10/10 Shopping, shopping and more shopping

Wednesday 10^th Serious shopping

We had toast and coffee downstairs and took to Petaling Street. We are right in the middle of Chinatown and they were just opening the stalls when we came out. There were heaps of Tshirts jewellery etc, some very cheap and some with quite silly prices. There are shops on either side of the road and then three rows of stalls running the length of the block, all of which is pretty much under cover, give or take some gaps and leaks.

SE Asia gets a bucket of rain, much of which falls during one or more monsoons but there is rain through most months to a lesser extent. Which makes it very puzzling that they tend to have great expanses of pavement consisting of smooth tiles, which are an absolute skidpan when they are wet, which is the case for much of the year. I don’t dare wear crocs here and even in serious hiking shoes I still tread carefully.

Pavements also tend to be used by motorbikes and/or taken over by the businesses next to them. There are regular changes of level and we often find it is just easier and actually safer to walk in the road, keeping an eye out for other road users. Who don’t pull back . . . if you are not quite across the road when the cars arrive, they will come straight at you without easing off at all. You would be extremely unwise to count on them avoiding you.

We had a great time shopping. Without killing all the surprise of Xmas presents, there was a heap of stuff for grandchildren and a certain amount of matching required, which entailed remembering where we had seen the other elements of some of the sets. We were pretty happy with ourselves and our purchases by the time we finished.

We also walked down to the nearby Central Markets and were making our way back there for dinner and more shopping under the solid roof in anticipation of some bad weather. Unfortunately, it beat us there and we spent a lot of time shuffling up and down through puddles and slippery pavements while it pelted with rain. Eventually we got there – only to find that they had just stopped serving dinner. We set off looking for Maccas, which has however moved during the past 18 months. We ended up at Subway instead.

Warren had mentioned a day or so ago that Courtney was in South Africa and tonight she suddenly turned up on Skype, which was a very nice surprise. Her agency had arranged for her to visit a SA affiliate and she was sent for auditions for a couple of commercials which are apparently due to be screened in Italy. Oh well . . it worked for Megan Gale. I said I had just bought Lissa’s first Crocs and she said she had seen it on the blog . . so there is the other reader. Hi J