festive meal! 


 Sure beats slaving in a hot kitchen all day!   

First Christmas in Penang

      Sometimes it's the thought that counts.  Penang does Christmas much better than I thought it would.  Last week the local supermarket stopped playing Bollywood music and started playing nostalgic Christmas carols.  And this charming, if bizarre little manger scene appeared at a nearby charity home.  It's nothing if not multi-cultural! 


         In case you're curious about what's inside, I'll attach a close-up photo, too.  As you can see, the Mother Mary has been replaced by an "apsara" (dancing celestial maidens in the Hindu religion.)   Joseph is represented by a garden figurine who might just be Tom Sawyer.   The Baby Jesus has lost his bottle and has blue eyes and a hand-knit sweater (though it's 91 degrees F. and about 33 degrees C. around here these days.)


    I'm not quite sure what the cheerleading pompoms represent, but I presume the water bottles are weights to keep the whole affair from flying away in the wind.  And on top of the palm frond roof, there are little wisps of cotton that probably represent the snow that might have been present the night of Jesus' birth (?)


     It's certainly naive and charming in its own way.   Obviously a lot of tender loving care was invested in gathering the components and setting it all up.  This certainly wasn't made in China of molded plastic lit up inside and sold at your local Wal-Mart. But you just have to see it to believe it.

Signs of the (Malyasian) Times

Clear and (maybe) helpful sign

    After years of guessing what signs say in Japan, I'm still reveling in being able to actually read them!  I still marvel at what they say, but at least they say it in English -- a special kind of English, but English nevertheless.  This one is, however, perfectly clear, posted on the outside of a men's restroom in a mall.  In Japan, they never bothered to warn men that there would be a lady inside cleaning the toilets; the lady was just there, doing her job.  Here, you can choose to go in or not.  (The sign's always there, but the lady isn't.)

A very useful sign -- (I added the "ly"!)

      

     This afternoon I had to kill a number of hours waiting for my motorbike to be tuned.  I spent it languishing in an Indian vegetarian restaurant where they're not just down on pork, they're down on ALL meat.  And spitting, too!  I gather that blue penguins aren't allowed to smoke pipes there, either.

    Double and triple parking is a massive problem in Malaysia.  It was bad in Japan, but it's terrible here.  The problem is made worse by restaurants like the one here in our little village that posts this sign.  It encourages drivers to just stop, honk, place their order and pick it up -- all the while blocking a whole lane of traffic where there is only one lane.  And this is just a few doors away from the local police station!  By the way, what exactly is the phone number anyway?  016?  019?   No wonder "dear customers" have to block traffic while they place their orders and wait for them to be served up.  They can't call! 




   




 And lastly, 'tis the season to be jolly and to stuff oneself with turkey.  But if you're a Muslim who wants to observe the American Thanksgiving or a Western-style Christmas feast (???), you can get a "Halal" one, one that's OK for Muslims to eat. 


    Gobble, gobble, gobble!


     
     

Miscellaneous Musings in December

European style Macaroons

      What are these rather garish cookie things?  They're macaroons, I gather.   These colorful (I mean -- "colourful") ones are very popular at this time of year.  They're pretty sweet, and they look like they ought to be hanging on a Christmas tree.  But everybody around here buys, sells and serves them.     But nothing that's so colorful can be good for you, I daresay. 




    Where I come from, a macaroon is a considerably more humble cookie, as in this picture on the left.   Each one contains about 96 calories (compared with over 200 for a chocolate chip cookie), so they're not terribly bad for you, though they certainly aren't health food. 

American style Macaroons

   

Hari Raya Hamper -- Malaysia

  
     Another thing you see everywhere in this country are "hampers" filled with goodies.  We'd call them "gift baskets" in my country, and of course we do have them, especially around the holidays.  But here--my goodness!  Everybody sells or gives hampers to others--hampers full of beauty products, hampers full of baby stuff, hampers full of. . . . well, just about anything!  And some of them are enormously expensive.  One hamper of beauty products donated for our Christmas bazaar was valued at RM 1,000 (US = $320, Jap.Yen = 24,800, GBPounds = 204).  Hm-m--m.  Expensive!


    Hubby has changed barber shops recently.  The other day, he asked the name of the one he now patronizes.  One of the three barbers shrugged his shoulders and said, "No name."  So, I guess you just refer  to it by saying, "The one across from the Hindu temple" because it has no name.  How can a healthy 
business have no name?  Hm-m-m again!


      There are a couple of linguistic quirks around here that make me smile.  One is the use of the verb "revert."  In my mind, "revert" means something like "to return to a former state or condition," as in "If you revert to your former eating habits, you'll gain weight again."  But around here, "revert" is used to mean "get back to you."  So, people will say or email things like this:  "I'll check and revert to you tomorrow. "  It sounds strange to me, but I'm getting used to it.


   Another cute language quirk is the way people refer to things that happened in the past, whether yesterday, last month, or a long time ago.  I've been told it's due to direct translation of something you would say in the local language, Bahasa Malaysia (or Bahasa Melayu, which is also used.)  Anyway, if you want to say anything like "in the past" or "a while ago" or even "last week" you express it simply by saying "last time."  And if you want to talk about something that happened a really long time ago,  you say, "Last, last, last time."  My friend who lives happily in a condo-in-the-sky actually uttered those words to me the other day.  We were talking about something that had happened in the good ole' days, and she said, "Well, last, last, last time, it was ~"   I don't usually correct my friends' English, but I couldn't help saying, "You mean, long, long ago, don't you?"  And with that, I say, "Hm-m-m-m" for the last time tonight!

Bazaar is OVER!!

The 8 donations boxes I made

     I'm ba-a-a-a-ck!    The profound silence from me of late is due mostly to a Christmas Charity Bazaar that literally took over my life.  It certainly wasn't a bazaar in the sense that I'm used to--not like they have back in Japan, or even in the States.  Oh, no!  This was an "opus maximus" that filled a whole shopping center for 12 hours of actual selling and countless others in preparation and set-up.  The sense of relief now that it's over is so overwhelming, I hardly know what to do with my new-found freedom.  I feel like an Asian student, who's been focused for months, if not years, on the goal of passing entrance exams and then--bam!--suddenly the exams are over and the purpose in life is gone.   This was a killer event that took every ounce of strength I had and hours and hours of my time, too.  And I wasn't even the chairwoman of the thing, (thank goodness!)  She worked much, much harder than the rest of us, but she actually seemed to enjoy it!


    The event was held at a shopping mall--no, excuse me--we have to call Straits Quay a "retail marina" since it has expensive boats parked out back and no anchor department store, no supermarket, and no other stores that ordinary mortals might actually shop at.  It's VERY upscale, and we were given the use of the whole inside part of it for free since it was an event intended to raise money for charity.  It was good that it was held indoors, especially for me, because I decided to pay for a table (booth) and become a vendor as well as an organizer.  I sold Japanese kimono jackets (mostly) and other Japanese garments, too.  My items were fresh to this market, so I did pretty well, even though I was new at this selling game and not too good at it.  I didn't know what the market would pay, nor what they actually wanted to buy.  So, it was a shot in the dark for me, this being a vendor.

      On either side of my booth, supported by me and vice versa, there were two charity fundraiser tables also with Japanese themes and staffed by Japanese ladies from our group.  At one of them, gals could pay RM 10  (US $2.15 or Japanese yen 244) to get themselves dressed up in kimono (MY kimono, I might add!)    One older Indian gal found a bright red vintage kimono of mine and had herself all dolled up.  It was fun for them and fun for us to watch them having fun, if you know what I mean.  

            








 At our other charity fundraiser table, a former Japanese calligraphy teacher had put inspirational "kanji"  (Chinese characters) onto small white stones, paper luncheon mats and so on.  They said things like "love," "peace," "dragon," "power" and so on.  The kids really seemed to like those.


    Of course there were tons of other things that went on at this bazaar, from Santa arriving in a vintage car, to tables where local charities could make their pitches, to booths selling food and drink, ranging from durian coffee powder to homemade British chutneys and preserves.  But maybe I'll deal with them in another blog post.  Right now, I'm so tired, I could just fall asleep right here and now . . . . Z-z-z-z-z-z-z !!!

Just Cruisin' Around. . . .

     Would you look at us now!  We've taken our first cruise!  It was just a little one, and only as far away as Thailand, but at least now we know what it's like. Cruising, I mean, not Thailand.  To tell the truth, we don't actually know what Thailand is like, at least not based on this cruise.  The ship spent one day in Phuket and another in Khrabi, but we chose not to disembark at either.  We've been to Phuket and didn't love it.  So, we decided to just stay onboard and get some badly needed rest-and-relaxation.  

In fact, the closest we got to Thailand's famed elephants was this folded-towel one, made by our cabin boy. (The written message said, "Well come to Thailand."  The unwritten one said, "Please give me a tip at the end of the cruise.")  We'd already ridden elephants here and there in Asia, so we didn't feel that we needed to do that again.

 We also got some serious sunburn, especially Hubby, though we're not quite sure how that happened, considering that we carefully avoided lying in the sun.  I guess the sunlight must have reflected off the pool.  It was really cold, that pool!

          We really enjoyed the various nightly entertainments, especially on the final night, the night of the Gala. The troupe was mostly Belarusians, all excellent dancers. I'd seen good Russian dancers on TV, but it was fun to see them up close and personal.


   One thing we did notice is that everywhere, all the time, ship staff were trying to sell us beverages, both alcoholic and not.  They must work mostly on commission because they never stopped trying to get us to buy wine, blended fruit juices, etc.  We caved in the first afternoon, buying a pair of bottles of wine that were kept for us so we could request that they be served to us anytime, anywhere.  It's really a good system, that "bottle keep" onboard system.  


    Would we go cruising again?  Certainly!  But not for a very long time.  We'd look like blimps from overeating if we did!

Malaysians are . . .

. . . . mad for  ("crazy about" in American English) certain things, just like the people of any other country.   Here one biggie is bolsters.  All beds evidently need to have a bolster -- or two or three! Every set of sheets includes a bolster cover, and evidently every kid going off to school to live must take one along.  I've never seen so many on offer in my life, and at all different prices, too.  Of course we now have one, and suddenly I can see their value.  They're darned comfortable, those bolsters!


   Malaysians are crazy for receipts, too.  I've mentioned this in a previous post, as you loyal readers will remember.  (Maybe "formerly loyal," considering how seldom I've been able to post any new stuff recently.  Sorry 'bout that!)  Anyway, now I understand just why it's so important to get a receipt and keep it until it curls up and turns brown on the edges. It's because the potential for things to go wrong is so great, you're quite likely to have to prove later on that you did, indeed, pay for this item or service on such-and-such a day.


    Then there's the matter of drinking water at a restaurant or even at home.  We Americans like things icy cold, whether it be water, cola, beer, whatever.  But I understand that Brits like their beer less cold than Americans do.  And here in Malaysia, when you order water with a meal, you'll be asked "Warm or cold?"  If a group of ladies are out together, the expat ones will order ice water and the local gals will get lukewarm or slightly hot drinking water in a regular glass.  I gather it's something about icy cold water being too hard on your internal organs or such.  There might be something to that, come to think of it!


Another thing is charity events and donations.  I've never seen a place where so many events are held to benefit various charitable organizations or activities.  The place where Hubby works just goes from one charitable event to the next one, year 'round.  Musical concerts, walks for this, that, bike rides, food fests, etc.  It never seems to end!  


      I wonder why this is?  






Maybe it's because there are quite a number of people who need assistance, but that's true of other countries as well.  Maybe it's a religious thing-- merit or karma can be accrued by making donations to the needy, especially during certain festive seasons.  At my husband's workplace, there are frequent free lunches provided by local organizations or even individual families or people, all in the name of charity.   Fairly often someone will come around with red gift-money envelopes for each one of the 100+ people working there.  Inside there will be a small amount of money--just enough to get lunch or some small thing. Once when a whole group of blind people and their caregivers were out having lunch at an Indian restaurant, they found at the end that the entire bill had been paid by a benevolent Indian man who said he had a soft spot in his heart for the blind.  Whatever their motivation, Malaysians seem quite willing to buy tickets or make donations to help others, which is a very admirable trait indeed! 


      

Seasonal Venting

    In this space there should be a picture, and I'm so sorry it isn't here.  (You'll just have to use your imagination.)  If it WERE here, it would show a Malaysian fellow on a rattletrap motorcycle  telling the world where he stands, religiously speaking.  The fellow and I were riding our motorbikes in the same direction at the same time, but, regrettably, my camera was locked up in the back cargo carrier of my bike.  It was the picture that got away!  He had painted every inch of his motorbike (and his T-shirt as well), with colorful phrases in English, all from the Quran  (or Koran), which, by the way, can be translated literally as "the Recitation."  

   Anyway, on the back of his T-shirt he had written across the shoulders, "The Quran says. . ."

and then the rest of his T-shirt, his helmet, his cargo holder, the fenders and every other semi-flat surface of this motorbike told people exactly what the Quran does say, and in English, to boot.  I 'bout had an accident trying to get close enough to him to find out what he thinks I should know about what the Quran says.  Talk about living your religion--he certainly does!

Deepavali Decoration

   Meanwhile, Halloween has come and gone , and I was very surprised to see how popular it is here.  In one  store they had a big "Happy Deepavali" (a very important Hindu festival period) banner hung outside, but everything on view in the store was for Halloween. 

      And, boy, are the decorations here gory and scary!  No smiling, happy Jack-o-Lanterns.   No friendly scarecrows propped up in autumnal fields. Oh, no! Here they seem to have imported only the gory, horrendous aspects of this holiday and whoever makes the displays seems to revel in making them as nasty and dreadful as possible.  Blood and gore, amputated limbs, drunken, fag-smoking skulls and more.   

   






   The skeleton spider here is one I won't forget for a long time to come.  For one thing, it's clever, don't you think?  However, I must confess that the reason I like it is personal, rather than artistic.  There's a lady --  no, a woman -- here who seems to have it in for me and is making my life less than pleasant for reasons I don't completely understand.  (Females and their unlady-like squabbles!)  I've never experienced anything quite like this before in any of the other places I've lived.  Anyway, when I saw this spider, it resonated with me, since it reminds me of her.

   And when I saw this horrific Halloween decoration, I could relate to it very well.  Metaphorically speaking, that's her with the fag sticking out of the corner of the mouth surrounded by booze, and that's me, the head being jerked around, howling in protest.  Doesn't it just tug at your heartstrings?                   

  Happy belated Halloween to you and yours!

    

     

Back to Little India Again

Threading of Eyebrows

    So, what's going on here?  Is this a form of torture?  Well, some might think so, but actually it's an Indian beauty procedure called "threading."   The practitioner uses ordinary sewing thread still on the spool  She puts one end in her mouth, forms a pincer or scissors effect with the other end.  Then she tightens the pincer by jerking her head back.  That action causes the two strands of thread to close like a pair of eyebrow tweezers.  The thread pulls out more hairs at a time than a pair of eyebrow tweezers and, in my opinion, it's less painful and much more thorough.  I've heard that if you have it done to other areas of the face, or even body, it can cause some stinging, but the results are worth it.  And the price is sooo right!  For eyebrows, it costs only RM 5  ($1.60 or 121 yen)   Well worth the money, though I'd have to take a bus down to Little India to get it done.

The US $2,000 Sari 

    On our walking tour of that part of George Town, Penang, we also got to see a lot of other interesting aspects of Indian life here.  We went to a sari shop, where our guide insisted that the owner show us the whole range of his offerings. So, we saw the low end, which is sari costing a few bucks and made of "art silk" (artificial silk).  Then he showed us the high end, represented by this completely beaded maroon and gold number that cost RM 6,000, or US$ 2,000.  (In Japanese yen that's 240,000.)  I couldn't resist buying a sari (NOT this one!) even though I have no intention of ever wearing it.  Too pretty!

Flowers for Hindu deities

The man who makes 'em

      We saw the man who makes flower "leis," not for people, but for the religious statures in their homes and temples.  Marigolds and jasmine flowers are preferred.   Then we went to the temple where some of the flower garlands are donated to the gods and goddesses.

Hindu priest and a parishioner 

   When we visited the Hindu temple, we learned that the priests there are over from India on 2-year work visas, kind of like everybody else.  They are encouraged to be married so they can empathize with the trials and tribulations of married life.

A Hindu deity 

    We only dipped our toes into the real life of Little India, but I certainly know more now than I did before about this fascinating place where I now live.


     

Fishin' in the Pool

     Lots of things happen around our condo swimming pool.  On Monday afternoons, a swimming coach comes in to give a lesson to the children of the young Japanese mothers who want their kids not to fall behind their counterparts back in Japan.


     The local kids just shriek and hoot and have a noisy good time.  The Japanese kids, always accompanied by an adult, as per the pool regulations, are shushed and kept quiet by their parents.  Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks!

You shoulda seen the one that got away!

   However, until yesterday, I'd never actually seen anybody FISHING in our swimming pool.  He did this for hours and never actually caught anything.  Imagine that! 


   Our low-rise, low-density condo complex is constantly undergoing some kind of modification or repair, and for this we are most grateful.  They're always plucking weeds, rebuilding stairs, re-doing walls and so on.  This is very reassuring to us because it's the sign of a well-managed  complex.  Since this is our home, we need it to be well-managed! 


     This complex is apparently popular with Japanese families here for 2-3 years on a company assignment.  I've often wondered why, besides the "birds of a feather flock together" syndrome.  Recently it was explained to me that 1)  it's along the route taken by the Japanese school bus, and 2) the Japanese wives are often not allowed to drive by their husbands and from this complex they can walk most places they need to go.


   But unusual things happen here, too.  Just after we arrived, a drunk barfly gal followed an Australian bloke back here and took a drunken nosedive off the third-floor balcony.  She wasn't too seriously injured, thanks to the nicely-maintained shrubbery that broke her fall.  Last month we had five cases of dengue fever in our well-maintained complex here, necessitating a visit from Public Health .

    And then yesterday our friendly, but super-strict gate guardman, Simon, stopped us as we entered, wanting to give us something.  The "something" turned out to be a boxed set, plus two additional albums, of signed records by Joan Sutherland, the noted Australian opera signer.  The signatures say things like, "Happy Birthday, Suida.  Best wishes, Joan Sutherland."  They aren't in mint condition, but they aren't all scratched up, either.  I wonder if they're actually worth anything and how I can find out?


    Life is never dull here in Penang!

Wine is For Sharing . . . .

Guy Hooper

. . . .or so said Mr. Guy Hooper, who came all the way from Chile to present his company's Santa Ines wines to Penangites.  

Scallops in 3 different sauces

The Lobster

    It was our first anniversary in Penang!  How to make it memorable on a budget?   Luckily, the Santa Ines Winemaker’s dinner fell on the very day of our anniversary.   After reading through the luscious-sounding menu and elegant wine list, we were quick to sign up.  Who could resist Grilled Pacific Scallops,  Baked Baby Lobster and Herb-crusted Rack of Lamb?  Not us!

            The price was incredibly cheap, considering all the gold-or-silver medal winning wines. Each table was blanketed with glistening stemmed wine glasses that were kept full.  Luscious food appeared, each dish more fancy than the one before. We had a grand ole’ time and then, suddenly, it was 11:00 and time to leave the realm of clinking glasses. 

Tiled Wall at Hotel

       By the time the dinner was over, we were in no condition to get home safely, but luckily we didn’t have to.  We’d booked a room right there in the Penaga Hotel, so all we had to do was make it up one floor.  The hotel staff were quite solicitous, whether out of human kindness or simply to protect their hallway full of Chinese antiques that we were in danger of ricocheting off of.  They escorted us right to our door and kindly helped us get through it.

Lobby of Penaga Hotel

            The room was lovely—a tasteful mix of traditional Chinese furnishings paired with tutti-fruiti-colored modern leather furniture.  Works of art were displayed throughout the hotel, including in the guest rooms, a far cry from the “hotel schmaltz” that you see in the chain hotels. I gather that many of the pieces are original art produced by those who’ve been chosen to participate in the Penaga Hotel’s “artist in residence” program. 

Lovely Mix of Old & New!

     
    The bathroom was well-appointed with a super-modern shower, a Jacuzzi, and the occasional nod to the hotel’s past in the vintage vanity and mirror.  The four-poster bed was comfortable, and the little balcony was perfectly suited to sitting with an evening drink or morning coffee and watching the world pass by.  They’ve done an excellent job of blending the old and the new in that charming little hotel!  

Mr. Hooper characterised one of his Santa Ines wines as being “easy, not too complex, friendly, not difficult to understand.”  I think the same can be said for the Penaga Hotel and indeed for Penang itself.

   

Pink, Pink Party Fun

  Who are these luscious-looking gals?  They're gingerbread ladies and they were part of the fun at a recent charity event that I attended here in Penang.  It was called "Fun in the Sun," and the idea was to raise money to support a pair of charities here that help women with cancer.  And they certainly did do that!


    These little cookies were part of the entertainment.  Each table was given two gingerbread men that we had to turn into gingerbread ladies with pink icing.  (I did the one on the right, who looks a lot like me, I daresay.)  The Japanese gals at my table did the one on the left, which is why she's called "Geisha Girl."  We didn't win, but we had fun trying!


   The event was held at the ultra- fancy E&O hotel, which was an immediate draw right there.  The ladies who attended were the real upper-crust of Penang ladies' social society and virtually all of them were wearing pink.  (Except me, because I don't have any pink clothes whatsoever.)

    Th ballroom was beautifully decorated, all in shades of pink and white.  There was a raised stage on which they had a very extensive and exciting fashion show.  The models were mostly local gals--our own friends and acquaintances.  It was fun to see people you actually know all decked out in gobs of make-up and hairstyles that are far from what they normally wear.  The clothes were the kind you'd love to be able to wear, but either couldn't afford or couldn't find the courage to wear--at least not ME!


    The food tables at the back of the ballroom were just amazing.  For a mere US $16 (1,200 yen and 10 pounds), we could get, essentially, any breakfast food we wanted.  Freshly-cooked omelets, pastries, fruit galore, cold cuts, hot dishes, pink sweets of all kinds, and much more.  The event lasted from 9:00 to noon, so some people (like ME!) had lunch there as well as breakfast.  Wher I come from, that spread would have cost at least double what we paid.

   They had all sorts of silent auction offerings, too, mainly 2-or-3-night get-away weekends at various hotels or dinners in resort hotels.  There were merchandise offerings, as well, like Persian carpets, hampers (baskets) of beauty products, jewelry, artwork and such.  I didn't bid on anything, but many ladies did.  I understand that the silent auction is a huge money-maker and I can see why, since it's an in-kind donation and whatever people pay for it is all profit. 


       Last I heard, they'd raised RM 40,000 ( about US $12,675  or 8,000 British pounds)  We all had a wonderful time, too.  This isn't exactly what I thought I'd be doing in my retirement years, but I wouldn't have wanted to miss it!