Penang -- Week 26 -- Dinner During the Apocalypse

Week 26
WEEKEND, September 5th - 7th

As I mentioned in the last post, I'm sick.  Friday I'm fine in the morning, fine in the afternoon when we ask Shanti to come babysit.  I'm still fine in the early evening when George and I are getting directions to our security guard Rada's granddaughter's (Indian) baby-naming ceremony on Saturday.  Then about an hour or two before it's time to go dancing, BOOM!  I'm SICK.  It hits HARD and FAST.  No wonder Regin's nose started running out of nowhere on Wednesday!  (Darn Dr. Goh for being right!)  So dancing is cancelled, and so it our attendance at the baby-naming celebration the next day.  Too bad, I was SO looking forward to that.  We were going to eat home-made Indian food on top of getting to see a cool tradition!

MONDAY - THURSDAY, September 8th - 11th
Some days I'm very comfortable here.  Some days my need to get out of here is very strong, so strong it's now permeating my dreams.  I awaken Monday from a dream that has something to do with a desperate need to get out of Malaysia and back to Colorado.  I'm still feeling the urgency when I wake up, but I can't remember any of the details of the need.

Tuesday is interesting.  We're having dinner and enjoying the light breeze in the outdoor section at Chili's and all of a sudden the breeze picks up into a wind.  The awning above us, which covers about three tables deep and maybe ten tables wide, starts making these awful sounds, like hollow metal striking hollow metal.  It's the sound you hear in a movie right before a cable snaps and something very heavy comes crashing down.  I'm nervous, but as I look around, no one else seems to be reacting to it, so I tell myself I'm being ridiculous and I go on eating, but I'm keeping my eye on the foreigners at the table next to us to see if they start reacting soon.

The wind starts to gather strength.  Umbrellas and awnings on the other side of the courtyard are flapping around and some of the furniture is moving a little.  Still no reaction from the locals, but the other foreigners have started to look up a bit.  Then, a chair across the way starts to move.  I mean, really move, and suddenly furniture starts blowing across the courtyard from the other side!  I mean, heavy, metal furniture and it's just gliding across dry  concrete and coming towards us!  The groaning, clanging metal noise above us now is thunderous.  Employees on the other side are scrambling to gather furniture and put it away.

I'm seeing this all from inside now because as soon as that first chair started to glide, in one swift movement, I swept Regin out of his highchair and darted through Chili's doors.  The other foreign family, who were apparently waiting to see what I'd do, followed my lead and came inside too.  The awning is flapping wildly, furniture is moving around.  The wind is howling and steel is clanging, and the locals are sitting, eating, hair swirling around at the mercy of the storm.  But it's not until is starts to drizzle that they move indoors.  And it's a good thing; the drizzle quickly becomes a great downpour.

Very exciting.  Not an excitement one expects to have while chowing on Mushroom Jack Fajitas, which have a strong, soy-sauce taste here.  (Don't worry, I skipped the tortillas).

The rest of the week is not all that interesting.  I'm becoming more inspired (read:  completely obsessed) with fashion and I'm also feeling a little determined to do better with parenting.  Inspiration and determination?  My hypoglycemia must be doing a little better!  But that's really about it.  I mean there is a parade on Thursday evening for the Mooncake festival.  It's on Gurney Drive and we can see it from our windows, but parades are so commonplace and this one's not that interesting, so I just close the curtains and we watch some of our iTunes downloads.