Raining down now. It's not been usual for me to see such a heavy rain. Oh but when I was in Rotorua, it rained for 3 days straight. I couldn't believe it. As I told my host, I must have arrived in the monsoon season! We had a laugh and it allowed me to explain to them what kind of weather Malaysia has. Bella has been good. I've learnt how to get her to bring back the toy when we play 'fetch' and that is to bribe her with a yummy treat. Hope I'm not spoiling her.
A girl comes over to walk Bella daily. Thank goodness for Bella. She sometimes sits down in a lump while I'm in front of the PC and just looks at me with a muka sedih. Like, "nape tak layan i...". I've got some pics of her muka sedih and I should put them up later. So Bella is very excited when this girl comes over. I went with this girl one time to walk Bella, nak belajar sikit lah from her how to walk a dog properly. What I did notice was she always made Bella stop and sit before lintas jalan, even if there was no traffic. Puppies are like small children and you have to teach them like so. This girl always knew she wanted to work with dogs since she was a kid. So after high school she went to uni and got a certificate in dog handling. She's working part-time with Guide Dogs now and is looking for permanent work. You see, its not automatic that you need to go to university and get a degree here. People can quite often choose not to go to school till a lot later in their age (when we would probably say, why go at all, its not like you'll have any more years in you left to make a reasonable income out of what you study). Or not go at all.
Actually speaking of that, I saw a few kolej komuniti websites advertising short courses for the public. Very cheap too, like RM5 a class. Elok lah tu. In fact there was a kursus on how to make loh mai kai, a chinese sticky rice with chicken (and sometimes a little pork in the non-halal places) dish which is really yum. Anyway it would be nice to learn how to make it. Kalau ada kursus buat dhall I memang would like to go. Or vadai! I actually don't know how to make a Malaysian vegetarian dish for hosts which is a shame, as a dhall would have done quite nicely. Hope there are people that do end up taking these opportunities for self-enhancement, else bazir je usaha kerajaan.
When I was in Mt Maunganui I had such a lovely time. My host's wife didn't work so she got to spend time with me which was awesome. And their kids! Oh my god I love them. They were so beautiful and friendly children. The little girl was really 'spirited' as her mum said. And the boy was so loving and caring. When I arrived I was given a drawing he had made at school for me. See his parents had told him they'd be expecting a guest and he kept asking when the 'customer' would be arriving. Funny! His parents don't actually know why he decided I was a customer of some sort. His name was Te Manewha (say 'teh ma-ne-faa') and he was named after his ancestor of the same name, who was a great Maori warrior. In fact, this little boy is the only living person known to have that name and he was to make a special visit to Te Papa museum in Wellington for a special exhibition they are planning. His daddy had to go do the whole asking orang2 tua for permission to use such a strong Maori name, which is their custom.
