B is for……
Friday, October 31st, 2008by Rach
Bread
Taking a late afternoon walk, a traditional western bakery caught the children’s attention. As they drooled over French sticks and dark brown rye loaves, the door opened and Mr Tan invited us in. Resisting was pointless and we found ourselves face to face with an array of whole grain European breads, all made on the premises. Tessa delighted the owner with her exclamation, “Ooooh chelsea buns!” Apparently all the Americans come in and call them cinnamon rolls. According to Mr Tan, chelsea buns are the queen’s favourites. And how would he know? One of his sons was chief baker at the bakery the Queen frequents in London. I suspect she doesn’t visit in person…although it is not inconceivable that she might want to nip down to the bakery for a bun, is it? Mr Tan didn’t say. He was busy extolling the virtues of shopping at mum-and-dad run little shops so you know you’re buying an authentic product, unlike supermarket bread which is full of goodness-knows-what. Of course, I agree (and if it weren’t for all the amazing Indian breads, I’d be missing our homemade bread by now).
Halve the prices to get NZ$
I asked who buys most of this non-Asian bread, tourists? Yes! The Chinese don’t like crunchy crusts, they only like soft bread, and now that you mention it, yes, all the Chinese breads *are* soft. That said, Mr Tan comments that some Chinese are starting to buy his bread, but not many. That’s a pity – they don’t know what they’re missing out on! If you’re ever in Penang, make sure you visit Rainforest Bakery.
Bike (well, trishaw actually)
Blog Blessing
We had never met them before. And we’d only seen his sister once across a crowded church hall back in New Zealand a month ago. They had received an email saying “check out this blog” and so they did. They commented and we ended up at their sports club for a swim, dinner and play on the playground. For the first time since leaving home, the children went straight to sleep! Hopefully our new-found friends will return to NZ some day and allow us to repay the favour.
Bus
Perhaps understandably, the most frequent question we are asked here about home education focuses on *academics*. In NZ, it’s *socialisation*.
For a forty minute bus ride this morning K10 and this lady chatted non-stop. It confirmed our belief that home and community can provide plenty of opportunities for meaningful socialisation. And if you ever meet this lady, she knows all our family secrets!
Buddha (and temple stuff)
my text to be inserted here when we get to Bangkok-run out of time now
J’s comments from her journal to go here
Kek Lok Si narrative to go here
Batu Feringghi
Looks nice enough – we won’t tell you about the black sludge breaking on the shore!
Bits and Bobs: funny little things we’ve noticed
- *motorcyclists wear their sweatshirts/jackets/extra shirts backwards, left open at the back
- *you don’t clean your plate before taking seconds – don’t let your plate get empty
- *”Follow me” means come with me
- *adults often wear motorcycle helmets – or at least perch them on their heads – the children riding with them rarely do
- *swastika signs tiled into old buildings….I guess Hitler took the Chinese symbol for happiness not knowing what it meant – or maybe he did.
- *the scent of joss sticks pervades the air
- *we were brought up being told not to point…here you can point with a thumb!
ER2 has got it down pat, although when she really wants us to look at something, a finger is more insistent! -
Bangkok
Today we head for Bangkok. We’ll take the ferry back to the mainland and then hop on a train, which we have heard is usually running at least an hour late…supposed to be leaving at 2:20pm and we’ll be in Bangkok 22 hours later. It’s our first long distance overnighter so the kids are quite excited. The first train trip we took was running two hours late after just three hours of travelling (and that one left on time!), so we’re hoping this one is a bit better!! If not, Grandpa might miss his plane back to NZ in a week!!!
We’ll finish this post when we get to Bangkok.
rayres