Ella's engagement ceremony

My lovely team-mate Ella had her engagement ceremony on Sunday, so Jeff, Irene, Liza & I headed out to her parent's place at Klang. I really don't know how to describe it - I've never been to anything like it!

The ceremony actually has almost nothing to do with Ella & her fiance. She was upstairs in her room, and Muzaffar only arrived after it had finished. Instead, both families were gathered in a circle on the floor in the living room, and exchanged beautifully presented gifts (7 from the girl's side, 5 from the boy's side including the ring which Mus' grandmother went upstairs to give to Ella). They discussed the terms of the marriage - the date and costs etc. Some of the relatives hadn't met before so they were introduced. After it was finished, there was food - of course, this is Malaysia! The women sat inside to eat while the men ate at a table set up outside. Ella came downstairs (looking gorgeous in the outfit she bought specially and the make-up she had done professionally) and Mus arrived. They had lots of photos with people and it was all very relaxed.

What surprised us foreigners the most was how it was all about the families, not the couple! Apparantly this was a pretty casual and modern version. Traditionally the bride-to-be didn't appear at all, staying hidden until after the boy's family had left. And the terms of marriage were discussed in much greater detail - in this case the couple had discussed some things themselves already. Mus' dad wasn't there in person either, his uncle spoke on behalf of his family.

So now I know what Ella was running around shopping for gifts, clothes & makeup for!

Chinese New Year dinner

Alan continued his tradition of inviting trainees to have dinner with his family on the eve of the first day of Chinese New Year. They're pretty brave - there must have been 10 of us!! We were at one table, and his family at another, so it wasn't quite what I expected.. but the hospitality was great! The food (all home-cooked of course) was delicious, a huge esky (ice box, chilly-bin, whatever you like to call it) was full of cold drinks, and we sat out the front of the house doing what can only be described as 'chilling'. Perfect :)

Yee Sang is a Malaysian tradition for Chinese New Year, and involves a plate full of, um, heaps of stuff? Well, i could recognise the noodles, ginger, and honey, but there was lots and it was brightly coloured. Everyone dug in with their chopsticks to mix everything and try to draw the noodles up high - it represents the amount of luck that you will get. Pretty fun, and tasty too :)

It seems that dinner with your family is the most important part - after this you're free to go to friends' houses to hang out, and indeed random friends started dropping in as the night went on. Nice and relaxed. The house was decorated for CNY and firecrackers were going off around the place intermittently - making us all jump! Major fireworks were also around, especially as we were driving home around midnight! Alan's parents even gave us red envelopes with money - so sweet!

The Myth

It' s a myth that Mackers had red bean McFlurries for Chinese New Year.

I love red bean. I also love McFlurries. And of course anything in the "Prosperity" range is appealing. So, you can imagine I was eager to try one. I made 4 trips to 2 different outlets at different times of the day over a 2 week period. The first 3 times I was told that, no, no red bean right now, just Oreo and M&M. Which are both good, but not festive and not red bean. The 4th time I was told that they didn't have any ice cream that day. Sounds suspicious huh?

THEN on the first day of Chinese New Year (Sunday) I tried again. Sorry. None. I noticed the poster wasn't displayed, and enquired further. It seems it was a promotion, and had finished. A Chinese New Year promotion that finished before the first day (there are around 15 I think) of Chinese New Year! Unbelievable!

Did you know...

Malaysian drivers don't have blind spots, so they never need to check them before they change lanes. Some of them also can communicate their intent to turn telepathically so they don't need to indicate. My telepathic powers aren't that well developed yet so as a pedestrian I just assume everyone is turning and make a carefully-timed run for it :)

There are so many one-way streets in the Klang Valley (KL & surrounding cities), I'm so glad I don't drive here.

People in Malaysia often don't say 'oi!' or even 'excuse me' to get your attention. They make a noise, I guess its kind of a sucking noise... it sounds to me like one of those noises you'd expect uncles to make to get a baby to smile... but I'm the one smiling when people do it to staff at a restaurant!

In Malaysia, people can dissapear into a shopping centre for an entire day of shopping, eating, (free air-con), movies, more shopping, more eating... ugh. After 3 hours, get me out of there!!! The new shopping centre near our office has finally opened, and it's my new favourite 'me-time' place. Why? There are hardly any people in it! It's such a peaceful experience, and, I've decided, really the only way to shop. Even if it is mostly just window-shopping! ;)

According to Andrea's colleagues, you shouldn't eat chicken when you're sick. This is in direct contrast to the popular belief in Australia (and where else?) that chicken soup will improve any kind of cold-like illness. Her collegues also asked her not to eat her lunch with her fork, to use her spoon instead. You may remember that you rarely are given a knife to eat with in Malaysia. They were concerned that she could hurt herself eating with the fork. So sweet and yet...

Actually, I'm a convert now. I totally enjoy eating my rice & whatever with a spoon. I only miss a knife when I'm trying to eat chicken off the bone. The spoon is such a fantastic eating utensil - nothing falls through any gaps, you can scoop efficiently with one single movement, and the gently curved edge means that stuff doesn't fall off before it gets to your mouth. Great stuff, really.

The Year of the Boar

Wishing everyone a happy and successful Chinese New Year!!!

Update re my new year fun soon :)

Flic x

Biiiiig update

Ok, so since I wasn't blogging for so so long, here's a giant update on stuff:

Thaipusam
This is a Hindu festival about penance and thanksgiving, and apparantly it's bigger in KL than in India! Check out the link, but in short, people walk around 8km in a (very long, around 10, 000 people!) procession to a temple inside a cave. They carry tubs of milk on their heads or 'kavadi' burdens of decorated deities etc. Some have piercings (skewers, hooks with limes hanging off them..) in their cheeks, chests or backs, and some are in trances. Pretty, um, spectacular to watch, I guess! And soooooo many people - apparantly 1.3 million were at the Batu Caves over the 3 days. A group of us went on the first day, we arrived at around 8am and there were just people everywhere - luckily we had a few tall white guys with us so the tiny asian chicks could just follow them and we didn't lose anyone :)

Afterwards we headed back to Bangsar for lunch at the awesome Indian place near the LRT station - our fav. There was some pretty interesting discussion about race vs nationality vs culture and everything in between! What does it mean to be 'Chinese'? Is 'European' a race? Why do Thai people who are ethnic Chinese have Thai names and call themselves 'Thai', while Malaysian people who are ethnic Chinese have Chinese names and often call themselves 'Chinese'? Man, times like these I really appreciate having such a diverse bunch of friends :)

Japanese Culture
Had a pretty Japan-oriented weekend last weekend. It started on Saturday evening with Li'er's tickets to GamarJobat. It's a mime show - the first time I've seen one that goes for more than 5 mins I think - and it was absolutely hilarious. We had front and centre tickets (thanks Vishen!) and were scared we'd end up in the show, as the first part was classic magic tricks and mime stunts that involved quite a lot of audience participation. And you know, after the first 2 mins, you didn't even notice that they weren't speaking. It just wasn't neccessary. They were simply amazing. Afterwards we bought posters and got them signed - hehe first time I've ever gotten anyone to sign a poster for me I think! I'm totally jealous - what an awesome job. Travel around the world, making people laugh. *sigh*. It got me keen to check out more live arts stuff - it just makes you feel so alive!

Sunday evening I caught up with Sharms and we ate at a new Japanese place at Times Square. Kind of random - I ordered cold tea and they came back and said they only had hot tea. They didn't have any ice. What the? No cold drinks. Only room temp bottled water. This is a tropical country! Hmmm. Anyway, the food wasn't bad, and was nice for a change from Chinese, Indian and Malay!

Monday night I was at Mid-Valley - I hate going on the weekend, it's like being at the Royal Show. Unfortunately, being the week before Chinese New Year, it was crazy even on a week night! But I was in Jusco and I went to the basement to go to Carrefour to get some groceries... and they have a supermarket in Jusco - with HEAPS of Japanese fresh food and groceries! Awesome! So many brands and products I recognise from Japan, I just wanted to buy everything! So nostalgic...

Mahjong
I tried to learn to play Mahjong once, in an old house in a village near, well, nothing much but a section of the Great Wall of China! Kinda romantic I guess. It's the Chinese equivalent of Poker, and Chinese people around the world play it, especially at Chinese New Year. Anyway, Jenny's Mum told her to make sure Fabien got some practice before CNY so he wouldn't lose all his 'Ang-pow' (red envelope with money) to the aunts and uncles, so we made a night of it last weekend. While Jenny was the only one who actually understood the points system, Fabien & I had some luck (and while I'm pretty crap Fabien is really good!) and we came out with a pile of chips to be proud of! Thanks for the tuition guys!

Scottish Country Dancing
What else would you do in Malaysia?! I joined at the YMCA since the gym is still not open (FEB 28 - I'm counting down!) and I figured it would be a good chance to interact with another side of KL. Most people I interact with here are young people from Malaysia and around the world, and the crew at work. But the Scottish Country Dancing group is mostly older Chinese ladies (a few exceptions), who gossip, play mahjong, and visit their kids and grandkids living abroad! They're pretty interesting to chat with, AND scottish country dancing is so cute! It's kind of like how they dance in Pride & Prejudice, with couples in lines doing stuff in formations etc. Anyway, it's different, it's not a big time commitment, and I figure I'm getting in touch with my Scottish heritage?! Some of the ladies have invited me to a Chinese New Year celebration next weekend. Mahjong was mentioned, but I rekon they play with hard cash rather then chips... and I don't have kids sending me foreign currency... so I think I might just form a part of the cheer squad! :)

back in the blogworld!

Okay so the blog's been a litle quiet of late - basically I had a technical problem and was hoping it would go away rather than actually doing anything to get it fixed. ANYWAY now all is good! Here's something I wrote a month ago but couldn't post:

Blind Traditional Chinese Massage. Li'er and I have both been feeling a bit sore & stiff and Irene always rekons the blind massage place at Brickfields is great, so we went and checked it out. The place itself couldn't be less *spa* like, but the guy at the desk was lovely and so were the ladies who massaged us - all of them are blind. As for the girl who was massaging me, her weapon of choice was her elbow. And she's pretty skinny. So.. it was quite painful! Especially my shoulders, I guess I spend too much time sitting at a desk :( She asked if I wanted it softer, but I said it was okay. No pain no gain, right? That night I was pretty sore. But by the next day it felt great :D