Geography was never my forte, but still....

Maria's post reminded me of an incident

that happened at the post office the other day when I was sending out wedding Thank You cards.

Although most of my family members are in Malaysia, my brother is here in the States with his family in Virginia, and I have an Aunt in Arizona.

I also have an aunt in Brunei Darussalam, whom I got close to while I was studing medicine in the part of Malaysia that is on Borneo Island. Because of the relative proximity ( there was no South China Sea separating us, but many many miles of land, nevertheless ), she visited me at the university and brought me out and about a couple of times and we've been keeping in contact via email and letters, especially since I've moved to the States.

I have visited Brunei only once when I was a student, and that was mainly to go to Jerudong Park, a kind of Disneyland that the Sultan had built for his wife and ENTRANCE AS WELL AS ALL THE RIDES WERE FREE!!!!!!! You can imagine how crazy we went in the Park..

( They have started charging about a USD$8.00 all day entrance fee since then, with a minimal sum for rides etc.)

Which brings us back to the post lady..

Scenario:

Letti and David go into the post office with a bundle of Thank You notes, to be sent all over the world - Malaysia, Singapore, Australia etc.

Post person weighs cards one by one, taking note of the different countries that the cards are going out to.

Post person comes to the card that's addressed to aunt in Brunei.

Post person looks puzzled and asks "Is that a country? I've never heard of it!"

Letti tries hard not to roll her eyes but turns to David and raises an eyebrow instead.
( David always loves to refer to the Sultan of Brunei as being one of the richest people in the world - Brunei has one of the highest GDPs in the developing world and has oodles and gobs of Petroleum - and if something is overly expensive, he would say, "who do these people think I am, the Sultan of Brunei???" ).

David bites his tongue and holds back any comment.

Forbes magazine put the Sultan of Brunei as the world's wealthiest man in 1997, but Bill Gates has since surpassed him in worth.

*sigh*

Update: P/S didn't mean to offend anyone..I'm quite the ignoramus about a heckuva lotta things out there myself, but this was a post person, for pete's sakes..*smiles*