After days and days of endless rain (and floods) and dark, gloomy skies, finally, we get to enjoy a stretch of sunny days, if I can remember exactly…since last Saturday, other than the brief spell at around 4.00 p.m. on Chap Goh Meh which lasted only a few minutes.
While people fret and complain and moan and groan over the excessive precipitation (which I’m sure the people in drought-stricken China would give an arm or a leg for right now), other forms of life, on the other hand, would have benefitted from all that. The grass seems greener, in places where it was not submerged in the flood (which I think is even worse in Northern Australia and other parts of the state like Marudi, for instance), that is…and the flowers start blooming in all their glory…
But unfortunately, because we have been plagued by floods (At least, it wasn’t bushfires like those presently raging on and on in Victoria, Australia! Thank God for small mercies!!!) again and again, the vegetable sellers claim that their crop has been destroyed and they have no choice but to sell whatever they can lay their hands on at ridiculously astronomical prices…
Good grief! That makes it RM15.00 for a kilogram of kai lan!!! I think it’s more expensive than chicken and around the same price as pork. What I cannot understand is the fact that there ARE people crazy enough to go and buy the vegetables at such absurd prices. If nobody were to buy them, the sellers would be stuck with a whole lot of withered and pathetic-looking greens at the end of the day and they would just have to throw them away. Seeing that they would stand to lose in the end, I am sure they would think twice about jacking up the prices so high.
If the problem originates from the farmers/vegetable growers, then the sellers may do the same to them. Business is like that – sometimes, it goes up and at other times, it comes down. I’m sure they have made quite a bundle on better days and at times like these, they should not take it out so BRUTALLY on the helpless customers. If they were to make a loss today, they would just have to wait to make up for it another day.
I found some that were reasonably priced though, e.g. cabbage and carrots. I bought a huge head of lettuce for only RM5.00, 10 tomatoes for RM3.00 and Taiwan cucumber (which the seller claimed, the greener it was, the nicer) at RM1.00 each, for instance. I do not see why people cannot eat these instead for the time being, instead of getting themselves slaughtered and crying foul till kingdom come.
And back to signs, I spotted this one outside a shop the other day…
They, for reasons known only to themselves, had blocked the left side of the door and wanted customers to use the right side only…but if we were to take the sign literally, it would mean that we would have to enter through the shop next door – which was a stationery store! LOL!!!
And back to the subject of flowers, did anybody buy pussy willows for display in their houses during Chinese New Year? I’m talking about pussy willows, Clare, pussy willows – the flowers! Hahahahahaha!!! Well, I didn’t but I did get a special Chinese New Year floral basket for my parents and they had some in the very impressive arrangement. After some of the flowers had withered, my sister took the surviving ones and placed them in a vase…and lo and behold! The buds of the pussy willows started to bloom…
I don’t know if it’s a good omen of any kind but a few days ago, she won a very nice rice cooker in a lucky draw at a local supermarket! Gee! Some people just have all the luck!…..Sigh!!! LOL!!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 