Hi All,

  This is the second part of the Rally farewell dinner.  I had to double check with Jim Carey about the “cheesburger incident,” how to spell the co-organizer Sazli’s name, and whether the fraction one-third takes a singular or plural verb.  Not having a grammar book or better yet, my former co-worker Jane Conner, I searched the web.  I just didn’t like the advice that Word was giving me.  Funny enough the web site I landed on was something like Grammar with Jane.  And though the rules sort of made sense; I truly like the rule that says, “go with what seems right.”  So I ignored Web Jane sine it wasn’t real Jane, reversed the order of the words in my head and stuck with what I’d written originally before I started to worry about collective type nouns and such.  I have to worry about something other than the Red Sox……though I still love them.  And the season ain’t over till it’s over.

   I went for my second art lesson today and really like Mastini Asap, my teacher.  Can’t wait to write up that story.  But first I have to write up our sari demonstration that was lead by Hadeep, the Rally co-organizer the morning after the Rally ended. 

   We’re going over to Icicle One for dinner.  Cliff is making spaghetti and I am making the salad and garlic bread so I need to get going.  Randal, who truly has been working long hours doing boat chores and is happy when I’m off the boat and not messing into his boat paints, is out cold on the settee in the saloon. 

Another good day about to end…

Ru

DoraMac

Sail Malaysia Farewell Dinner

Part 2

One third of the festivities was the dancing, one third were the traditional dance performances and one third was the wonderful dinner buffet. There was duck, there was lamb, there were several kinds of fish. There were veggies and salads and fruits. There were desserts; though you’ll be astounded to know I didn’t visit that table at all! I have gotten enamored of lamb so focused on the lamb, some roast duck, salad, and a couple of glasses of wine. I’d hit my food limit before dessert. Plus during a morning visit to the Sunday Market, I’d had an enormous cookie with my lemon ice tea. I was still feeling that cookie when we went off to the dinner. I do know they had ice cream because Jim, Joy, and Randal had some. Now I wasn’t watching what anyone else was eating, so I have no idea how much buffet food Jim Carey had already eaten except for the ice cream. The next thing I see is this…..

Jim eating a cheeseburger!

During the pre-dinner wine and beer gathering, Jim had jokingly had said to Sazli, the Rally organizer that it was time to move along to dinner. Sazli asked if Jim were hungry and when the answer was “Yes,” asked, “What would you like to eat?” A cheeseburger,” was Jim’s reply. Our friend Cliff was standing nearby, just innocently listening. Always eager to accommodate the cruisers, Sazli had the marina kitchen cook up a cheeseburger and fries: not only for Jim but for poor Cliff too! And I don’t know how he did it, but Jim ate every bite. Joy looks less than amused! Cliff’s version is that he was totally innocent and trying very hard to implement his new plan not to over eat and the next thing he knew there was the cheeseburger plate. He also made a valiant attempt to be a good sport and eat it. Sometimes, as in Brunei especially, we were swamped with eating events and it’s hard not to overindulge. There were always such a variety of dishes to try.

Joy had her own evening surprises to deal with. She is being lead up to the stage to participate in the blow-dart demonstration.

This is what it’s supposed to look like. I can’t show you Joy’s attempt; the photo was too dark and blurry. But I can tell you that she did pop the balloon that she was aiming at!

Cath Blakey and 6 yr old Emma learn some traditional dance steps.

Cath amazingly had gotten herself from England where she’d been working to Kota Kinabalu by crewing for different boats! She was on her way home to Australia. Lynne and Craig Sharp on their boat Solan were heading for Australia and invited her to join on as crew. One very plucky 29 yr old. With her new short hair cut she looks quite a bit like Jodi Forster. When I’d asked who’d cut her hair she said, “Lloyd.” Lloyd’s boat is Déjà vu lll and Cath had crewed for him during part of the rally. Lloyd turned 70 during our stop in Miri and was the good-natured target for some shenanigans at the Rally dinner. Actually 6 year old Emma is pretty amazing too. She’s not afraid to try anything and always seemed so calm and well behaved.

There were some VIPs at a table near ours and it was this young woman’s task to keep their wine glasses full. All the cruisers could have as much wine and beer as we wished; we just had to go to the wine table for wine though servers came to the table with pitchers of beer.

She was all decked out in traditional costume and beads and looked lovely and sweet.

Along with the blow-dart demonstration was the bamboo dance. Men seated on the floor would move bamboo poles to music which started slow and quickly increased in speed. Dancers had to negotiate their way across the poles. A kind of form of a jump rope game, sort of. Quite amazing to watch.

Bamboo jump rope

You could try it if you wanted. I don’t know why I didn’t other than I’d always been terrible at jump-rope and have 2 left feet.

I don’t remember the story behind this performance. But different tribes were represented with the traditional costumes and dance. This was one Borneo tribe; the bamboo dance and the blow-dart were customs from other tribes.

With the party still going strong, Randal and I said our good-byes about 11pm. My head was pounding to the music and you had to shout across the table to talk. Time to go home! The last official event of Sail Malaysia had come to an end.