Sir Walter?

Well we are almost on the last leg of this epic journey, and tomorrow we head off for the City of the Angels: Los Angeles, California, after which we will be boarding the flight which takes us straight back to KL and Penang. We've done SOOOooooo much, and there is SOOOOOoooo much to write about, and it's only been the tip of the iceberg!

It’s been a really fantastic trip, and sitting here in Raleigh, North Carolina (named after Queen Caroline) and looking back on it, even our time in UK seems a long time ago. London, Loughborough … even New York City. It has been wonderful to catch up with our old friends whom we worked out we had not seen for FIFTEEN years.

Old friend Steve H. drove us down to his gorgeous beach house (pix) in Emerald Isle which is off the southern coast of North Carolina, 2.5 hours from town, and it really should be classified a beach mansion it is so huge: on 3 floors, 5 bedrooms and two kitchens which are better kitted than mine. Everything is still enormous as they have so many resources still, including this guy we met in town who was 6’ 9” – I couldn’t resist asking to have a pix taken with him.

Raleigh has not changed that much since I first came here on a 3-month residency when I worked for IBM UK in 1987; it is still a sprawling city where space is no issue – there are just many more shopping malls which are HUGE – just to drive around the perimeter of the one in North Hills for example takes at least 10 minutes!!

I’ve of course had a BALL doing some retail therapy, but luggage space, let alone finance, ensures I keep well within budget. Like the UK, certain things are still very cheap here, especially now the pre-Christmas sales are on, with some items 80% off, but services are expensive. Janice has a cleaning service come in for about 6 hours a week for which she pays USD 120.00 which is about the average. Most of their labour is Mexican, and goods are made in China.

One day our friends took us to Wilson, NC, and we came across some cotton fields - never seen that in my life, city slicker that ah ahm. It was fascinating to see this stuff, and you can imagine how the black slaves used to labour in them ole cott'n fields which stretch for miles and miles. It's also fall harvest time and Halloween night was on Sunday, so plenty of pumpkins and creepy ghouls around.

Some BEAUTIFUL old houses around complete with suthern rocking chairs on the porch - straight out of Tom Sawyer.

However, the economy is bad, everyone here in the South hates Obama (Mid-term elections are on today which should show what a bad job they think he is doing) and property prices have tumbled. Of course compared to the east it is still expensive!

Mac’s enjoying his time playing golf with my friend's hubby Paul who is a very keen golfer with 10 handicap. And don’t even talk about the food – no wonder the average American is oversized there is such an abundance of everything here, and Southern food is fried and greasy - we even saw Krispy Kreme (donut) burgers at the State Fair here!

Heart attack stuff man, as they say. However I have to say after a month and a half of western food, I am DYING for some chinky food.

Tomorrow we head off to my cuz in Los Angeles, and on Monday 8^th we will be flying off in the evening to arrive in KL via Taipei at about 11 or 12pm Wed 10^th. Back home again.

It’s been a great trip, but I think by then we will be quite quite ready to get back. Phew!

KIONG HEE, KIONG HEE

SO, HOW WAS YOUR CHINESE NEW YEAR?

From the long silence you'll probably have gathered that mine was pretty hectic, what with family coming up from KL so there was all the preparation for guests, let alone the normal stuff for Chinese New Year: cleaning, cooking, money worries! To be frank, this is one time of year (apart from Christmas) I can do without - it's just such a stressful time. Like Christmas, Chinese New Year is really most enjoyable when you're a kid - it's the only time you get to have all the fun - new clothes, good food, lots of cookies and cakes and of course lovely dosh (money) - without all the hassle. For adults though it's another matter.

And here's when I go into my usual rant about how at such times the pressure is almost always on the women of the family: the shopping, marketing, planning the menu, preparing the food to be cooked (granted nowadays the donkey work is probably done by an Indon maid, but not everyone is lucky enough to have one) ... then there's the cooking of the food itself, serving it then of course the washing up.

And that's just the Reunion Dinner the night before! One hasn't even mentioned the pre-CNY lead-up - the cookies to be made (or bought, as the case may be ..!), ensuring that there's enough to go around family, friends and business associates; the new clothes to be made (or bought, again as the case may be); the money taken out of the bank in readiness for the myriad ang pows to be given out - and let's not mention the fear of being robbed - and then the preparing of the ang pows.

Now that's an interesting subject all of its own, as from what were token gestures of good luck, where one gave small sums of money in pairs (never in singles or odd numbers) e.g. it was quite common to receive RM1.10 when I was a kid; if you got RM10 you were considered very lucky, let alone the odd RM50 note which was indeed a rarity! Nowadays, it's become a case of one-upmanship: see how pretty the ang pow that I use is, let alone the size of what's in it and how thick the wad of RM100 notes is. No longer are RM1 notes used, and the RM10 is about the norm, although I have seen the odd RM12 ang pows around.

Of course, DINKies are probably the ones who lose out in this case - these Dual Income/No Kids, being married, have to hand out angpows but don't have the opportunity to receive any ... yet! As for those WITH kids, there's the "let's-see-how-much-you-gave-my-child-and-I'll-return-same-plus-a-bit-more" attitude - only on hearsay of course. One would NEVER stoop so low ... not all the time, anyway!!

Anyway I digress. Going back to the Reunion Night, I'm lucky that my mother is still fit enough to want to take on the burden of this ritual, and as she's a good cook (or rather her Indon maid has been taught well) we were all treated to a slap-up nyonya meal of Otak Otak, Curry Molly, Tau Eu Bak, Jiu Hoo Char and of course the must-have Kiam Chai Ark Soup - thoroughly enjoyed it all, and the fact that I had to drink a few gallons of water that night to ease my raging thirst didn't deter from it at all! Then there are the two days of New Year to be got through, and all the ensuing meals to go along with them. You can't keep serving the same dishes all the time, but there's only so much space in your fridge!

Hope you had as good a New Year as I did. Kiong Hee Huat Chai once more. I'm really looking forward to settling down to 2010 now that the year-end and year-beginning festivities are finally out of the way. That is, after I come back from Singapore next week - but then that's another story!

Penang's Fisherman Wharf

THE ANNUAL BUILD-UP IS ALREADY HAPPENING ... cars with outstation number plates are starting to appear in Penang traffic, as the Chinese community (and everyone else in Malaysia, it seems like) congregate on the island. Many are holidaymakers just eager to get out of KL and the Klang Valley who come for some R&R - sun, sea and good food; others are old Penangites making their usual start-of-year pilgrimage back to their roots.

That being the case, it was with great trepidation that we made our way to dinner at the Penang Fisherman Wharf, in the Industrial Free Trade Zone, last night but our fears were unfounded: we sailed right through, and were there in under 30 mins - the traffic was as light as can be (in fact it was heavier going home!). We'd been invited to an early Chinese New Year dinner, and there were two tables on their large patio, right next to the sea.

The pork-free food was quite tasty, typically Cantonese-style dishes starting with Four Seasons (the host complained about the lack of lobster in the au gratin but the cheese sauce was pretty good actually). Everyone seems to be doing the prawns wrapped in greek bee hoon-like pastry (kataiffi) now; it's becoming quite a trend but they've got to be careful not to overcook the prawns as they were a bit hard. Prawns are much nicer crunchy with a bite to it.

The last course was Fried Udon noodles which wasn't bad although everyone had had too much to eat by then and as they didn't look that appetising I think quite a lot of it was wasted. Shame.

It's quite a nice place to go but rather far, and here's a tip: check with the host where the table will be before you dress cos despite the electric fans it was BOILING (this is, after all, February), and there were many red faces there and not just from the wine. Some of the guests had come prepared for air conditioning and they were sweltering.

I'm going a bit manic now cos my family arrives from KL tomorrow and I've done practically NOTHING to prepare - no decorations, no rooms ready etc. DID however do most of the grocery shopping but tomorrow I have to brave the crowds and get some fresh vegetables in. Oh crumbs, I don't look forward to it - will be like Christmas Eve in the UK where it's a free-for-all - run over anyone with your trolley if they happen to be in your way!!

Ho Hum, Kiong Hee Huat Chai everyone!