Family Outing

I have been reliably informed there are only two days of the year when one can go clubbing with ones parents with impunity, Christmas & Easter. That's a relief!

Last night I went out with the family, to a broad street bar to see the wonder that is

King Pleasure & the Biscuit Boys

can't beat it. This lead to much dancing, which lead to spinning, which lead to a very dizzy me. Had a fantastic time, danced with every family member, a jolly good time was had by all.

at 21.00 the band finished and the karaoke started. We went to sit further away as D said it was to loud (he was right, but not going to admit that).

after which both baby Bros did karaoke, with M and DuLa cheering them on. Their karaoke was very good and set the bar very high, which with karaoke can only be a good thing.

Was home for 22.30, can't argue really!

Five tree rings

Be woken up at late but not to late o’clock with a cup of peppermint tea (my fav morning drink) by my much beloved emb. Chat, open cards, and be generally sickening.

Then got a phone call saying you didn’t get the job you applied for (optional). (On the plus side they told me when they said they would, and I got good feedback). Have friends phone and be congratulary on anniversary, and positive about interview.

Eat light breakfast, have shower, drink more tea, have suggested you should dry your hair properly as it is cold and you might catch a chill. Get dressed in girl clothes, including tights I managed not to put my hand through. Strangely I didn’t feel silly.

Go for Carvery; eat fantastic veggies and a small Yorkshire pudding. We forgot the veggie gravy, but they had some and it was really nice (not salty). Then I had a vanilla ice cream swimming in butterscotch sauce, I eat all most all the butterscotch and about half the ice cream. EMB had turkey, veggies, a huge Yorkshire but no ice cream. Drink sparkling water, still no none medication caffeine this year!

Go home, play with excessively over excited puppy, more peppermint tea and then retire for a nap, get woken a bit later with more peppermint tea, more phone calls, and then a view out the window at what could have been mistaken for the start of Ragnarök, horizontal snow and all.

Chat to family, good wishes and discussions of the weather. Discuss food, feed puppy, and start to cook. Snuggle down to watch pre-decided appropriate film while eating, with a break for more tea, and “rainy snow”. Watch film, with out comments having discovered EMB had never seen the end! More tea, more chat, type up day, go to sleep happy …

Hallowe'en and hounds

Puppies with pumpkins

London, Baby!

12 hour on a plane & I smell.

12 hours on a plane and then 12 at the mercy of British rail (or rail track, or network rail, or what ever it is now) then I'm tiered, grumpy and smell.

it took me more time to get from London to Birmingham than it did for TPG to get from HK to KL, which is silly.

now off for a shower, and a sleep.

Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Like new york on steroids, really. All a bit mad, lots of time out and about, lots of time watching rubbish (and not so rubbish) TV. the place is built on a hill, a big hill at that, the view is incredible, photos can't capture it, but we had a go.

We ate lots, & I discovered that I don't rally like real chines food that much, all a bit non vegi friendly. We found a very good Indian, and were shown a lovely whole food restaurant by a lovely lady. We ate there twice.

I could just be where we were but though the visuals were stunning, the tunes were most definitely old school! Not that old, 80's/90's or so, can't argue.

Holiday in Camdodia

This is a strange country, like lord of the flies, with out the seashells, and the complete destruction of society, it's a nation of children, the average age is under 21 years old. while we were there we saw maybe 5 people over 60, and no more than 10 between 25 and 60. Now of course we were in the tourist areas the adults may have been elsewhere, but even the police officers were young, our main "tut tut"(the noise a straining scooter engine makes when pulling a carriage) driver was 15 if he was a day.

Everyone seemed beautiful, moved with purpose, and the country is incredible. It's going develop with a bang, hopefully a good one.

Busy Day

Today is my last full day in KL, as such I had much to do. Those Temples don't visit themselves you know!

First step was catching the train by myself, this was a big step. Please allow a slight digression, the tickets have some form of reprogrammable feature, and as such they can be reused, but rather than in the UK, where you have your destination on the ticket, here you don't, so you just have to remember!

First stop Chinatown, where I first went to Chan See Shu Yuen Temple, which was very old, and took a leap of faith to get to as you had to cross a very very busy roundabout to get there, on the plus side you got two for one as there was also the Koon Yam (Guanyin) Temple a little bit over. Next back a bit was yet another temple, Sze Ya Temple which was a little tricky to find but fengshui put it there, so we're all good.

Next, in my attempt to find the train again I went back past the Guandi Temple (Kwong Siew Free School) and the Sri Mahamariamman Temple. (not just an excuse to show I now know the names and put more photos up!)

After all this I still found no postcards!

Running out of options I decided to catch the train to KLCC, which is a temple to consumerism, so still in the same theme. to make it clear there is a M&S, a Top Shop, and many other designer boutique. But most importantly there is a park with the dolphin sculpture.

Today was a long day and I'm very sleepy.

I'm going to Cambodia tomorrow, we have to leave the house at 07.00. I have to pack. I hate packing. EMB has called to make me hurry up and TPG says he's just going to leave me behind.

Should pack ...

Dirty Stop Out

Last night TPG, neighbour + family & I ventured in to town, to KLCC, where we saw the stunningly beautifully Petronas towers by night. Then ate Mexican food and went on to a bar called Luna, to do this we walked through a street of clubs, and in case you were worried the 80's are alive and well, having retired to KL for the sun. I kid you not, if you're not heard Queen with a Malaysian MCing over the top you've not lived. (come to think of it, it's a bit like when we went to a disco in a rugby club, which had welsh MCing over a forgettable dance track)

Anyway, I digress. As we didn't catch the train till 21.00 we ate late, so we got to the bar for about 23:30, discovering that the ING/Renault team had had a party in there until 23:00 or so, and as such the place was packed. To be honest it required more concentration than I have as there is just to much water! Once sat down it was a very chilled place, apartment swimming pool by day, chill out bar by night, unbelievable view.

Solo Adventure

From the apartment you can see a temple. (top right of photo above what looks like a light gray box)

Based on this I hatched a plan, I'd walk down to Freedom Park (Bottom Left), see how I was doing and maybe walk to the temple, now on the photo it may not look far but it is 35c and over 50% humidity. So hot and sweaty.

Anyway freedom park is lovely, very peaceful with lots of shade. I'm not sure what time school finishes here but there seemed to be a fair few school children around, boys being noisy and the like. What I did notice was that everyone was in the shade, of which there was a lot.

Feeling ok I decided to make the trip to what I later discovered was the (Buddhist) Chetawan Temple. which in the photo above looks small but is actually a complex of shrines and temples, even having a homemade waterfall.

First port of call was the office where there was a nice lady looking like she'd just got up and a saffron clad Monk using a computer. I asked if I could look round, was told yes, asked if I could take photos, was told yes, I checked, everywhere? Monk nodded, lady said yes. Hence there are many photos.

As I wondered around I got to see many things and reinforced my belief that fire, smoke, sunshine and faith is a good combination.

It's a Small World After All

And not just in a Disney/Winnie the pooh kind of way.

Much to TPG disgust I've been taking photos of random things that remind me of not here. I'll explain, when you turn on to the complex there is an A&W which does root beer floats just like I remember. (They melt faster there than in Colorado though).

In the mall downstairs there's a Starbucks. Not just a Starbucks but the other day it had saffron clad Buddhist monks enjoying a latte. We couldn't work out a way to photo them with out being hugely disrespectful, so we didn't. Still saw it though.

We went to a "Mega Mall" It had a GAP, and even more frighteningly a Dorothy Perkins. Dotty P for goodness sake, they're a well respected brand over here apparently!

More Small World photos.

*****************************

Multi Lingual Danger Sign

Abertawe to KL

A Long Time Ago ... I used to live in Swansea, I loved living there but it was not without its downsides.

One thing I do remember about Swansea is the weather, according to my memory it rained almost every day. It seems to do that here as well, difference being in Swansea, you'd get cold and wet, where as in KL you get warm and wet.

Also thought the storms in Swansea could be impressive, they had nothing in comparison with what's going on outside at the moment, thunder, lightning, flood water unbelievable. Blackpill would be underwater by now, so it'd be not all bad!

Photos

Photo Updates, as they happen

Also

A memory from the Florence

Time in motion

It takes 12 hours to fly to Malaysia.

Everyone was very nice, I watched films (Happy Feet & Miss Potter). The food was pleasant, I'm a firm believer in curry for breakfast.

But it is still 12 hours, this is a long, long time.

After which I got of the plane, where the heat hit me, not true. the heat an humidity hit me. both vieing for my attention like noisy children.

Then collected my bag, the last one off the carousel naturally, and went meet TPG & his lovely lady.

Out here from the airport you pay for your taxi first at a kiosk, then queue outside. once done we got a taxi, and started the hour long drive back to the apartment. It was still very hot outside but the taxi had air-con

I felt very tired, and had been waring the same clothes for about 24 hours so had started to doze when there was a loud bang. I was surprised and not sure what was going on.

It appears a wild cat had run across the freeway and then been hit by the taxi, the driver didn't have a chance of missing it. we pulled over to the hard shoulder and my hopes of a quick brush down were dashed when I saw the driver carry the right headlight and put it in the boot. Even in my confused and jet-lagged state, I knew this was a bad thing.

He tried to restart the engine but appeared that the unfortunate cat had force the radiator on to the fan. The taxi, or as it now was the big black box with no power, and by extrapolation no air-con.

As we sat by the road with the doors open to catch the breeze it did strike me what a beautiful country this is, even if it is bloody hot.

after what to me seemed like hours, but can't have been more than 20 min the new taxi arrived to help us complete the rest of our blissfully uneventful journey.

We then went up to the apartment where I had a shower and fell asleep, all in all a good days work.

*****

View from apartment window
Taken before 09:00
Note the heat haze

Prepare to Launch

Had a half day yesterday, practically ran out of the building to the car where EMB was waiting, after several packing of the case we got it all to fit(ish) and then off to town for the train to London. We were running late and I accepted to myself to missing the train that had a reserved seat so running and getting frustrated would be counter productive. So I calmly went to the fast ticket machine, got my ticket and walked to the platform, where my train was waiting. I took this to be a good omen.

read my book on the train, and listened to the MP3 player, all very relaxed. was met at Euston by dizzykj clutching a coffee having already had a long day. We then got a bus from out side there to outside hers, stopping only to pick up a Chinese takeaway. we then settled in for an episode or two of Buffy before retiring for the night around 22.00 as I had to get to Heathrow for a 12.00 flight.

well that was the plan. we in fact watched four eps (Band Candy, Earshot, Once More, with Feeling, and Tabula Rasa, for those who need to know)

didn't get to bed till 01.00, naughty us!

had to leave the flat a 08.00 so alarm was set for 07.00, getting up was painful, but I managed it. Got tube to Padington and then the Heathrow express. it amuses me that it only cost £4 more for a return to Birmingham - London than a return London - Heathrow

ho hum, got to the airport on time, all so exciting!