Tropical Happenings

So much fun, so little time. This week is the holiday Deepavali, also known as Diwali or The Festival of Lights. Like our Easter, Muslim's Ramadan and Chinese's New Year, it involves lots of food and new clothes! The Indian/Hindu community celebrates by going to temple in the morning, then visiting friends and relatives throughout the day in their new clothes (used as offerings the night before). Sand art is part of their decorations. Here is one that was done at the kids' school. It measures about 5-6 feet wide! And yes, it's all sand!

Now onto random thoughts to share.

Our car was recently in the shop again. Our mechanic is the official, certified mechanic for all Ferraris in Malaysia. Whenever he takes our car (yes, in Malaysia your mechanic picks up and delivers your car to your door!) he gives us a loaner. I call it the "Blue Ferrari." I have to promise him not to scratch it when I get it. From this finely tuned piece of machinery I learned how to drive a stick with my left hand! Mark told James (the Mechanic) that we break our car on purpose, just so we can drive the Ferrari!

I've been meaning to bore everyone some more with cool things here in Malaysia. When we were in China we discovered some wild fruit called "Dragon Fruit." It's bright pink on the outside and white with black specks on the inside. The ones I've tasted are pretty tasteless, but look great in fruit salads. Anywho, whilst driving around the countryside I saw these weird looking trees, sort of.

That's Arun, my favorite driver standing beside the tree. After seeing these trees for a few months someone shared with me that they are dragon fruit trees!! They are so cool. They totally match the weirdness of the fruit. Here is one with the fruit on it.

They put the bags on it to protect it and help it ripen. I think. They also do it for bananas and jackfruit. Here's a shot of it sans the plastic bag.

I went shopping in Seremban with my friend Miow Lin and Wendy this Saturday. I was getting fitted for my ball gown. Here is the fabric store we stopped at. That's not even half the store, or a 1/3^rd of the fabric!

After fabric/dress shopping we stopped at the 'food court' and picked up on some yummy food.

For my last thought I'd share with you an innovation we used this past Sunday. Living overseas you often have to be creative with the resources at hand. Previously we had invited over guests for "Hamburgers and Home Teaching." I sent Mark and Casey to the store to acquire some burger buns, as the ones our great grocery lady sells are TERRIBLE. Upon their return I investigated their purchases and could find NO burger buns. But – discreetly in the corner were two packages of nice looking hot dog buns… Mark, ever thinking on his feet had decided that we would just make burgers, cut them in half and serve them in the only buns he could find – hot dog buns! (You see, with limited pork supplies hot dogs are not a viable option. They are either chicken – of very dubious taste and quality, or 'real' and cost $10 a pack of 8. We go without. Some of you may have noticed my affinity for hot dogs this summer. This is the reason!)

My great sous-chefs came up with the great idea of "hot durgers" (phrase coined by Jordan). While not attractive, they did the job and fit the bun!!

Enjoy your week – and your pork hot dogs!