Thank you ALL so much. It seems like you guys and gals are the only ones who understand. All I got was a shelling from my BH about how stupid I was.
All your good thoughts must have sent a HUGE postive energy wave my way. A friend of mine in Germany called!! Hermes Frankfurt has loads of Garden Party bags - all sorts of colours and fabrics. Will score one from there. A friend of mine returns only at the end of November. And she's bought one on my behalf.
Have gone shopping today - there are no designer boutiques in Penang. Those of you who've visited can attest to that all too well. In fact, very few people even know Hermes. The only classy boutique that exists is the Rolex(and that's being really subjective! LOL... though there is a store that sells H and Cartier, but I digress). Ended up with a whole lot of leather stuff from Montblanc. I know, sigh...it's hardly a replacement for H but I was distraught.
Thank you all so very much yet again for your thoughts and I will carry them with me when I travel. This has been a very sad part of my life and I hope I'll feel better with some retail therapy. This is also going to be my first trip traveling for non-business reasons all by myself!
Fondly,
Eric