Friday September 19, 2008

Selamat Ramadhan, Selamat Hari Raya!! Yes, we are in the midst of "holiday" season here. Let me start with Ramadhan, it is the month of fasting where Muslims around the world abstain from food, drink, smoking, and sex from dawn to dusk ( for some reason when I ask, everyone always mentions the sex part...didn't know the people here really enjoyed afternoon "quickies" ). Fasting is one of the Five Pillars of the religion and one of the highest forms of worshipping. Abstinence from earthly pleasures and desires is regarded as an act of obediance and submission as well as atonement for sins. It starts in the 9th month of the Islamic calendar although the date changes every year according to the moon, an Imam ( holy man ) will declare the exact date. So early in the morning families will have a meal ( Sahur ) before the sun comes up and then pray, throughout the day when they show signs of thirst or hunger ( or horniness) they will pray and then after sunset they have a meal ( Buka Puasa ) and pray again, five prayers total p/day. Ramadhan lasts a month but the last 10 days are considered highly blessed especially the 27th day which is called the "Night of Destiny". It is believed that on this day Muhammed received the first revelation of the Qur'an, subsequently during the 30 days of Ramadhan, the entire Qur'an is read aloud in the mosques. In addition to fasting Muslims are encouraged to help the needy and homeless financially and emotionally because they feel their reward will be 70 times greater ( don't ask, I don't know how they came up with 70 ). At the end of of the month is a celebration called Eid-ul-Fitr also known as Hari Raya.

Hari Raya means "Celebration day of Fasting", to me it's like Christmas for Muslims. At the end of 30 days everyone gets together in their new clothes, exchange gifts, go to mosque, and then have feasts. All of the malls have promotions, decorations, and play Hari Raya music. People also do renovations on their homes during Ramadhan so they can be ready when their families come to celebrate Hari Raya ( we have about 5 homes around us that are construction zones ), so much for giving up earthly pleasures. I don't mind all of it, I get some good deals when I go shopping because of it all plus when they're done for some reason, everyone gets into the Christmas spirit. Muslims don't celebrate Christmas but from what I've heard they do exchange presents.

Now back to our life. Oso is a fixed man now with clean teeth. He had his "surgery" and seems to be doing better although his patience with Sox is thinner now. I feel bad for him but I know it's all for the best. Jim had a first last week. He was driving somewhere and got pulled over for talking on his cell phone without a headset. He didn't have his passport or license so the officer had to call his supervisor over. He started explaining to Jim how much he was going to have to pay in fines and such so Jim asked what could they do to fix the "problem", he had already taken some money out of his wallet and was holding it discreetly close to the inside of the car door. The supervisor whispered for Jim to hold the money lower, then the supervisor said "You can buy me a drink sometime" and took the money, then sent Jim on his way. Jim's first bribe! I thought it was funny. Something not so funny was the other night we were watching tv downstairs and we had the patio door open so the dogs could in and out when all of a sudden I saw something fly into the house. Everyone knows that I hate bugs and lizards, but this was a bat! I freaked out and laid down on the floor. Jim was like "What's wrong!" and I'm like "There's a bat in the house!". Next thing you know we're both on the floor crawling until we can run upstairs and locked ourselves in the bedroom. I had just seen an Ellen show where a man had a Malaysian bat on and all I remember him saying was that they could get so big where their wing span would be 6 feet long! We waited for a while and then I sent Jim downstairs to check everything out. Thankfully the bat found it's way back outside but nowadays when I go outside I'm checking every corner for flying rodents.

So that's been whats happening with us. Only other thing I can think of is recently we were warned of upcoming riots. Apparently the political opposition says that they have enough members to take over the government. Odd enough, they announced the date they were planning the riots to everyone but at the last minute it was changed and rescheduled. I don't know, if I was planning a coup I don't know if I would call up the newspapers and announce it, wouldn't you want it to be a surprise? Rest assured that we are keeping up with the updates so we can avoid going out when it does happen, if it happens, although a lot of people have told Jim that no one will riot in Bangsar where we live. Supposedly this is an affluential area so we should be safe. I'll let you know. We have also booked some flights home so we'll be seeing everyone soon enough plus we'll be in Langkawi next weekend for Jim's birthday. I probably won't post anything until we come back and hopefully I'll have some delightful stories to tell.

Friday September 5, 2008

Well right now I am at G&D with Mel hanging out while she does a photo shoot for the new menu they have rolled out recently. I decided to come up and offer some of my advice to her and to keep her company. My activities have been limited this week due to a foot sprain. Last weekend Sim and I went for massages which I was really looking forward to because I really enjoyed the last one. Unfortunately for me I did not get the same masseuse. This time I had an Indonesian woman who gave me an Indonesian massage which consisted of her walking on my back ( which honestly felt great!), twisting my arms and legs in ways I didn't think they could go, and most painfully of all: torturing my feet. I swear she had my feet in a pair of vice grips! And even though I was yelling and screaming in pain she kept going. Funny thing was she asked Sim if she was hurting me! So my reaction was "No I always scream this loud when I feel good!". She said that she could tell by touching my feet that I have a lot of internal problems and she was trying to work the "stones" out of my feet. My reply was that I'm aware of my internal problems and unless she was going to cure me in an afternoon, I'd live with them. The entire massage wasn't complete torture, just when she touched my feet, I swear her thumbs are made of steel. After all that pain we decided to treat ourselves to an indulgent lunch at the Telawi St. Bistro. Sim and I sipped Moet champagne, nibbled on some wonderful tapas, and indulged in Thai chicken & asparagus risotto. It was a lot of fun, and we got to catch up because Sim has been traveling with her job lately so it hasn't afforded us a lot of time to spend together. And that's when we decided to continue our afternoon at her house in the pool.

We got Jim to come along, originally he and I were supposed to go to a movie ( it dawned on us one day that we hadn't been to the movie theater since we got here and thought we would enjoy the experience even though the movies are censored to high hell ) but he wanted to go swimming. We taught Sim how to play Spades and she picked it up pretty quick. There is a swim up table and stools in her pool so we were playing there and drinking when I fell over the side! I didn't see the step that leads into the main pool and I banged my foot. I didn't think anything of it until we got home later and it was swollen. So all this week I've been limping around while my foot changes colors. Everyone thinks I need an x-ray but I've injured myself enough to know when I've broken a bone or not. We have learned that Malaysians will go to the doctor for any reason whatsoever so of course my friends want me to go and see someone.

So that's why I haven't really done anything this week, plus for some reason even though it's not the rainy season yet, it has been raining cats and dogs everyday. I really hope that it clears up by the time we go to Langkawi in a couple of weeks. I would hate to be at the beach and not be able to enjoy the sun and surf. I also know that I have missed some birthdays and I'm sorry but everyone knows by now how I feel about the post office here. Jim has also decided to apply for a new position here, if he gets it he would become the director and of course that would extend our time in Kuala Lumpur, I also suspect it would require more of his time and right now I'm feeling selfish because of a crisis that happened at one of the warehouses I haven't seen too much of him lately. He is trying very hard to not make me feel neglected but I know he has to do what he has to do and I'm fortunate to have some friends to help occupy my time as well as the dogs. Speaking of the dogs, Oso has really taken a liking to Sox, I mean REALLY taken a liking to Sox, like in a boyfriend-boyfriend kind of way. I had to separate them for a couple of days and now I think the worst is over but poor Oso has an appointment this weekend so we can strip him of his manhood. Til next time...