Country Cottage Arts

Thursday, 19 August 2010


About 2 weeks ago, my children were at the LCCT airport  on the way to Langkawi with their cousins from Holland.  To their horror, when they were checking in their flight tickets, my silly kids realised that they had not taken their identity cards with them and were thus stranded at the airport.

I received their frantic call whilst buying fish at the market at 8.30am.  "Could Mummy please, please fax a copy of  our identity cards ASAP to the AirAsia counter, otherwise we can't board the plane, Mummy. Our flight is at 9.15am ".  My first thoughts were " stupid kids, they deserve it"  ( I had continuously reminded them all week to pack everything they needed  and make a checklist ) but of course, the bothersome  motherly instinct took over .  After giving them a piece of my mind, ( well, they did deserve that ) I quickly  left the market place and walked real fast to my house. ( I would have  normally takn the car but since I had no hurry to cook on that day with the children away, I had  taken  a leisurely walk to help reduce my  weight! )


Rummaging the drawers, I found the cards and hurriedly left the house and walked the short distance to the shops to look for a fax machine.  They didn't have one.  I then  crossed over the other side to Petronas station.  Horrors! they didn't use one either, so did the 7 Eleven outlet which was about 100 metres away..

It was 9.00am.  I had 15 more minutes  One passer-by told me to go to Section 3 where there were more shops ( I stay in Section 6) Fighting against time, I literally raced back to my house and then stopped dead at the door. I had no key! I had locked myself out . God, what an awful situation !  Luckily I came to my senses and quickly called my husband. It was just pure luck that I had the handphone with me. I called my husband and  explained the need for him to come home and give the keys  Boy, oh boy ! My better   worse half started questioning my sanity and how inconvenient it would be to come home , blah... blah.. blah... ... ( Am  I alone or most wives have to go through these periodic    drama episodes ? )Talk about asking for help from your  nearest and dearest at moments like this !

All said and done, I got the keys and drove to Section 3.  Guest what ?  None of them had a fax.  After going round and round for the 3rd time and getting myself tizzy , I tried one more time and knocked on the door of a half opened office.  The nice Malay gentleman told me to ask the Clerk .  I explained to her  the situation and asked if she could help me. "  I'll pay for the service, of course" I said.  I must have sounded really desperate, for she  readily obliged. My relief came to a halt when she explained that  the office copier was down ! So I zapped in my Kancil again  and drove  around the block to make copies and zipped back to her office. 

It finally went through. 

A lady with a somewhat bulging  brief case, walked in .  From her attire, I realised that this was a law firm and the lady with the black long skirt and white blouse, was obviously the lawyer.  She was neatly dressed and looked sort of  'officious' .  It dawned on me  then to look at myself.   Good God !  I was in a  faded pair of bermuda shorts with a somewhat crinkled and faded blouse. My sort of casual market clothes..... I was using flip flops on my feet and my frizzy hair,  well, it looked really frizzy with a capital letters !  Not to forget, the harried look on my face with all the zipping and zapping in my small car ...........I must have looked like a bigger version of Rumpelstiltskin !  It couldn't get any worse than that now, could it ? 

Her quizzical look at me confirmed my worst nightmare!  She probably thought ' this typical housewifey from the boondocks ' looking person had come to plead a case !!  Aiyoh!, so so mortifyingly embarrassing it was........  Pulling myself to my full height of 5' 2'' and gathering my wits about to make up for the 'look',  I explained to her the purpose of my 'unofficial' visit . And just so to make up for my ' look' ( in case she thought I was penniless too !),  I offered to pay for the service . She  refused to accept any payment. I thought that it was very  kind and gracious of her.  So I decided to give this small token as my appreciation for her gesture ( and to the equally kind Clerk ) 

 I glimpsed her name on her office door as I left the  office.
















The  cream crackers tin which was repainted as a give-away  for the kind  Clerk.











At times like these, I'm so glad that I learned how to paint.  One of the many benefits of decorative painting................... to be able to create a piece of art anytime. ...................................what else can I say?



Happy painting

Lakshmi