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!