My Neo Overcoat

Temperature: 17 c

Weather: Fair

As mentioned in my earlier entry, last week, Bom and I went together to tailor-make a blazer and an overcoat respectively.

Today, after we had dinner together at Carrefour with Bom, Ryan, Ivy, Engtee and Lantat (all Malaysians currently working in China), all of us went together to the tailor mall to collect Bom’s blazer and my overcoat.

The mall was busy, as usual. It was full of foreigners. We did the calculation, if we were earning pound sterling in UK, we only need to spend 30 pound to get a tailor-made coat, i.e. if the English stops eating KFC twice, they would have the money to buy a tailor-made coat of reasonable quality. Just imagine if you are Angmo, your currency (pound sterling or USD or Euro) is so valuable in China.

We tried our new coats on to see whether they fit. Engtee complained mine was a little too tight and too small. I disagreed. I told her, Neo’s overcoat was meant to be like that. It would not look nice if it was too “longgar”. I was quite happy with my Neo’s overcoat. It was made of cashmere, so it was quite light and smooth. I told the tailor I was happy with my overcoat, but if I find any problem with it, I will come back and request them to do something about it. The tailor said no problem, they will adjust it for me without extra charges if there is any problem. I paid the balance RMB300 and collected my Neo’s overcoat. With about RM280, I managed to pocket an overcoat home for winter. I think I would not have been able to buy one in Malaysia.

Well, this is how I look with the overcoat on (photo taken by Ivy with her Sony Ericsson handphone):

Bom complained that his blazer was too big for him. The tailor re-measured his size and promised to do the necessary adjustments. Bom could then collect his blazer next Thursday. Ryan, who is Bom’s housemate and an accountant in Ernst & Young, was too tempted by the blazers and overcoat we bought. He, on the spot, decided he wanted to buy one too. So his measurement was taken by the tailor and he happily paid the deposit. Lantat, who also bought one for his wedding, wanted the tailor to adjust the waist part to make him looks fitter. Ok, he will also collect his together with Bom’s.

Once we were done with the tailor, we were joined by Alfonso (another Malaysian accountant who works in KPMG; want to talk about Malaysia’s brain drain issue? I will deal with it again in due course). We decided to have steamboat for dinner.

At the restaurant, we were joined by Hong Seek (satu lagi Malaysian who also works in KPMG, in other words, at this small dinner table, Malaysia has lost 1 engineer, 6 accountants and 1 lawyer, but it’s ok for Malaysia I am sure, because Malaysia still has a lot of non-bumi professionals to spare).

This routine Malaysian fellowship normally takes place once a week in the weekend. It’s getting more systematic by the days. My father suggested maybe we could start a “MCA” in Shanghai: Malaysia Community Association. I think that is a great idea. After all, Rotary International was formed under a very humble background similar to ours.

Ok, it’s midnight now, tomorrow is a Monday. No one loves Monday, so I’d better get some sleep to have the stamina to handle another week-cycle of works.

Good night!

.