Hi All,

Randal and I are just really relaxing here in Miri.  We ride our bikes, read, I paint, Randal watches his Discovery DVDs and watches the late night shows on his computer the following morning while I follow the Red Sox.  Just a couple of retired people!  I have been to the library twice.  Randal is also spending lots of time doing boat chores and also researching where and when we’ll go to have the boat pulled and the bottom painted.  We’ve decided that we’d both like to stop in India on our way to the Med.

We’ve only been here in Miri for about 2 weeks but it feels like much longer.  I know my way around the city and can’t remember what it was like to feel unsure.  I know the library and the bookstore and where to buy enough fresh veggies to keep me happy.  There are large supermarkets too when we need them.

The local people are very friendly.  During Hari Raya Muslims go to the cemetery to honor the dead.  We were biking past and slowed to let a group cross the road.  They said a quiet hello.  I said Salamat Hari Raya!  Then they all smiled and gave us a huge hello.  I think they appreciated that I had acknowledged their holiday.  We have found great apple crisp and ice cream, chicken pot pie, macaroni and cheese, homemade banana muffins and yogurt all at Pete’s Deli just up the road from the marina.  Pete’s Chinese!  The longer we stay the more we discover that we like.

I’ve written a story about having some pillow covers made here in Miri.  It’s just typical of the cruising life although it is amazing the number of cruising women who have sewing machines.  I wouldn’t mind having one.  Maybe one day.

Ru

DoraMac

Red Pillows

Ever since we left China I’ve wanted to replace the pillow covers on the 3 small pillows we keep on the settee in the saloon. (In landlubber terms the pillows are on the built in couch in the living room. I didn’t grow up with anything called a settee or a saloon so they’re just not terms I would choose without feeling that I had to explain what I meant requiring an entire paragraph practically.)

Anyway, the Chinese pillows were bought in a mini-mart store just across the way from where Bill and Stella had their lovely condo in Baijiao. We were waiting for Stella to meet us at the car. Sorry Bill, but I never liked the material, the pattern, the colors or the tassels that started falling off immediately. We lived with those spur of the moment purchases for two years until we got to Kuching during Sail Malaysia. I didn’t love the ones I bought there; I just liked them more than what we had and they looked better in the store…. I had tried to buy some in the Noor Arfa batik shop in Terengganu but they had none and neither did the public market cloth shops. Since the time we had left China I hadn’t seen pillow covers anywhere when I actually took the time to look. What I had seen was a long red, gold, green and blue skirt with an elephant and Indian motif while I was wandering through Chinatown in Singapore. Had to have it even though the elastic waistband was sized for tiny Asian people. I just really liked the material. Something about red and elephants made it irresistible to me as I was in my elephant phase. Well, I never wore the skirt; waist too tight, skirt too long and the occasion never arose.

While in Terengganu I told Ruth from Icicle One about the skirt. She said the waist band could come off and be replaced. So impulsively I took out a scissors and picked out the stitches and took out the waistband and that was the end of that skirt. Oh well. I put it with the sari cloth and the other sarong cloth we had been given and hoped someday to find someone somewhere to make me pillow covers.

Several days ago Randal and I went out looking for the second book store in Miri. We never found it but we did find a huge shop that sold fabrics, yarn, notions, and even a few paint brushes. I noticed that they had women sewing too. So Thursday, when the library had reopened after Hari Raya, I took one “Chinese pillow cover,” the long, now useless skirt, and I went back to the shop which was on the way to the library. Luckily Annabel Aurelia was there. Not only did she speak English, she spoke pillow and knew exactly what was needed to transform my no longer wearable red skirt into 3 pillow covers. Annabel has a hearing problem so we had to write to each other. Annabel reads and writes Bahasa Malaysia, she reads and writes English and she signs and I think she also might have been reading my lips. Pretty accomplished. She measured but found there wasn’t enough skirt material for front and back so took me to the shelves of fabric. She instantly picked out the perfect fabric though I had to keep looking before I saw she was right. Then she picked out the perfect zippers to match. She just really knew what she was doing.

Randal and I rode back today to get them and I really like them a lot. The shop was busy so I only had time to get the covers, say thank you and take a quick one chance only photo of Annabel. And I gave her one of our flag bandannas too.

In US dollars each cover cost about $3.60. I certainly think I got great value for my money. Can’t remember what I paid for the skirt in Singapore but it couldn’t have been very much or I wouldn’t have bought it.

Pillows front and back.

You can see the elephants on the bottom and the red. Can you imagine this as a floor length skirt? Interesting fashion statement I’d have been making since though the waist was small it billowed out around my hips making me rather giant. But I really like the material.

They add a bit of color to our tan and teak.

Annabel made sure the same pattern of the skirt was used on all of the pillows.

Annabel Aurelia in the shop where she works.

Hi All,

  We are enjoying our time in Miri.Two days ago Randal and I got out our bikes and did a really long 15 mile ride.  It felt long anyway with the 90 degree temperature and 90% humidity.  And there were two hills too!   We rode along the coast highway, but the view was blocked by several zillion dollar mansions.  We took a detour to go to a more modest neighborhood near the airport which advertised a show house. It wasn’t opened so we gave ourselves a brief tour of the one being built next door.   We rode back to the coast road and turned into a small beach park area.  After a short rest we biked back toward town stopping to eat way too much fried rice and noodle soup. 

  Yesterday I went off to the Miri Public library.  Here’s the story…..

Miri Public Library; you can only get there by walking!
Our first visit to Miri was at the end of July for part of Sail Malaysia.  During that visit Randal and I rode our bikes to the Public Library.  It is new and quite impressive and they had several watercolor books that interested me.  They even had an art exhibit of local artists on display.  Yesterday I decided to go back for another visit.  Randal was doing a boat project with the alternator and battery charging system that necessitated running the engine for 2 hours.  I decided to “leave the premises.” 
The library is a fairly good distance from the marina so I decided to attempt the Miri bus system.  There is no printed schedule on the Internet, but the local bakery ladies told me that the bus ran every 20  minutes or so.   You watch the bus go by in the opposite direction and 20 minutes later it will be back at the stop in front of the bakery.    I packed up my backpack, kissed Randal good-bye and walked the 10 minutes over to the main road where the bakery and several small shops and restaurants are located.  It was 10:30: I sat down to wait for the bus.  There was a young man waiting also so I confirmed with him that I was indeed at the right place.  I had brought a book with me; but instead of reading I spent the next 25 minutes picking briars out of the bottom part of my skirt.  I have no idea how they came to be there but they were itchy.  Luckily they were just on the bottom part and only scratchy on my legs.  I got most of them out by the time the bus came at 10:55.  The driver was very helpful even calling the money dollars rather than ringgits.  It cost 1 ringgit to take the bus into town to the local bus terminal.  At the terminal the driver kindly walked me over to where bus 42 was parked; the bus that would get me closest to the library.  He then took me back over to the tiny terminal building where the schedules are posted and we saw that bus 42 wouldn’t leave for another 45 minutes!  A taxi driver asked if I wanted to take a taxi and I said no.  Then I asked the bus driver how much a taxi would cost.  He said about 5 ringgits which is less than $2.  But I decided to walk thinking it wasn’t so far. Also, I would know my way back since finding a return taxi at the Library would be impossible.   And it wasn’t so far; maybe a half hours walks.  I had to ask along the way since I’m not great with maps.  But it actually was quite simple other than crossing the really busy double lane wrong way traffic.  At one point I found myself at a bus stop as a bus came along.  I waited my turn to get on and asked if the bus would get me anywhere near the library.  The driver said, “No, Wait for bus 42.”  I continued walking, saw a taxi coming along and tried to flag it down.  No luck.  The weather was getting very overcast very quickly so I was getting concerned.  But after one more giant complicated major intersection I came to the street where the library was located.  As it turns out there are two libraries and I got to the “wrong one” first.  Another 5 minute walk and I was at my intended library with the watercolor collection I had come to see.  And most importantly, just outside the library, a small food stall.  I had a cold soybean milk drink and then went inside.  It was about noon and 10 minutes later it was pouring!
I sent the next 2 and a half hours there looking at several watercolor books and still there are more books I’d like to see.  And I didn’t explore their magazine collection.  So I will go back. 
I left the library and walked back to the town center and then back to the marina.  Along the way I stopped at a fruit stall to buy some crisp apples.  Though I was hungry I wasn’t the least bit tempted to eat an unwashed apple.  I did find a bag of lightly sweetened caramel popcorn at a house wares store.  The popcorn was in a display at the front of the shop.  That made a great lunch and got me the rest of the way back to the marina.  It was hot but I did have a bottle of water and there was no second choice but to keep walking. 
I had left the library at 2:45 and got back to the marina about 4 pm.  That included stopping to browse the Miri Handicraft Center, buy the apples , buy the popcorn and cross several busy streets.  It had taken me from about 10:20 am when I left the boat until about 11:45 to get myself “by bus” to the library.  It took me just about the same amount of time to walk back.  It really is a shame that it is so difficult to get to the library using public transportation: not for me, but for the locals. 

When we were here in July I wrote an email that included photos of the library.  These are photos of the landscaping around the library.  I had to pass this way walking from the first library to the second new library.  Miri means seahorse so you see lots of seahorse sculptures like in Kuching you saw cats.  Kuching means cat.