While I was waiting…

In my previous post, I mentioned that I was here that morning to wait for Jimmy who was driving back from Bintulu to Serian/Kuching. There is a supermarket here with a departmental store as well and a number of shops in the main building and then there are fast food restaurants, a bakery and more shops in the adjoining block on the left and a big food court at the back.

While I was waiting, I went roaming around the open area in front where there were people selling all kinds of stuff – fruits, vegetables and jungle produce such as midin (wild fern), local kuihs (cakes) and so on. I saw somebody selling dabai, our local black olives…

…all still attached to the stems. That would mean that they had just been freshly harvested/plucked…and they would all be from the same tree. When you buy dabai from the market, they will usually let you try the good ones but in the basket, you would find them mixed with some not-so-good ones – some long, some short, some oval, some round…and the taste of each would be distinctively different.

The best thing was that the man was asking for RM16 a kilo only…

I have heard of people paying up to RM30.00 at the market and remember, I bought those red ones at RM35.00 a kilo? I did not buy a lot though – just half a kilo in case they were not so good but I lived to regret that. When I got home, I prepared some by soaking in warm water till they had softened and then I tossed them in soy sauce and sugar…

I had them with my dinner and they were really very good – so yellow, so lemak (rich). Sigh!!! I should have bought more! Anyway, let’s move on.

I don’t think anybody would remember that I lost my watch in November, 2009 – the one I got free from Reader’s Digest – in Sungai Petani and I bought a new one while I was there. The battery called it a day when Yee Ling and Mandy were in town earlier this year and I got a new one put in. Unfortunately, the watch stopped again a few days later and I had to send it back to the shop. The repairs took around a week and the people there told me that it was difficult to fix because of its rectangular shape. It would be much easier if it had been round. Then, when I was in Kuching recently, the watch stopped again! It came back alive though after some shaking and winding…but I do not know how long it will behave.

Well, that morning, before Jimmy arrived, I looked at the watches at one of the stalls there and I really loved the design of this one…

…so I bought it without any second thought. I used to buy a lot of these watches – a few at a time and used one a day. Some may last a year, some two years and there is no point in changing the battery when it runs out as it would probably cost more than the watch. I’m keeping it as a spare in case that very-much-more-expensive watch starts throwing tantrums again…and let’s see how long this one will last.

P.S.:
From what I gathered, the dabais came out in abundance that weekend and one would see a lot at the market in town, selling for something between RM12.00 and RM15.00 depending on the quality. Now, that, at least, is more reasonable – something that I wouldn’t mind paying…provided it is really very good.