March 24, 2008

Well it's Monday again and I'm back being domesticated for the day. Friday and Saturday, Jim and I didn't do a whole lot. Friday we had dinner and then drinks in the hotel lounge. I stayed up late that night talking on the phone so I didn't get up until late on Saturday. We were supposed to go the flea market in Bangsar and get haircuts but neither of us were feeling it so we had a lazy day at home, watching B-movies on HBO. We did order pizza delivery from Dominoes. We tried calling Pizza Hut first and was told that they were too busy to do any deliveries at the time. I thought, isn't that the point? It was in the middle of a huge downpour and since most deliveries are done on scooters, it was probably more of a safety issue. So I called Dominoes and it took about 15 min. just to place the order. It was a combination of too many questions and the guy I was speaking to spoke English, just very fast so it was hard for me to understand exactly what he was asking me. I had to give him 2 phone numbers, the address, a cross street, suite number, the name of my first grade teacher and first boyfriend...you get my point, lots of questions!! After all that, it was time to tell him what we wanted to order and the questions started all over again. Jim wanted pepperoni & mushroom, beef or chicken pepperoni? I wanted the supreme, beef or chicken sausage? beef or chicken pepperoni? beef or chicken salami?green or red capsicum (peppers, I had to look that one up last time) and wings, I thought for sure he was going to ask me if I wanted beef or chicken wings at the rate we were going!! I wasn't sure if we were going to get what we ordered the way we ordered it, but eventually it arrived and everything came out right. I must say that not having the option of pork, make a pizza taste totally different, almost bland, definitely lacking in pork fat!! I'm discovering that the more we eat out, the more I enjoy my own cooking.

Sunday was the F1 car race I mentioned before, and because someone cancelled, there was a ticket available for me to go. I'm not really into car racing but if it involves a crowd, food, and drinking then I'm game. We got up early so we could go to Jim's work in Puchong to meet with everyone else and the clients. DHL arranged to have 2 shuttle vans transport us and also put together some "gifts", it was a DHL backpack that included ear plugs, a towel, a hat and a schedule for the races. There was about 20-25 people who went, some employees, some clients, I'm not sure who was who because the introductions were brief and not really informing. I know the guy who stuck with me and Jim for most of the day was named Nicholas and he was from Sweden, and I also know a couple of people who Jim works with but no one really engaged in any conversation and so I developed the mentality that it didn't really matter if I knew who everyone was because I was just along for the ride and would probably never see any of them again. The racetrack was located in Sebang by the Kuala Lumpur Int'l Airport and the traffic wasn't as bad as I thought it would be considering the amount of publicity this race was getting. F1 racing is very popular, like the equivalent of NASCAR in the States but without all of the rednecks ( sorry). The track is not one big circle, it actually has several turns and the cars can go from 0 to 160 km back to 0 in about 4 seconds. The shuttles dropped us off at the front gates and immediately everyone who we arrived with went their separate ways, I thought this was odd, I thought we were a group, but everyone had their own tickets so it was more like do whatever you want, we'll meet up again eventually. Nichoas tagged along with me and Jim. One thing I can say about the whole day was it was hot ( not in the Paris Hilton sense), I mean it was HOT!!!! Good thing I had the towel so I could wipe the sweat out of my eyes, eventually Jim wet his and draped it over his head. Outside the arena they had vendors set up from all the luxury car manufacturers selling souvenirs. Ferrari seemed to be the favorite of most of the locals. I picked up a hat for my Dad to add to his collection, now I just have to mail it. Nicholas is an avid diver and most of his conversation steered toward that even though Jim and I have only considered taking a diving course. It sounds like he's been everywhere, he recently flew in from Thailand where he was diving. He bought a jacket to use for when he's done diving which I couldn't believe that they would even consider selling jackets considering how hot it is here. Eventually we found our seats where we were united with the rest of our group and watched a couple of preliminary races. I'm not sure what the appeal is behind car racing, I can understand the fascination between man and machine and the power involved, but as a spectator sport to me it can be boring. Number one, it's LOUD, thank God for the ear plugs, and since your ears are plugged you can't have a conversation, where we were sitting was decent, the cars passed by us twice and then disappeared to the other side of the track which we couldn't see so you had to watch the Jumbo-tron tv's to see what was going on especially if you wanted to see anyone crash or spin out. There wasn't any commentary going on unless you bought the transitter headsets so it was difficult to tell who was leading and after a while the sound of the motors started putting me to sleep. As a matter of fact, when the main race ended I had my head on Jim's shoulders with my eyes closed dozing off. The Ferrari car won, the driver was Scandinavian and he was cute! I think the most surprising thing about the day was I was people watching and even though there was thousands of people there it was very quiet, not sure if it was because no one could hear, but if it wasn't for the race cars it could have been mistaken for a day at the park, that's how quiet and civilized everyone was. There wasn't even cheering for the winning driver even though majority of the fans were rooting for Ferrari...weird, not like NASCAR where surely there would have been a fight. Still it was interesting to go to, next year it's supposed to be held at night, maybe we'll go again, I'll bring a book next time.

We all shuffled our way back out of the arena and our shuttles were waiting diligently by the front gate. The traffic leaving of course was worse than coming in, but not too bad, once we exited the main area, of course the driver had to weave between other cars and pedestrians, there wasn't any traffic jams. Since Nicholas had taken a taxi to the DHL office, Jim and I gave him a ride back into the city which by this time, the afternoon rain had started. I was told by a guy named Sanjay that the Malaysian government actually pays a witch doctor to perform a ceremony so that it doesn't rain during the race, something like 20k RM, and if it does rain then he has to give them a refund. Still not a bad days pay if it rains after the race. Even though we really didn't do anything at the race we were tired and a little sunburned and called it a night after finding a KFC for dinner.

I didn't realize until this morning that we completely missed Easter. I knew that it was coming up but in all the excitement of going to the race I totally forgot. I guess since it's mostly Muslims here, it really wasn't advertised although I know that some hotels sponsored a brunch and there are a sprinkle of Christian churches in the city. So Happy Easter everyone, I know I missed out on the ham, more than you'll ever know!!