My four-day weekend

I'm reading acclaimed Turkish author Orhan Pamuk's newest novel "Snow". I've already read his other book, "My Name is Red". His newest book "Snow" makes me wonder when I'm going to start wearing a tudung or headscarf like other Muslim women everywhere. Reading the book makes me feel proud, happy and relieved that I live in Malaysia, where the state is secular, and Muslims are liberal and tolerant. I feel sorry for the Muslim girls and women in Europe who aren't allowed to cover their heads in schools and universities because it is seen as a symbol of "political Islam", or as a symbol of religion. I wonder why ppl can't just see it as a piece of clothing or a fashion accessory? After all, married women in Spain and Italy cover their hair with a scarf when going to the market, and they're not even Muslim. And when ladies drive around in a convertible in the countryside, they'll wear a scarf around their heads to prevent their hair from blowing all over the place. I don't see the big deal in banning the headscarf in public places. In Turkey, women members of their parliament aren't allowed inside the building wearing a headscarf. That's so pitiful.

But anyway... enough of all this "hard" stuff. I'd just like to say that I really like the way Orhan Pamuk writes. It sounds as if he's recounting an episode that really took place in his life. He describes movements, people's faces and expressions, their tone of voice. Which is why I like it because it doesn't feel like I'm reading a work of fiction, but something non-fiction. (I like to read non-fiction travelogues... my favorite form of literature.) Even when the work by Pamuk's been translated from Turkish to English, I can see that his writing is very up-front and very honest. Which is the way I've always wanted to write. So, I like this man's work very much.

Today is the last day of my four-day weekend. Wow. It was really nice to do all that stuff that I did. I don't feel like going to work tomorrow as usual after a long holiday. (But it wasn't even long. Later on I'll have to take 8-10 days off in a row.) And today I did something I've always wanted to do, and that was go to Nilai 3 and buy kain. Buying material has always been something I do with relish. It's like the same feeling a small child would get being put in a candy store with money to spend. Or a toy shop. That was the feeling I got. Surrounded by rolls and rolls of material to make baju. And everything machine washable and affordable (I won't say 'cheap' because that would give the reader the impression that the material was of poor quality). Most of my baju kurung have to be dry-cleaned, so it was such a relief to buy some kain that was washable.

Baju kurung is the easiest thing to put on for work in the morning, because you don't have to accessorize. If you wear a shirt and pants, both top and bottom have to match... shoes have to match... etc etc. And I'm such a lazy person in the morning, that I can't be bothered sometimes to match clothes, so I just put on a baju kurung. Plus I'm kinda big on top so shirts have the tendency to look very tight on me, and I hate looking fat.

So Nilai 3 is this place that looks like a border town bazaar. It's how I imagined the border between Russia and Asia or the Middle East to be like, with lots of different merchants selling cloth, furniture and other goods. All the shops were in these warehouses and the heat in them was stifling. There were lots of electrical goods and toys from China I noticed. Lots of fake Barbie dolls that looked really nice. As if they were real Barbies. There were plenty of kedai kain around to my amazement. And lots of them sold really cheap material, around RM3.00 - RM4.00 per meter. But they were the polyster-feeling type of cloth that was coarse and if you wore a dress made out of it, it would make you feel hot, so I didn't buy any of that. But it was just amazing to be there anyway because if you go to Jalan TAR in KL, they'd probably sell the same stuff double or triple the price.

Anyway, not that you want to hear, but I bought 4 different patterns of cloth and I'm very happy with my purchase. The only thing left to do is to send them off to the tailor to make my baju. Next week, I'll have to bring my mom... she wants me to bring her...