I got up this morning and thought I must write this down. Sharipah, my usual travelling friend, talked on the phone yesterday, recalling our trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg recently. We congratulated ourselves for being good 'girls' - we hardly bought anything except some souvenirs for our children and close friends. The Euros and the US$ were almost untouched - not that we were not tempted! The temptation to buy is there-plenty!!!!!!! But both of us have made a pact that at our age we should minimize our belongings - it will lessen the headache to clear the clutter in the house. I have been on endless spring cleaning in my house since returning from Kuching, boxes and boxes went to the mosque for the mosque committee to sell to raise fund. I am glad they managed to collect some $ . I still have some more to sort out though. This is the result of 40 years of having a home with storage space to shove the 'nanti nak pakai' things.
Anyway. in the Uzbeck plane on the way back to KLIA, we shook hands and said 'congratulations' to each other and burst into laughter. We did well! Unlike the trip to Cape Town, the four of us (Jin, Cesily, Sharipah and I) bought rubbish and now wondered why we bought them - handbags, paintings, costume jewellery, clothes etc, some we can buy at cheaper prices in our country. We were mad! When one person bought something, the others will follow suit! That's what group influence is.
Thank God the group members to Russia were not shopping crazy - not like the groups to Morocco, Uzbeckistan and Iran - I was really stressed and bored. Well, that's life.
