Day 4 Sunday

Sunday:

Although Mom did not say it, she is very interested in the Skype program. The last two days, every time I Skype, she will come closer to see what I am doing, and who I am talking to. She is quite taken by how cute Lena is and enjoys the Skype'ing with Lena. When she sees Lena, she could not keep smiling. This morning, I find her hanging around the laptop, asking questions about the camera. I said, you want to skype?, she immediately sat down next to me, intently watching the screen. She waited patiently while I tried to call Tim, and ask to skype.
We waited a little while, and when I noticed a message from Sarah that says she has to call back later, and related that to Mom, she walked away sadly.
When Sarah called back five minutes later, Mom immediately came out from the kitchen, and sat next to me. We talked to Sarah and Lena, and Mom was all smiles.
Sarah said the new furniture came in today, so we got to see the c ouch, love seat, coffee table, and end table, and the couch pillows. They are nice. I took a picture of Lena on the new couch.



We made plans to have a family gathering for Sunday lunch. Everyone has been informed, so we expect to see Siew Kai, Siew Loon and Sui Fun, and their families for lunch. Sui Laun and Siew Cheong, our Kuala Lumpur siblings, will probably come visit us next weekend, and we will do the same gathering again. One has to eat, right?

Seng, Ann, and I went out around 10 AM, in search of the Sunday lunch ingredients. Ann has the list: shrimp, roast pork, green vegetables, and so on, but first, we have to drop off Theng2 and her friend at the ballet school.
The ballet school is upstairs amongst a shop house. On the way, I asked if she is going to give us a recital. "Very laughable (Hau Siau)". This is her answer to everything she deem us too stupid to bother to answer. "What if I give you fifty dollars if you do the recital?", "Hau siau".

We stopped at a wet market. Seng and I went in, leaving Ann to stay in the car. Seng bought 2 kilos of the shrimp, about 4.5 pounds. Next for the roast pork. We found a pork vendor. She has only a small sliver of roast pork left hanging on a hook. That is all she has. She let that go for three ringgits, a bargain really, but too small a piece. We must look elsewhere.

The shopping took us to another market. Ann was able to find most of the vegetables she wanted. I saw a Chinese medicine shop nearby, and went over to check them out. I was hoping to find some Chinese "cool" tea. I believe the recent non-stop eating of Hokkien mee and Curry mee made my body head rise up. I need some herb tea to cool it down. The vendor's wife came out of the shop, as i was approaching it. She gave me an evil eye, so I decided not to bother looking there.

I move around the store, and found a kuay vendor. He sells Chinese cakes and snakes. I bought some cakes: three slices of Western-styled pound cake, four "nine layer cake", four "red ang koo" red dumpling-like snake cakes with green bean paste inside. (Green bean, or munk beans, is green outside, but when cooked and mashed into paste, it is yellow in color.) I asked for some coconut cakes. The vendor was honest. He said the coconut cakes are not fresh, and he did not want to sell them to me.

That done, I met up with Seng and Ann. They were all set to go as well. We put some of the purchases in the trunk, and the others, more perishable items inside the car. Our next stop? food court near Perak road?, where Seng knows of a famous Roti Canai vendor. This is an Indian break (roti) that is made of white wheat, cooked on a flat griddle, and served smashed up with the clasping of the hands, with a side of curry sauce.

When we arrived, Ann asked for the kind with egg batter. Sadly, that is sold out, and the vendor was not willing to start a new batch, so we have to settle for the roti without eggs. We all ordered coffee from the drinks vendor. I saw something I like, so I stood up. Ann immediately stopped me: "Where are you going?". I said I was going to get some "Har Kow (shrimp dumplings", and she advised me not to do so, since we are close to lunch time, that I should not spoil my apetite. After a while, she relented, and I ordered 6 dumplings.

The roti canai is good. Crispy bread dipped into the curry sauce reveals a spicy taste that is not too sweet, as those I have tried in other places. The shrimp dumpling, the complete opposite to the roti canai, is sweet, not in a sugary fashion, but in the sweetness of tastes of the shrimp and the water chestnuts. I thoroughly enjoyed both.

On the way back to the car, we past by a street vendor selling cell phone SIM cards. We bought one for 8 ringgits, good for a month, and loaded with an initial 33 minutes. The number for the SIM card is 012 447 6170, so this is going to be my phone number while I am here. The SIM card, interestingly, does not fit into my Nokia cell. When we inserted the card into the SIM card slot of my U.S. issued cell phone, it asked for a privacy code, which we do not have. Seng was able to find a used phone from someone he knows and put in the SIM card for me.

Thus armed with the food ingredients, and full stomachs, we headed for home.




p.s. I notice my computer clock is still on U.S. time, on Saturday 6/13/09, when it should be Sunday 6/14. I adjusted the clock.