21 Days of Kota Tinggi

Holy crow, only 21 days left.  Yesterday could have been a nightmare, but if one looks at it from the outside, maybe more of a comedy.  I could no longer stand my hair. It needed a cut very badly. Problem was, my expert cutter has been off work for 2 months.  My friend who owns the shop is a dear, but she does not know my hair. The star cutter, Ann (who told me her name was Hoe) gets miffed whenever she has to repair Kiki's cuts.  But this one takes the cake. I have a very short haircut today. She kept going shorter and shorter in order to deal with my springy hair. I now have some swoosh around my face, which she thinks is sexy looking, but a clear spring over my ears, culminating in something in the back that appears to be a bit of a bob.  Egad.  Good thing hair grows. But what I had hoped for was to go home with a perfect cut from Hoe - Ann, and have a hairdresser follow her pattern.  Now I don't have that at all.  And I do look pretty funny, which should give the teachers here a few good laughs as they reflect on Madam Frances years from now while looking at the final pictures of me.  The Malay teachers will likely offer me a tudong to cover the cut.

Then I went in search of a tailor. A Head Mistress  gave me fabric and I am trying hard to get it sewn into something because they want pictures next week and out to lunch together.Kiki told me that my gua sha  lady also sews. Another friend told me that the next door neighbour of Chan also is a tailor. Off to Chan's.  Chan said yes she sews.  When I showed her the 1 Malaysia fabric and dress to copy she froze. No, no, but neighbour sews.  Off we went to neighbour.  Neighbour jabbered in Chinese to Chan. No no, cannot cannot. I finally get from Chan after much begging - why not?  She does not want to because we cannot talk.  That is the way over here. Unlike many other entrepreneurs in the world, these people will say they cannot or say don't have and be willing to lose a sale if the communication does not flow. I would say that is a very clear example of relationships before business. I could not convince her to try.  Chan then says to me - go to tailor downtown.  Where?  She told me some obscure place which I think I know where, but they were closed yesterday. Now to tackle the journey this morning before I go to work.  Yikes.

Kiki's husband brought a band of buddies and they cleared out my patio of all the plants. Shoot. I noticed after they left that they also took my planting shovel and clippers.  I had planned on planting the curry leaf tree in the common property here but I am not going to use my hands to dig a hole.  What I have left behind is a magnificent magenta bougainvillea, a majestic red hibiscus, and a stately red palm tree all growing happily in the outer garden. Having tried to grow these plants back home I discovered that any moron can grow them here.

Speaking of morons, I am holding the final TPD today.  All mentees are to be given their certificates for working with me for the past three years. So who is the moron? The company I work for.  I have postponed this even twice now due to the fact that the company either schedules something else, and/or does not have the certificates prepared. I think we are still at the not prepared stage, so we will have a party and pretend there are certificate.