It’s raining .. again! We sure have had our share!
But that’s ok. The ground here seems to soak it up.. the roads are designed so it runs off the main highways.. and then there are those open drainage ditches I complain about: everything has a reason eh!
It may put a bit of a damper on the funeral on the corner though.
Vas called me and said there were clowns, and fellows walking around on stilts. We had heard the music last night.. bag-pipes and gongs mostly.. and fireworks. We knew there was something going on.
Eid isn’t until tomorrow and the noise was coming from the tents that blocked the road to our place, yet again, by the Chinese and Indian houses, not the Malays.
I gathered up my camera and walked down to take pictures, figured they wouldn’t mind as I had to listen to all the racket. I asked a young Chinese man at the outskirts of the action what was going on: “No English” he says.
I didn’t see any clowns, but there were two Indian women standing in front of their house (driveway completely blocked by the tents) enjoying the festivities, and asked them. “Chinese Celebration.. Diary” they told me. A what? I ask again. “Diary.. Old Man”. Then I notice the big wooden, rather expensive looking casket. And put my camera down.. I am not sure what they meant by Diary exactly.. other than it does have the word ‘die’ in it. English is a little odd at times.
I think the old fellow must have had a good life. He was apparently very old.. there were lots of people gathered around. At the front of his casket there was a table with a ton of flowers.. and a full roasted pig.. head and all. It didn’t seem to be anyone’s dinner.. it seems more like it was placed there to go with the old guy.
There were flower petals spread everywhere.. people sitting on plastic chairs, or on the ground, all dressed in brilliant colours. There were candles. Old men sat chanting.. all dressed in white with white oddly tied turban-like head dressing. Young men wore blue T-shirts and seemed to be holding a vigil over the casket.
I left.. don’t need to go to a funeral. Not sure what Vas was seeing.. Clowns?
Anyway.. I have come back home to tell you about the rain.. it rains hard here! And often. I think the monsoons were about to start and decided to get an early jump on things. The drainage ditches fill up.. the cockroaches run for cover inside my bathroom.. the fish swim into my kitchen. I haven’t told you about everything, or uploaded pictures because, well.. the screen on my Mac computer crashed.
I took it to a repair guy and he said it would take a month and cost me about what the computer is worth. Now maybe I should have bought something else, but I loved that mac.
I also have a bad back and carry nothing but a purse these days, so I have replaced the 14” MacBook computer with an 11”.. very small and compact. I don’t have all the software for it as I think a lot of that stuff is in Canada.. but I am getting back into the swing of things.
Can’t live without a computer… it is how I sort through things.. ’things’ mainly being my thoughts. And without the computer, well.. things have had to sort themselves.
Vas has a job in Oz and won’t be joining us in Canada. Not this trip anyway.
I have given notice at work.. will head to Canada for a holiday and then back to the NT, Australia. No job yet, but it will happen.
I will miss my teachers and many of the people here.. it is getting comfortable, but really, Sabak Bernam is not a place I could spend another year. It is ‘the burbs’ ghetto style. No theatre, no shops.. no clean restaurants: well, maybe one. No parks, no beaches.. There are lots of flea bitten dogs, sick cats, noise and rubbish. But still.. it has gotten rather comfortable.
I have gotten used to the neighbours behind us yelling.. “HEY!” all day.
I know where the pool is in Teluk Itan.. and I love Tara’s Penthouse Suite (with an extra bedroom for me!) in Klang. Judy Lee is great company.
Even the storms are great.
The thunder is deafening, the rain comes down, not in drops but like a waterfall.. dropping out of the sky over your head. The world turns dark.
And then the sun comes out and the birds sing and the world is bright and clean and fresh and new again.
It’s all been unpredictable...
Clowns at the funeral.. or was that just Vas and I door crashing?
But that’s ok. The ground here seems to soak it up.. the roads are designed so it runs off the main highways.. and then there are those open drainage ditches I complain about: everything has a reason eh!
It may put a bit of a damper on the funeral on the corner though.
Vas called me and said there were clowns, and fellows walking around on stilts. We had heard the music last night.. bag-pipes and gongs mostly.. and fireworks. We knew there was something going on.
Eid isn’t until tomorrow and the noise was coming from the tents that blocked the road to our place, yet again, by the Chinese and Indian houses, not the Malays.
I gathered up my camera and walked down to take pictures, figured they wouldn’t mind as I had to listen to all the racket. I asked a young Chinese man at the outskirts of the action what was going on: “No English” he says.
I didn’t see any clowns, but there were two Indian women standing in front of their house (driveway completely blocked by the tents) enjoying the festivities, and asked them. “Chinese Celebration.. Diary” they told me. A what? I ask again. “Diary.. Old Man”. Then I notice the big wooden, rather expensive looking casket. And put my camera down.. I am not sure what they meant by Diary exactly.. other than it does have the word ‘die’ in it. English is a little odd at times.
I think the old fellow must have had a good life. He was apparently very old.. there were lots of people gathered around. At the front of his casket there was a table with a ton of flowers.. and a full roasted pig.. head and all. It didn’t seem to be anyone’s dinner.. it seems more like it was placed there to go with the old guy.
There were flower petals spread everywhere.. people sitting on plastic chairs, or on the ground, all dressed in brilliant colours. There were candles. Old men sat chanting.. all dressed in white with white oddly tied turban-like head dressing. Young men wore blue T-shirts and seemed to be holding a vigil over the casket.
I left.. don’t need to go to a funeral. Not sure what Vas was seeing.. Clowns?
Anyway.. I have come back home to tell you about the rain.. it rains hard here! And often. I think the monsoons were about to start and decided to get an early jump on things. The drainage ditches fill up.. the cockroaches run for cover inside my bathroom.. the fish swim into my kitchen. I haven’t told you about everything, or uploaded pictures because, well.. the screen on my Mac computer crashed.
I took it to a repair guy and he said it would take a month and cost me about what the computer is worth. Now maybe I should have bought something else, but I loved that mac.
I also have a bad back and carry nothing but a purse these days, so I have replaced the 14” MacBook computer with an 11”.. very small and compact. I don’t have all the software for it as I think a lot of that stuff is in Canada.. but I am getting back into the swing of things.
Can’t live without a computer… it is how I sort through things.. ’things’ mainly being my thoughts. And without the computer, well.. things have had to sort themselves.
Vas has a job in Oz and won’t be joining us in Canada. Not this trip anyway.
I have given notice at work.. will head to Canada for a holiday and then back to the NT, Australia. No job yet, but it will happen.
I will miss my teachers and many of the people here.. it is getting comfortable, but really, Sabak Bernam is not a place I could spend another year. It is ‘the burbs’ ghetto style. No theatre, no shops.. no clean restaurants: well, maybe one. No parks, no beaches.. There are lots of flea bitten dogs, sick cats, noise and rubbish. But still.. it has gotten rather comfortable.
I have gotten used to the neighbours behind us yelling.. “HEY!” all day.
I know where the pool is in Teluk Itan.. and I love Tara’s Penthouse Suite (with an extra bedroom for me!) in Klang. Judy Lee is great company.
Even the storms are great.
The thunder is deafening, the rain comes down, not in drops but like a waterfall.. dropping out of the sky over your head. The world turns dark.
And then the sun comes out and the birds sing and the world is bright and clean and fresh and new again.
It’s all been unpredictable...
Clowns at the funeral.. or was that just Vas and I door crashing?
No comments:
Post a Comment