Anything but creamer!

I've had a request for explanation of Nasi Lemak, unofficial national dish of Malaysia. The name literally means 'rice in fat'. There goes my waistline *sigh*. The rice is soaked in rich coconut cream and then the mixture steamed. Traditionally, this comes as a platter with cucumber slices, small dried anchovies, roasted peanuts, stir fried water convolvulus (?), hard boiled egg, pickled vegetables, and hot spicy sauce. Nasi lemak can also come with any other accompaniments such as chicken, cuttlefish, cockle, beef curry. See what I mean - tis a weird combo. Even weirder - Nasi lemak is traditionally a breakfast dish!!!!!

I've decided to give up on milk. And since I can't drink black coffee, this means giving up coffee as well (which I was trying to do in Perth anyway, on and off...). The receptionist here has been buying milk especially for me, but we keep having power blackouts overnight and she has to chuck it out. The last straw was on the Malaysian Airlines flight when I asked for milk for my tea and was handed a sachet of creamer powder instead of the usual tub of UHT. Creamer brings back memories of long, hungry days in Algeria and Gabon, also milk-free zones.

My taxi driver could have died on the way to work this morning. He opened the car door while driving along to lean out and have a huge spit, just as a motorbike came flying up alongside. It then took me about 15 minutes to get up to the office on the 46th floor because the lift seems to stop at every floor. I am spending so much time waiting for and standing in lifts that I am having to become a patient person. Good meditation time. I had lunch with the big boss from Perth at a Sundanese restaurant (is that Indonesian?) and dinner at the Aust High Commissioner's house - the first Xmas party of many hopefully. Tested the "Law of Attraction" on the food platters, drink waiters and the charity raffle with little success, but then jagged an unexpected unvisualised unanticipated lift home with friends of friends. Oh well even Murphy's Law doesn't work 100% of the time...

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