masterwordsmith-unplugged

What an eventful day it has been indeed! As arranged last month during our Gertak Sanggul durian outing, I picked up Elizabeth and her mother-in-law (Marcel's mom whom I have known since 1986) for another durian outing.

When I picked them up, I gave a squeal of delight for Elizabeth gave me a slab of my favorite Sarawak layer cake.

After the usual hi's and how are you's, it was down to serious durian business for Elizabeth is a real durian lover, after all - they will not get to eat durians when they return to Auckland. We had two options - Gertak Sanggul again or Balik Pulau.

There was one teeny weeny problem though. I did not know the way to either spots!!! I seldom go out on my own except to a few places as I prefer to be at home and have great difficulty making my way around Penang *blush* as I prefer to be driven than to drive :-).

I did not have a choice today. Marcel was in Hong Kong, hubby was at work, Elizabeth hails from Kuching and Auntie is already 85 years old. Gingerly, I garnered enough courage to proclaim that we would make our way to Balik Pulau.

Even at the Bayan Lepas roundabout, I did not know which way to go and followed my instinct. By the time we reached PISA, I decided to turn into Sungei Ara. At the traffic lights, I asked the lady in the next lane if we should turn right to go to Balik Pulau. She must have thought I was a would-be bandit because I spoke to her in Penang Hokkien and was as clueless as someone from out of town.

With more confidence, I swung right and drove to what I thought was Balik Pulau. I tried to use my GPS but forgot what to do so that was a bummer! Along the way, we were exchanging notes about various topics when suddenly, I realized I was in Paya Terubong! Golly! Elizabeth thought it would be a bit silly to call Marcel in Hong Kong so I rang my dear hubby and explained where I turned and my exact location.

"Dear, we are on our way to Balik Pulau and I turned into this lane at Sungei Ara and drove straight but somehow, we are in Paya Terubong," I whispered as sweetly as I could to my dear hubby.

Dead silence.

"How on earth did you get there? You are very far from Balik Pulau!" was his calm response because hubby is quite used to me getting lost when driving.

"OK. I'll find my way back. Don't worry," I replied and of course his response was a soft ok as always.

After a few turns here and there, we finally found ourselves in Balik Pulau. Time taken was forty-five minutes!!!

First, we headed for the famous Balik Pulau Laksa coffee shop where we had our lunch. Elizabeth and Auntie had the sour Penang Assam Laksa while yours truly had the Siamese version.

Shortly after that, we tried to ask around for the best durians in the area. I did not dare drive to my usual Bao Sheng Durian Farm for fear that I might end up lost again. To our disappointment, almost everyone gave us dismal responses to remind us that we were now in the tail-end of the durian season and would not get the best fruits any more.

We headed to the new market to see if we could get some durians but the place was closed except for a few stalls. There, I bought three types of keropok and durian cake.

Quite adamant that we had to eat durians, I drove around aimlessly and scouted for respectable roadside stalls. The first stall that we visited was manned by a foreign worker who picked some fruits for us while his masters were sitting on stools smoking. To our horror, we were told that the fruits were being sold at 5RM per kilo!!! Good Lord! That was daylight robbery so we went off in a huff and a puff and headed to another stall manned by a kind-looking middle aged man whose price was the same. The first fruit he opened for us was a terrible letdown and we complained so much that I am sure his ears must have hurt. In the end, he succumbed to our rantings and sold us two fruits - Goldfish and 222 at 14RM.

We were quite satisfied after devouring so much food!!! Good golly! I am going to survive on one meal a day and no more durians till the next season!

After paying, we made our way home and only then did I realize that it was pretty close to where Elizabeth's in-laws lived. The journey home took only twenty minutes. Thanks Elizabeth and Auntie for the lovely time spent together. See you at the end of the year! I will certainly miss you and Marcel...God bless!

The next part of the day was even more eventful. My new laptop was delivered to my home. To be honest, I am not like most ladies who go goo-goo ga-ga over handbags, branded clothes or shoes. I get lots of those as presents from friends and relatives but my main interest in life is tech gadgets. I had done lots of research as to which sort of laptop to buy after my 17 inch Dell Inspiron which I had for less than two years died on me because the fan was faulty and the graphic card was burnt from overheating. The past three weeks had been most awkward for me because I had to be weaned off my laptop and the net.

As I touched the sleek HP model that I had purchased, I knew I should have been happy that I made an excellent choice, with recommendations by my former student, Chris Chua. It competes directly with Dell’s new Latitude series and is equipped with the power of Intel’s new Centrino 2 platform. If not for my sentimentalism, I daresay I am satisfied with its mix of stylish and elegant design, sturdy build quality and superb performance in a slim form factor. It is one of the best business notebooks currently available in the market as it is one of the best mobile processors available today and provides a potent mix of power and power efficiency.

But somehow...it is not the same...there are no woofers like in my old laptop and the screen is too small ...sob sob...But it will suffice...at least for the moment.

What a tiring and eventful day it has been indeed...I am sure tomorrow will even be better...Have a lovely evening, dear reader. Good night.