Labor Day in Penang

I "celebrated" Brendan and Doug's birthdays before they even woke up, but it didn't feel as strange as ending Labor Day before it had started in the U.S. Yesterday (Labor Day) was a Public Holiday, b/c Malaysian Independence Day fell on Sunday. It was also the first day of Ramandham fasting.

I spent most of the day working on two manuscripts. In the afternoon I went to one of my co-authors office to review chapter 3 - it seems that he wanted to bring his 7 year old son into the office to distract him. In Malaysia the custom is that fasting starts at age 7 - one of my classmates in the Malaysian class is from Pakistan. There children don't begin fasting until 12 years old. It must be quite an ordeal since fasting includes nothing to drink. (I had a chance to confirm the extent of lack of drink this a.m. the office teapot was cold.)

I am told that there are many stalls on the street outside the Guest House selling various treats. I didn't try it yesterday, b/c of rain. Instead I tried this laksa stall (temporary for the Feast of the Hungry Ghost). Not as good as the Laksa I had several weeks ago, but passable. I try to watch how much I eat as these ad hoc stalls - since I suspect that they are more generous with MSG. Note the large pot and the fire underneath - that explains why it was really hot laksa!

Sunday's paper has interviews with people about their opinions of Malaysia. My favorite - a Malaysian who had lived in the US for 5 years - he missed having weather! I agree. I also miss having no one to share campaign news with. Abu of the nasi kandar stand is as close as I get, but his information is limited and he is always running between our conversation and attending to a paying customer.