Walk with Me: February 2010

My parents - are they cute or what? (maybe that's why I am like this?)
I mean if they can pose for shots like the above.

What's amazing is that their marriage was match-made....

Mum was a mere 15 year old (my daughter's age now -imagine Tammy getting married now??) while Dad was TWENTY EIGHT. Another two years and he'd have been twice her age!

Dad, now 90, is half deaf. But everyone I've heard of who owns a hearing aid is not using it.
So no way does he want to even go there.

In fact, he even had dentures made some 15 years ago. And left them soaking in a glass til 13 years ago (do the math do the math) when my Mum got fed up of rinsing them out and threw them away cuz he wouldn't wear them.

Mum, 77, (see the age difference? do the math do the math) is half blind. Remember ahhh...dad is half deaf, mum is half blind). Cataracts. She's had one eye operated on already.

More than that, she declares she went for every stress test at the hospital. And failed them all. And came home.

Neither wild horses nor wild taxi drivers are going to get her back there again for any operation of any kind. So everything remains as it is.

Dad, downstairs: Can you bring me the key?

Mum, upstairs: What? You want some tea?

Dad: The key lah, the KEY!

Mum: You mean the kunci?

Later, on the phone, with his sister in Australia:

Dad: I don't know why she is talking to me in Malay now lah.
Like I can't understand English, ah? And she's getting DEAF!

February 1st, 2010

So there we were in this little town in the south of India (see blogpost dated January 6th Shooting Stars). When told leather goods were cheap in India, we got excited. Except that there were very few shops there selling leather anything, ok?

My Hero finally found a leather belt which he (actually, I) felt he should get. Cuz all he has are three belts in three different colours. black, blacker, blackest. How boring, boringer, boringest is that? You will read more about our colourful differences in a later post (all together now........ oooooooooooo, can't wait!)

Anyway, Hero likes shopping for himself like I like shopping for curtains, y'know?
So he (actually, I) find him a belt. great. looked so good. smelt good, too. Yes, I smell belts to determine if they're really leather. Heard of wine-tasters? They smell the wine first, too. No....I din't taste the leatherlah. honestly, can't believe you guys would even think that.

The logo was nice!

Of course, donno whether the camels were symbolic of India or that it meant it was made of camel hide.

(as you can tell, this photo was taken by me, shadow and all. din't I tell ya I ain't no camerawoman)

quite impressive, right? the card, not the photo-taking.

And I loved that there were no mistakes in the wording. YES! Nowhere did I feel the need to underline a word and write spelling! across it.

highest space quality

hey, wait a minute....refined stying? sighhhhhhhh
spelling!

Yes, a simple, brown, leather belt.

And I was done with Hero and could totally focus on teendaughter's and my bangle-scrutiny.

When we got back to Malaysia, I was re-checking the price of the belt. Turned the tags around and found...

SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESH!
Can anyone tell me what a China-made belt was doing in a tiny town in India?

Not that I have anything against made-in-China things, y'know....
Like teendaughter said, "Look around our house, Mum, probably half of what we have is made in China whattttttt. so what's the big deal?"

Huh? Really ah? Now a comment like that would surely make me do a Sherlock Holmes, ok? Do we really own that many China-made things? Do you? Unfortunately, most of what we own had already lost their labels. But I love every one of these, which I think are made in China.

dinner plates - these, definitely made in China

see?

my sequin shoes which has the word
JinQishi inside

my fit-the-pieces-together wooden house
(which I painted white). so cute! I wanna put a
light bulb in it so it can be lit up in the dark but I
donno how.

my fountain! love it! see what happens when you tell people just what you want for your birthday? you get what you want!

super comfy walking shoes probably to be used
for taichi which is beyond my understanding
(taichi, not super comfy)

and I LOVE this Red Indian couple! When I saw them at the shop, I'm a-tellin ya, they were just calling out to me - smoke signals and all.. reeeeally! They just looked so Pocahontas-ish.

and the lady's face is so forlorn,
like their love just wasn't meant to be, y'know?
awwwwwwwww.....I mean, look at her!

GEEZ, I'm getting corny.

Anyway I just had to buy them. That is so un-me. I hardly EVER buy anything on a whim.

But I just couldn't leave them there, could I? (there were about 6 other pairs just like them but just ignore that fact cuz that wouldn't make for an interesting story, would it?)

And that's about it! Those are my made-in-China-I-think goodies. So far, none have broken, spoilt, faded, split, chipped, cracked, ... And every one of 'em is treasured, ok?

Now, as far as made-in-Malaysia products are concerned....ummmmmm...there are some really hopeless things out there.