I shall be away from blogging from now till October 10.
I wish my Muslim friends selamat aidilfitri.
I will be thinking of my dear friend as she breaks new ground in her professional life this weekend.
I will be thinking of the rest of you (from time to time).
The lousy friend who went all silent on me when I broached the possibility of visiting her is in town for a week-long visit.
I told her first chance I could, when she called, that I would be here only the next 4 days of her stay. I would be leaving for Europe on the weekend.
Let's do lunch or something, she suggested. As soon as she got a few urgent business out of the way, she qualified. I said yes, let's, and to let me know when in the next 3 days. Alright, she said, and said her goodbye with let's play it by ear then. A rather redundant pronouncement, I thought.
I will put this aside as another firm maybe date. I will also put aside the very glaring omission on her part to mention the months of silence from when I wrote her about visiting.
I guess she took that as only a firm maybe arrangement.
I think I am beginning to get the hang of dealing with firm maybe's...
We really were quite happy when we finally installed the mosque lights over our dining table.
But the friends kept referring to the centre piece as a disco ball. We have to agree the orb did not quite fit in with the pretty lights around it.
So, on our recent trip to Bali, we hunted down a Moroccan lamp to replace the odd ball.
It was the single shining moment of our trip. At least for once, the entire exercise followed expected custom when in Bali.
We were in a cab on our way to somewhere when we chanced upon the lamps and lights shop. We abandoned our original plan and settled for poking around the shop. We found the lights we wanted.
The vendor named his price. We counter-offered with our price. Back and forth. We settled on a happy compromise. The lights were carefully bubble-packed, and we went about our merry way.
So now, voila!
The impressive centre piece with four small matching mates surrounded by mosque lights.
Where have all the rooms gone?
We booked and paid for our accommodation online, with specific requirement that it be on the ground floor with its own terrace. We showed up at the property to be told the room we requested was not available. They would, however, upgrade us to a deluxe room on the second floor.
The man asked at the front desk three different times what the f*** happened to our reservation. He got three different answers from three different staff:
(a) your reservation never came to us, sir.
(b) your travel agent submitted your reservation late, sir.
(c) there was a computer error, sir.
The uninterested staff seemed to think that giving us a minimum upgrade should shut us up. Of course we were not one bit mollified. They never admitted they double-sold their rooms, and then they would tell any kind of lie to make the problem go away.
Where have all the butter gone?
I told myself I would sleep off the aggravation, and looked forward to the buffet breakfast. My needs were simple and straightforward. Coffee, and pancakes hot off the griddle, some maple syrup and butter, and I would be happy. I would not even gripe about the pretend bacon and breakfast sausages.
I got the coffee. I got to the pancake counter. I got the pancake guy to make me a short stack of pancakes. Poured the maple syrup. Went to the bread section for butter. The container for butter was empty! There was actually a some-kind-of-waiter-body standing at the the bread section, and he let the butter run out! So by the time the chain of command worked its way to the kitchen and back, I had cold pancakes made soggy by the syrup and my mood just got more foul.
Where have all the clothes gone?
Against our better judgement, we had made this 3-day 2-night trip for the Paul Ropp sale. We got their invitation to attend their sale preview and thought that we would have a nice time cherry picking through the inventory ahead of the sale crowd.
We were disappointed at the small selection put up at the preview. And then we were disgusted to find that a lot more different styles were made avaiable the next day, the first day of the 5-day sale event.
We did not do as much rummaging through the clothes stacks as we would have liked. We had a plane to catch. No, we could not bear the thought of staying an extra day/night to deal with the ineptitude that is endemic to that island.
When will they ever learn? When will we ever learn?
She's one of those frequent return-visitor friends whom I see year-in, year-out. She enjoys generous hospitality from everyone she looks up. She has, for years, been saying we should come to Paris so she could return hospitality.
The famous day of reckoning approaches. She is here, I am here. I gleefully tell her I shall, incredulous as it may seem to her, be in Paris for 5 days and 4 nights. When would she like to see me?
Now I watch her start to squirm and vacillate. Well, she begins tentatively, that's the weekend she might have to be in the UK to settle her daughter in the university. But she would be back by Monday. Tuesday at the latest. So I helpfully suggested: Shall we settle for dinner on Wednesday then, and I leave for Lyon the next day? Yes, but she isn't totally sure she'd be back by Wednesday. Is there possibly anyway I delay going to Lyon.
No, there is no way I stay on in Paris for a maybe meet-up with her.
We left it as a firm maybe for Wednesday. She will, she promised, let me know as soon as she gets back to Paris and sort things out with husband and daughter. That will be best, I expansively agreed.
Do we have a firm date in Paris finally? So she can return hospitality after all this time?
Yes. Maybe.
was the month
- when travel plans finally started to fall in place.
- when we decided to we make a mini trip to Bali for the Paul Ropp sale.
- when we got together with friends to make concrete plans for travel to Paris-Lyon, then cover several towns in Provence.
- when Mother called me twice. Each time she dominated the entire phone conversation prattling on and on about what's happening in the lives of people I don't know.
- when my sister called to let me know she took the parents out to dinner and she never opened her mouth once the entire evening. And the parents never noticed.
- when the sister too has reached the end of her wits in trying to be a dutiful daughter trying to do the right thing with the cranky and crazy old people we call parents.
- when I got to see several friends who were visiting. Some of them I was so happy to see again; others I was not so thrilled but I did it out of a sense of obligation.
- when I was reminded all over again how important it is to have good people to count on and good friends to trust in times of need.
