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!