Invitations written, map drawn

Today I made a batch of chili, to see if I could make the stuff here. It seems to be ok, and it is the hottest thing I can think of to serve a crowd of Malaysian teachers.  I will also put out several pots of hot sauce. I know Faisal will be able to provide me with that. Not too sure what I was thinking when I decided to do this. But I had promised them all, and I am good for my word. Besides, I am looking forward to seeing all of them.

Not until next weekend, so I have a whole week to stew over it.  But what the heck, I have hosted dinner parties for 100 people in my home in the past. A chili bowl for friends should be a snap. Right?I also gotta find tossable plates and cutlery. I am sure that is not difficult in the land of plastic. I have yet to find anything metal that is of any substance here. They love their plastics.

Now back to work. Tons of files to write and upload, and then put my feet up in my lovely garden for the afternoon tomorrow.

Oh yes, the garden hose. I am not a complete moron. I took the blasted thing back to the shop and my new friend had a big grin on his face. He was very amused that I cut the stupid thing off the actual hose. I explained that the connection to the water source was the only thing that was working - so did not want to disrupt that. He agreed to send one of his employees to my house to connect this crazy sprinkler head. Well, the expert took 2 hours to do the job. So I am not incapable. The unit is impossible, so he ended up having to be creative and make it work. And it does. I tried to give him RM30 for his help, because I told his boss I would pay whatever just to get it working. His boss told him to only take RM6. Good grief, it must have cost him more than that for the gas to get here. I finally was able to convince him to take RM10, and I was still embarrassed about the service and low cost. Nice to have another new friend in the trades that I can count on.