Well last week was a busy week, with Chris visiting Dr. "Param" (well, Parameshwaran, but we can't say that very well and apparently neither can the staff at Gleneagles as this is what they call him too!) for a follow up on his wrist. He's all set and ready to start rehabbing it - one hurdle down, big one still to go... we go back in three more weeks for new x-rays on the hip.
Tuesday, Rox headed to Singapore for some meetings, which unfortunately meant she missed the Hari Raya Puasa Aidilfitri and Merdeka Day holidays. Hari Raya Puasa marks the end of Ramadan and is the biggest Muslim holiday of the year. Most people return to their home cities and break the fast with their families and friends. The event is also marked by the wearing of new clothes, purchase of new furniture and just generally making a fresh start after the month of fasting and atonement. The traffic in Malaysia is legendary during this time and in fact, one of Rox's colleagues had to cancel his drive to Singapore because he could get no further than KL. There are a lot of accidents during the "exodus" as it is called and so we were more than happy to stay off the roads. On Tuesday morning, the streets were oddly quiet, but by the time Rox left for Singapore, Gurney Drive had turned into a slow moving parking lot. She made it to the airport in time and enjoyed catching up with colleagues in the Singapore office for a couple of days. Merdeka Day is one of the two dates marking Malaysia's independence from British protection and the formation of the new national government. Things were festive, but overshadowed a bit by Hari Raya.
After returning late on Thursday night, Rox was up early to get Brenna off to school on Friday morning. Hard to believe summer break is over, but we're all a little relieved since it's been such a dud of a summer for her. She was sad about losing her lazy days, but excited to see her friends again. Rox picked her up and after a bit of unwinding, we all headed out to dinner, which is the inspiration for today's blog title...
We have generally resisted eating at the "Western" food restaurants except when Brenna or Rox will just not eat anything else. We try to resist eating in Western fast food outlets even more...especially those we have not seen in the States for more than 10 years. However, this Friday evening, Chris was craving chicken and Brenna will not eat at Nando's (their chicken is too spicy for her...), so we decided to check out Kenny Roger's Roasters. So although we have not seen a Kenny Rogers outlet in the States for several years, here in Malaysia they are all over the place (there used to be one in the airport). The menu was as expected, the service was friendly - except that they forgot to inform us that they were out of drumsticks and instead just didn't bring Brenna's meal at all. Once we asked, the other server told us they were out of drumsticks (on a Friday night?!), so we ordered something else. Good thing we asked... Anyway, back to the title. The thing that was the most surprising was hearing them greet every new customer with an enthusiastic "welcome to Kenny Rogers'!!" in their melodious Malaysian accent as they walked in the door. We almost expected to see "The Gambler" himself to come out of the kitchen and for some reason, this reduced Chris and Rox to hysterical giggles every time someone walked in. I don't know why we found this so funny, but the only thing that would have been better was to have them playing his songs.... Too bad Mom Hooker didn't keep all those old 8 tracks from the SuperSkates days! Good night once again from Penang... and thanks to Kenny for "decorating our lives" with tasty chicken and a good laugh after a long week!
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