Marketing Diaries

After mustering enough courage and taking the day off, I finally drove myself with Greg's car to the shops (yeah, driving would not be so scary if aussies drive on the right hand side of the road instead of the left and if they don't get so insistent on THE right of way at the same time) and went to the

• butcher shop. The variety of meats doesn't look too scary now after a quick phonecall to Mom, asking which meat is for what kind of dish. Marketing is so complicated ... gravy beef ... pork loin ... spareribs .... pork soup bone ... beef brisket ... After trying to find out what is 'kien-tsi' in english for weeks (because that is what i need to buy according to my mom) and learning it was called gravy beef and mustering the courage to visit the butcher's, I heard them speaking fookien to each other after I finished paying for my purchases. *boink*
• sausage shop. Hmm, I need something for our breakfasts here so sausage would be good :)
• seafood market. So many kinds of fishes. I was lost. My friend told me to get any white fish. (I'm still lost on what is a white fish). Phone call to mom again. Mom said to get a fillet will do if I don't know which fish to buy. Well, I ended up getting some fish head instead, the other fishes could wait. Now that is something easy to buy. Fish head. For soup :)
• grocery stores for our supplies of laundry, toileries, rice, milk, etc. I didn't realize we could consume so much in little amount of time. This is the reason why I had to bring a car. How could I buy stuff weighing 10kgs-20kgs and carrying them home from the shops ....
• chicken shop.
• baker's.
• fresh veggies and fruits shop. I approached the Filipino staff at the check out line and asked if what I got is called 'lebanos' and 'zayote' in tagalog. that is what i called helpless! haha! because i was standing for several minutes at the 'zayote' stand with a sign that says "chokies" wondering if it is what i think it is. And then again with the white raddish, I have not seen it before in my life since it was always mixed with my food before I even get to see what it looks like in the 'raw form'. All mom told me was "buy some lebanos to add to your beef soup".

Next 'adventure' was getting all my stuff into the car. How come they don't make it easy in australia? The car park is still a confusing place for me with the uneven and inclined floors. I managed to push my cart to the car using the long and bumpy way, hold the cart firmly because the floor is inclined forcing my cart to roll down and moved all the stuff inside the trunk (or should i start calling it boot instead of trunk because that is what aussies call them?), then found out there is an easier path for grocery carts. *boink*

Today is turning out to be an amusing day with these marketing. SJA, don't start laughing out loud now.