Penang -- Week 18 -- Offending Slingers

WEEKEND, July 12th & 13th

Saturday is Babywearing group again.  It's really just a glorified play group at times, but who's complaining?  That's great for us, especially since it offers us other local couples/families to hang out with on a regular basis.  We only wish we could do it more often.

It's most of the same people and this time we're  talking about my favorite topic -- improvised, no sew, DIY baby carriers.  A woman, highly experienced in several different ways of using the wrap, is there (on a trip home from the States) to show us a few things.  She demonstrates the ruck sack carry I have been doing with Regin!  Her wraps are purchased and we're told that they are hundreds of Malaysian Ringgit.  I am assuming that makes them $100+  USD.  

I think I may have offended our dear host and this wrap expert when I was talking to them both at one point during the meeting.  They were saying something about buying the wraps, and I said that I have recently decided that the babycarrier industry is all a scam and you can just go buy a cheap piece of fabric and use that.  When their faces went slightly sour is when I realized I was telling this to a woman who sells her own beautifully handmade slings, and a woman who has spent a lot of money buying several expensive wraps.  Could I have chosen two worse recipients for that little opinion?  

I blame it on the hypoglycemia.  It's the cause of all my faults really.  It makes me grumpy, and it makes my head foggy, so I'm bound to act foolishly and behave inappropriately when under its influence.  I'm really this ultra-optimistic, kumbaya-singing, skipping-through-the-meadow person, you just don't get to see it because of my illness!  Anyway, it really was acting up and I became overwhelmed and highly overstimulated at times and I was feeling rotten again by the end of the meeting.  I think these gatherings are poorly timed for me.  Late afternoons are generally my worst times of day.  Plus I'm still nursing that potato hangover.  But I still enjoy the afternoon.  I love the camaraderie of this group.  Sadly though, even though it's the locals we want to connect with, George and I end up spending most of our time with other expats.  We don't try to, honestly.  We're both fairly anti-social and it seems like the other expats are the ones who keep rescuing us from our solitude in the group.  Cultural thing?  But beyond that, you can't help but be drawn to other people who seem to be experiencing the same things you are.  I mean, even most of my closer friends in the States have been current or ex-expats!  So forget all that nonsense I said.

The rest of the weekend?  Nothing.  I'm still feeling rotten and George is sick.  Guess what, I can't find echinacea here yet.  A good strong echinacea tea is so good for boosting the immune system and even if it doesn't help George at this point, I want to protect myself!  I found a couple of wimpy tea-bag teas that contain small amounts of it, but I want the full-force, undiluted herb.  I guess I will be buying some to pack in my suitcase when we come for our home trip.

Sunday evening we head to our current favorite (Indian) restaurant.

We order 'fresh milk' for Regin, but it's a tea cup of piping hot milk and some sugar on the side for sweetening.  The waiter kindly cools it down for us by pouring the milk between two cups the way my mom used to do.  Regin is fascinated, but he still has no interest in the milk.  He only wants Mamma's unsweetened strawberry lassi.