featful week

Lots have happened this week. Some bite-sized updates are in order :

1) Bought a 14 year old Subaru Rex from my senior in Urasa. Drove it back here to Niigata. Achievement of sorts. First time in 10 years driving a manual car. And also, my first time driving a manual car long distance. I also had to drive her around for some errands coz I'm so nice her licence has expired, so it was my first time driving a 4WD MPV, Honda Stream. Very smooth and easy to handle. Automatic, definitely.

The My car (chewah, that sounds good!) is still not washed and vacummed, so pictures will be up later ya. Also need to get some stuff like umbrella, shovel, maps, notebook and some other necessities.

2) Finally cooked the nasi lemak meant for Merdeka. First time for Alden and I, so it was really trial and error. Our guinea pig willing tester was Gene, even though he didn't know about it. But since he liked it, it must be quite good. The only thing lacking was sambal, the all important ingredient that gives it the oomph. So we made up for it by throwing in some concoction of spicy spices and what turned out tasted like fish head curry punya sauce. Haha.

But if you look at this picture, boleh makan lah. I even took the extra coconut milk to make some desserts. So that's how we had our own little Merdeka celebration, belated but doable.



3) Since I'm currently attending the English service, I hardly meet the people from the 2 Japanese services of our church. I decided to be brave and join them for their annual BBQ. One thing about Japanese BBQ's, they're usually held in the afternoons, like during summer! So I went there with this elderly couple, the Iguras and their friend, Tanaka-san. I had to switch my brains to Japanese mode, since almost throughout the whole journey, we had to speak in Japanese.



It was in a park somewhere near Shibata, about an hour's drive away. Lots of fresh yummy seafood and good fellowship. But I think what I ended up doing was quietly enjoying the fun and observing the antics of what I regarded as typical Japanese christians. Needless to say, with my looks I blended in quite well, and some thought I was one of them. That is, until I opened my mouth with my half-baked Japanese. But Japanese being Japanese, they will praise your Japanese and say you're so jouzu.



My saving grace was the American pastor and this Sri Lankan lady, and their families who came to join us later. I also met a Chinese couple who has been living in Niigata for about 6 years already. So yesterday, I spoke all the languages I knew, except for Bahasa Malaysia.



I'm taking another step of bravery to further Japanise myself coz I just signed up for the church camp. I imagine I will be surrounded by people who hardly speak English and most words will sound like an unintelligible buzz around me. I must be quite sadistic to throw myself to the deep end of the pool like that.