Texas, here I come!

KL -> Singapore -> Moscow -> Houston

Sorry guys, I've been wanting to post a blog about our newly, used (2002) car that we purchased last month!

It's small but still has great pick-up, compact, silver, reminds me of a mini, has a tight turning radius , can park anywhere, has A/C plus a cd player. Helaas, no picture of us in it yet, but I added one from the internet! There ya go!

The Final Countdown

10 more days...and I leave KL for a 6 week holiday in Texas! I'm extremely excited, and I try not to mention it too much to David, because he wants to go home as much as me!

It's hard to realize that we've been away from home for a year now. It went by so fast, but we've experienced and learned so much it's unbelievable. Someone asked me if there was anything I really wanted to do while I'm back home. Like, go visit my favorite restaurant or favorite bar, but honestly, what would make me the happiest person in the world would be to see my family and friends and give them a big ol' Texas hug (since I've only had two hugs here, besides David) You really don't appreciate those little things until you're an ocean away.

Besides that, David does have a list of things to do, places to visit, things to eat, and I'll definitely go along for the ride. : )

1. Restaurants

a. Abdallah's "One spicy falafel sandwich, please!"

b. Mario's - "I'll have the same thing I've been ordering for the last ten years straight please"

c. Christian's Totem -Burgers and beers

2. Bars

a. West Alabama IceHouse - "The variety of locals is the only thing that exceeds the variety of beer"

b. La Carafe - "At sunset, it's the best seat in town"

c. The Velvet Melvin - "Some things never change"

3. Beers This one is very important since Malaysia only offers a select number of beers; Tiger, Guinness, Hoegaarden, Carlsberg and Heineken. For beer lovers, it's depressing.

a. Stone I.P.A

b. Bridgeport I.P.A

c. St. Arnold's Octoberfest

4. Homemade Meals

a. Ma's gehakt balletjes

b. Liz's green bean casserole

c. Dad's george foreman chicken

5.Miscellaneous

a. Shoot guns

b. Wrestle Katie

c. Drink coffee on ma and pa's back porch

d. Have burgers at Fitzwillie's in College Station

Let's hope we have enough time to get all of these things out of the way before we have to return to Malaysia!

Long Weekend

It's been almost a month since our last blog entree. Thought I would just share our weekend  with you. 

Saturday

Boh tea and curry puff in the Cameron Highlands

enjoyed the cold air 

had a terrible lunch in town, worried we might get sick. Thank goodness we didn't.

watched an old Richard Gere movie

took a long four hour nap 

bought honey and corn at the night market

vegetarian Indian dinner at hotel restaurant

watched The Sweetest Thing on HBO. Half of the movie was cut out.

tried to sleep and couldn't. 

Large family next door stayed up giggling and stomping until 2a.m.

Sunday

woke up  at 7:30a.m with large  family next door giggling and stomping

complained to manager about loud neighbors, got only 20 bucks discount

drove back home and listened to old CD's, complained some more about large family

had Nasi Lemak for breakfast

drove some more

got back to apartment, took shower, left again 

watched the motorcycle grand prix

watched a guy lose control of his motorcycle and fall from his bike. scary sight.

he couldn't get up on his own. 

walked around in the rain without umbrella

watched the race under a palm tree, in the grass, in the rain 

on the way back home from the race, watched a man in front of us lose control and flip his car.

The man was O.K.  Saved by the seatbelt.

Watched a taxi rear end a car. worried we might get into a  car accident as well. we didn't

got home tired, watched Eli Stone then went to bed.

Monday

Went to the KLCC Aquarium and managed to hang out with Nemo and his buddies. 

Yup, a good weekend indeed.

It's Alive! It's Alive!

October 20th, 2008 - David's first day at the office in Kuala Lumpur.  Meet and greet the primary characters that will influence his life for the next 2 years.

January 2009 - Brand new office space is opened, and Accounting Services hires their first employee, Jocelyn.

February 2009 - 4 new employees hired, "The Pioneers".  Official announcement is made that the 1SAP project (the reason we are here), will be delayed until July.  Mixed feelings of joy and sadness felt amongst the centre.

May 2009 - The "New Settlers" begin and the full training suite is delivered.  The centre is now fully staffed (Just under 40 people in Accounting Services).

June 2009 - The 1SAP Go-live is pushed out to September.  Training is delayed to ensure retention and the leadership team plans out what to do in the month and a half of down time.  We didn't see it then, but the work we did in this time really paid off down the road.

August 2009 - Banking access and testing is delayed, which raises a major issue with the project.  David under more stress during this time than any other point in the project.

September 8th, 2009 - "It's Alive!  It's Alive!" The 1SAP system is turned on and the Cash accounting team (which I look after) successfully processes a week's back log of banking entries in 1 day...new team, new system, new process...it was a baptism of fire.  

October 1, 11:45 pm - The days were long, but the preparation paid off.  The Cash team signed off our final month end milestone at 9:59:12pm, when it was due at 10:00:00pm.  A couple extra hours to clear out queries that came through and we were out of the office.  The month end was the true test and we pulled it off; pulled it off very well!

October 2, 7:45am - David is drafting up the improvement projects that will be implemented in October, in order to get us through the next close with even less noise.

Saturday, October 3, 1:20pm - Kim wakes David up with a cup of coffee and a hearty breaky.  Lost hours of sleep are caught up, the weekend is open.  Time to write a blog.

Feed me!

Busy preparing for this weekends Art For Grabs..

The Sunday Tradition

Every Sunday for over a month now I've been going mountain biking with Jag.  It has become the Sunday "thing".  We went once for a ride in Bukit Kiara (I believe I've blogged about getting totally lost there before), but since we have been going out to the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia.  

The first time we just showed up, and started looking for trails.  We found some OK jeep trails, but it gets boring after a while.  We went back several more times, always finding a bit more. But we were almost to the point of playing FRIM out.

But...Last weekend we finally stumbled upon some great single track.  The trail was hidden at a dead end on an old jeep track, and by luck I happened to see it.  The trail was fast moving and ran along a ledge.  Every few metres we'd come up to a boulder spill and we'd have to try our best to navigate these technical bits.  The trail then took a turn down, and the next km or 2 was a tricky set of switchbacks.  Good fun!

The trail dumped us out on another jeep track that ended up being a blast.  It was fast and had a few people.  It always makes me chuckle when I fly by somebody...they never hear me coming!  

Anyway, I've been really enjoying the Sundays out with Jag.  Afterwards we catch a beer at the Daily Grind in Bangsar.  I usually make it back around 4, to blow off the remainder of the weekend with Kimbo.  

Who knows, maybe I'll sign up for a race in the near future...

Stuff White People Like

Last weekend Travis told us about a website, called Stuff White People Like. The title pretty much speaks for itself.  For all those campers out there,  #128 camping  is laugh worthy. 

A familiar Friend in Town

Travis, our Houston friend, who we've got to know over the last few years through Liz was in town last weekend.  For the last month or so he's been traveling throughout Southeast Asia and decided to stop in Kuala Lumpur on his way to Indonesia.  Some highlights of our weekend with Travis..

Friday we met up in Chinatown where we all shared chicken curry, beef sate, ginger chicken, and veggies at a good Chinese restaurant. 

 Dropped by Bangsar Baru at our local Irish Pub (they all look the same where ever you go)  and listened to a band play some oldies but goodies on the synthesiser! lol

 At home we played Trivial Pursuit and found out Travis knows a lot of facts. We can't compete.

We meant to wake up at 6a.m. on Saturday so that we could get tickets to go up the Petronas Towers (I haven't gone yet) and they have a limited amount of tickets they can hand out every day.  Since we stayed up so late playing Trivial Pursuit we all woke up around noon, so we kind of missed it.  Instead we started our day by eating Banana Leaf at Nirwana's and then took the taxi to the Batu Caves.  Even though it was our third time to visit it's still such an interesting place,  and I never get bored watching the monkeys climb all over the place.  We got this monkey and her baby to come extremely close by acting like we had food in our hands.  She looked really dissapointed when she found out we tricked her.  Can you tell from the picture?

When we got inside the cave I found these three sitting together and it was just such a  hilarious site!  A rooster, cat and pigeon just enjoying another sunny Saturday..

 After the Batu Caves we asked Travis if he wanted to visit anything else while in KL and he said his travel guide recommended we go to the KL Tower, which is the third largest telecommunications tower in the world.  It reaches 421 m. (1,381 ft. ) I think the largest one is in Toronto, Canada. (553 m.)  When we got there it started to rain (got to love monsoon season) and we lost pretty much all sight.  We did manage to take a few pictures of the Petronas Towers.  A couple of weeks ago Frenchman Alain Robers, 47 also known as "spiderman" climbed the top of the 452 m. building.  Crazy man!  I found a picture of Alain Roberts climbing the towers below on the internet. 

After the towers we had dinner and ended our day around KL.  It was a good one.  Early in the morning Travis left for Melaka, which is on the west coast where he took the 3 p.m ferry to Indonesia, and who knows where to next!  Good travels to you Travis! 

Thursday's Painting Class at Vanesa's

Oma Olden's Art Work

One of my most memorable moments in Holland last May was visiting my aunt and uncle in Hoorn and viewing all of my grandma's paintings.  I don't recall seeing them before because I was quite young when she passed. To my surprise my aunt and uncle told me I could pick my favorite on and take it home with me!  I almost wanted to cry, that's how happy I was. I picked this one because there's so much movement and life to it.  I also love her choice of colors.   What a great memory of Oma.  I got it framed as soon as I got back to KL and now it's hanging in our living room.

Aliens from Mars

I am an alien, but not the green alien that you find in movies like Mars Attacks or Men in Black, but a Permanent Resident Alien.  I get all the perks that an American Citizen gets; I get to work, I'm protected by the law and my favorite, I get to pay taxes!  There are just a few issues, that American citizens don't have to deal with.  And one is, international travel. 

Before my move to Malaysia my mom told me that I needed to file a form because I might lose my resident status.  Thinking about other important issues at the time I told myself, it can't be that bad.  I'll deal with it when I come back. I was completely wrong. 

I contacted the American Consulate here in KL and they told me it's too late to file the form and if I don't go back to the U.S. within a year of leaving the country I will lose my resident status.  When that happens I would need David to re-file for an Immigrant visa, which would be huge hassle (interviews, health checks, money, etc.) 

With these two options we decided that it would be best I returned back to the U.S. before the year is over, which is November 18th.  We're both a bit disappointed because we would've liked to go back home together. But what's an alien to do?  Oh yeah, apply for American Citizenship! 

I'll be home for Christmas

 We're coming home for Christmas!!!! *doing a little dance*  David just bought the tickets and we're set to go.  The flight arrives in Houston on December 12th (ma's birtday) and we will be leaving January 2nd.  So that's about three weeks of non-stop Texas fun.  Now we just need someone to pick us up from the airport!  Anybody? Oh, I just can't wait. 

GeoCache or Becoming a Tourist in Your Own Town

Pa Olden gave me his old GPS a couple years ago now.  When we moved to New Mexico, I made good use of it, and it saved me in some really sticky situations.  

One door it really opened was the Geocaching door.  The best part about getting into the office at 7am is getting out at 4pm.   With 3-4 hours of daylight to spend, you have plenty of time to do...well, 

whatever you want.  So I'd plug in coordinates and walk off in some random direction following the little arrow on my screen.  

Years have passed now, and sadly the old GPS is in storage.  I picked up a new one the other weekend, and today we went after our first cache.  I've been using the GPS on my mountain bike over the last couple weeks, but the only real valuable information it's provided is that Jag and we spend over 50% of our time BS-ing instead of riding!  

We went after a multi-cache today, which promised to take use all across the city.  Well, it did indeed, and even showed us a few things we've 

never found before.  Each location we found gave a new clue for the final cache.  When we finally found all the clues, we pieced together the clues and got our final coordinates.  It put us in a giant forest right in the middle of the city, and we must not have done our math right 'cause we were plum lost!  I knew it was in a forest, and with 50 metres to go I was standing at the perimeter fence looking at a 4 lanes of gridlock traffic.  

But with Geocaching nobody looses.  We found a great place for lunch, and we got out of the house.  I'll find that damn cache, but in the meantime I'm planning to place my own cache around the city!  It'll highlight all the best graffiti stencils I've found around town.  Sweet!

A Man and His Toys

We bought a new GPS last week (after David tried to convince me we really needed one for a month or so) and today we used it for the first time.  We use is mostly for geocaching, which is really fun if you like exploring and a bit of adventure. Check out www.geocaching.com for more info. 

Art For Grabs: Take II

Mark your calendars! Art for Grabs is coming up and since it was such a success last May, I have decided to sell my art work at this event once again. FUN FUN FUN!  Come visit and support your local artists! 

DATE: 26-27 September 

TIME: 11:00-19:00 

WHERE: The Annexe Gallery, behind Central Market, 3rd floor. (Look for lots of people)

Batik at Home

I recently discontinued my Batik classes with Sam but decided I still wanted to keep practicing this art form. I found all of the supplies I needed in a small art supply store tucked away in nearby Chinatown and last week I started with my experiment. I just started doodling with the wax and this is what came out!  I'm just thinking of all the things I can make, since all the designs are on fabric!  Bags, t-shirts, pillows..   Once we move back to Texas I'll have a Batik party and teach everyone how to do it!

Party Party Party

Sometimes you just gotta party.  With our go-live date in just a couple days, we were all feeling stir crazy and wanted to let loose.  A party was the natural remedy to this, so the good wife and I opened the house up.  

My only condition was that I didn't want to cook at the grill, and that worked out just fine!  Leave it to Malaysians to bring enough food to feed and army.  The guys rotated shifts on the grill every 20 or so seconds, so your burger or chicken wing was turned by at least 4 different people!  

After getting kicked out of the BBQ area, we made our way up to the apartment, where I made the fatal mistake of not hiding the congas!  Which somehow then ended out of the balcony with a predominantly male crowd gathered 'round.  Mike was leading the show, smacking the drums as hard as he could while screaming at the top of his lungs...not to disturb the neighbors, not to create any sort of music...I'm pretty sure he just wanted to make as much noise as possible!  Leave it to Mike to electrify the air!

Well the party raged on and then died off as they do.  The last stragglers

 played pictionary.  Instead of the normal subjects, we limited it to movies.  I was quite proud of myself for screaming out, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind!" before only an image of a sun was drawn.  But the best was when Mike drew a symbol of "half", then a symbol of "burning" and that was supposed to mean "The Happening".  Further proof that said movie was completely, and entirely, doomed from the beginning.  

Well at the end of the night all went home happy.  It was a good one I have to say.  I remember when we were in New Mexico and we had a BBQ 3 months into living there.  Only 1 person showed up that day (out of about 20 people invited).  It takes time to get comfortable with people; for people to get comfortable with you.

I'm happy to say it was a good party, because we have good friends here.  

Back Home!

We're back from our weekend on Ko Phi Phi Island!  If you're wondering how we spent our time, you'll just have to look at the picture of David in a hammock and it sums it all up.  Check out the rest of the photos here. 

BHP Billiton Kuala Lumpur

For everyone wondering a little bit about BHP Billiton in Kuala Lumpur, this is a brochure that the company handed out at last weeks "Go Live" luncheon/party they had organized.  The spouses were invited to come as well so I got to see how the centre has grown. Starting in October with just a handful of pioneers to approximately one hundred people. Very cool.  You can click on the pictures to enlarge and read them. 

Hari Merdeka, Independence Day

August 31st is Malaysia's Independence Day and we will celebrate this day in.. Thailand!  To be exact, we're going to Ko Phi Phi island, which was our favorite spot while on our honeymoon. That was a year and a half ago!  We've been giddy about the whole thing all week.  Who could have ever guessed we would return to this piece of paradise?

ps. I can't find our honeymoon pictures on our computer or on the internet!!  "worried"

The Recital, Continued

This is for you Liz! 

I love this. The air conditioning is turned up so high, it feels like Christmas in our room.  I can't possibly get out of bed to get dressed up for my recital this morning.  I wake David from his sleep and tell him that I want to call my piano teacher and cancel.  David's response is not what I want to hear. He says, "Kim, you have to go or I'll be very disappointed. " And I thought parents could only say that to make you feel bad!  30 minutes later I finally get out of bed and get ready for my big concert.

A cab ride later we arrive at the music school and walk up the steep stairway and surprisingly me nerves have disappeared and I feel at peace. I can do this!  When we enter, the room is full of parents and their little ones who are all ready to play the tunes they've learned over the last few months.  My teacher, Reena, spots me from across the room and calls me over to her. She says I can go on to the music room with all the other musicians. When I get there, I realize that there's a bit of an age gap between me and all the other students. This is when my nerves come back to me.  I have to play with children aged between 5 to 10 years old? What if they all are better than me and I mess up big time?  I glance back at David and we both have a quick laugh about it all. 

Ten minutes pass. The parents (and one husband) have all found their seats, and us students sit on the back row. Reena introduces her first student, who is 9 years old and she plays a wonderful jazz song on the piano. We clap, and then she introduces me. Here I go! I sit down behind the piano and take a deep breath and start playing.  

I decided the night before that I would play the easiest song, Amazing Grace, first.   After I finish, the audience claps and I feel pretty good about myself and go on to the next song.  

It's a classic, called Bagatelle, by Antonio Diabelli. It's my toughest piece and my hands are shaking and I realize that someone is video taping me, right in my face!  This is very distracting and I lose track of my music, plus my mind goes blank and I have to stop. Oh, how embarrassing. Reena says, "it's okay Kim. You can start over again."  So, I start from to top and complete the song the second time without mistakes!  I finish my recital with a jazz song called Minor is Finer by Bill Boyd.  Which went very well.  The audience claps one more time,  and I get to run back to my seat on the back row.  I sit back, and reflect on what just happened, and think,  "you know that really wasn't so difficult.  I might do this again next time!" 

Here's a photo of me taken by David playing the piano at the recital! I was the oldest "kid" there, which was very amusing to me. 

I don't do very well in front of large groups.

Tomorrow morning I have my first piano recital!  I'm very excited and mostly nervous.  Wish me luck!

   

Daily Drawings By Kim

I'm sorry to say, but due to lack of time for daily drawings I will be deleting my Daily Drawings By Kim blog.  But, don't worry.  I have created my own Flickr account and will keep that updated with all of my recent art works.  Click here to check it out! 

Ramadan in Malaysia

Since the majority of the population in Malaysia is Muslim (in 2000 it was 60%) , the store that sells my cards asked me if I could design a card for the fasting month of Ramadan. This is one of them.  Christmas is so much easier!  Draw a Christmas tree and you are done! Ha!  

Thoughts and Things

It's been a while since our last blog..

Alright, these are our plans for the weekend, which will most likely change, and then we'll just end up watching movies in our PJ's the entire weekend. : ) 

Friday

1. Music lesson's tonight! 

2. Dinner at The Daily Grind.  They make awesome burgers (yes, here in Malaysia). 

I'll probably have their avocado salad. YUMMM..E

3. Pick up some movies to watch at home. It's sad to say, but I'm addicted to the series Desperate Housewife's. 

Saturday  

1. Make homemade banana muffins for breakfast. 

2. Shop at KLCC for men's shoes for David.  A couple of days ago we looked for new shoes at Mid Valley mall and the largest shoe size they have is a size 44.  He wears size 46.  I keep on trying to hint to David that we should fly over to Perth to buy him shoes, but he's not falling for it. 

Sunday

 Hopefully on Sunday it will be cool enough in the morning to hike in Bukit Kiara and look for some monkeys.  Last weekend we went to the Bird Park here in KL, and watched two young macaques wrestle each other for ten minutes.  I couldn't stop laughing! 

The monkey picture above is a stamp that I carved out of a some type of rubber. It looks a little rough, but it's something I'm working on right now, just for fun. 

Visit from Ratatouille

Last night Kim and I walked over to Chili's for a late dinner and a couple drinks (I didn't feel like navigating around the Friday night checkpoints, and we both didn't want to deal with cabbies).  It was a slow night, so we found some seats at the bar straight away, and ordered a couple tiger's.  

Kim started walking me through her adventurous day with Vanessa and out of the corner of my eye, I spied something moving across the floor with a quickness.  "Oh shit a rat!" I blurted out as it ran under Kim and my bar stools.  For a split second I felt like the lady in the old Tom and Jerry cartoons!  The rat ran off as quickly as it ran in.  The only unsettling thing was that it "ran off" into the kitchen (and probably straight into the chip bin!  That's where I'd go if I were a rat!).

There was a family next to us and the father said, "Wow guys, I just saw a huge rat!"  I looked at the guy and said, "He was quick for such a big guy, haha"  The wife jumped in and said, "It's the latest addition to the menu!  Special for tonight!"  Kim couldn't resist in saying, "Yeah, they fry it up and serve it with a nice sauce!"  All had a good chuckle and went on with their conversations.

It wasn't until we walked home that it struck me as odd that nobody really cared about a rat in a restaurant.  I don't want to give the false impression restaurants in Malaysia are dirty and covered in vermin, but the health standards are a bit more relaxed.  Most of the best food in KL comes from roadside stands, much like the best Mexican food in Texas comes from taco buses in random parking lots across the state!  There is an inherent understanding that the food might not be the cleanest, but it sure is worth the risk to sink your teeth into a Carne Asada Burrito as big as your head, or dark red, hot out the tandoor chicken breast with garlic naan and dahl.  

So it depends on what your focus is.  Sometimes the best food comes with compromise, and after too long that compromise doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore.  As I thought about it more, this compromise has always been easy to make for me and my family.  Roadside stalls in Mexico, weekend bike rides to the big blue taco bus on FM2920 and there was even that bat we found in the booth at Cyclone Anaya's (after a couple margaritas there could be a giant space alien next to you and you wouldn't mind!)!

To sum it up, it's about the food, the adventure and the people.  Forget everything you've learned about anything, grab some friends and order the weirdest thing on the menu.  That's how memories are made!

Bonne Appetit, Eet Smakelijk, Makan Makan and Let's Eat!

Our Plans for the Weekend

Friday:

music lessons

beer, at bar next to place where we have music lessons

tandoori chicken, naan and hookah

Saturday:

sleep in?  Kim until 9:oo, David noon or later

fresh carrot, apple and ginger juice

David for bike ride,  Kim work-out at gym

Get dressed up, for dinner at favorite Italian restaurant plus

Go to The National Theatre to watch the musical The Merchants of Bollywood!

Sunday:

Kim sells newly created Greeting Cards plus art at the Mont Kiara Sunday market! 

It's going to be hot and sweaty, but hopefully I'll sell out in just one hour!  I might drag along David as well.  I think he could be a good salesman while I find the A/C.   : )

Chilling Falls

It's early in the morning and David, Sheila and I are patiently waiting on a cement wall for a co-worker to arrive.  He will also go with us on David's Birthday road trip to the Chilling Falls.  I ask the time, and it's 7:20 when we hear something in the near distant.  Moments later we watch as a man holding a purse hurriedly runs past us.   A Malaysian Police officer on his scooter speeds right behind him.  With our minds slowly at work we finally realize it's a police chase!  I've never  seen one of those before!  The man with the purse makes it to the bridge where the police officer suddenly stops his scooter and ends his morning chase.  The man with the purse gets away. We never could figure out why the police officer stopped so abruptly.

At 7:30 and a few calls later we decide to leave without the co-worker.  We imagine him sleeping peacefully in his bed after a late night of partying in KL.  The drive towards the falls takes us approximately and hour and a half.  Very close to our end point we pass up a large lake and stop the car in order to stretch our legs a bit.  We smile big and know it's going to be a beautiful day. 

                                                   

       As we arrive at the trail head, Sheila and I take a picture together.  David tells us to look like tough hikers, and so we do.  See above picture.  After 1o minutes of hiking and avoiding the mosquitos David receives a phone call from our friends Mariano and Vanesa.  They are 15 minutes behind and David decides to walk back towards the trail head to meet them there.  Sheila and I continue our hike towards the falls together which included a detour on the wrong trail, then back again on the correct trail.  Several river crossings later we arrive at the same time as the rest!    

 

The temperature of the water is just right and when you get closer to the falls it gets so deep  you are not able to stand up.   After a bit of swimming, water splashing, and watching kids throw sand at the rocks, we all get out to continue our adventure.  Close to us is a guide who led a group of tourists to the falls and we ask him if he knows where the trail is that leads to the top of the waterfall.  He points out the trail  but recommends us not to go there.  He pretty much says, "you will fall and die if you go up there."  He tells us the story about how one time, ten years ago, a person fell into the water and four people jumped after him and all drowned.  He said he never takes anyone up there and that there is nothing special up there anyway. This frightened some of us, but of coarse this makes me and David want to go up there even more!  We tell the rest that if it gets too dangerous we can always turn around and go back.  So we decide to go!  After a good climb on the steep hill we make it to the top and find our mecca.  We find ourselves alone, and our senses go wild.  We listen to the water rush past us,  hear the birds sing in the trees and smell the wonderfully fresh and cool air.  David even meditates on a rock with the waterfall behind him.  See how peaceful?  

Happy Happy Birthday to Me!!!

The Cash team threw together a surprise afternoon tea for Me and my colleague Shirley. At the last minute we found out that it was also a manager's birthday today so we added a candle and invited him to the party!
The guys sang a hearty happy birthday song for us and we each blew out one of the 3 candles! The cake they picked up was tiramisu and pretty darn delicious!
Finally on top of all this, they put together a card that has me still cracking up.
It was by far the best birthday party at work I've ever had. Social dynamics are so much more relaxed here, and I really enjoy every day spent with my Malaysian friends.

El Tacos de Fishies

I came home the other day and there was a package on the table!  I love getting stuff from home.  Without even dropping the brief case I grabbed the box and ran into the studio to find Kimbo, as we have very strict rules around open packages without the better half present.  

I tore into the box and low and behold it it was full of gold!  Golden, beautiful corn tortillas!  The smell hit me first, triggering a lifetime of good memories associate with Mexican food.  

The next day the olfactory system was doing back flips again, because the good wife was making some fish tacos in the kitchen.  When we sat down at dinner, Kim had whipped up some spicy fish, cabbage, avocado, salsa fresca and some beans on the side.  She even found a bag of tortilla chips that tasted like...well, real tortilla chips (which is hard to find!).  

Anyway, thanks Ma for sending the package.  Even though the shipping was roughly 8 times the price of the package, it was totally worth it!

Thursday is enchilada night!  

Stereotype, What?

When I first moved to the U.S with my family I had a fairly strong Dutch accent.  Each time I would meet someone new I would get questions such as.."Where are you from? Where is Holland? Isn't that the capital of Amsterdam? My all time favorite, "Do you sell weed?"  As the years went by, my accent began to disappear and so did the never ending questions.  Good for me, right?  Now, they have started up again  and this time a person just has to look at me to see that I am a foreigner.  

My # 1 questions asked:

"Do you wear wooden shoes in Holland?"

David #1 and #2 

"Do you own a gun?"

"Do you know President Bush?"

I don't know... who do you think gets the better questions? 

A Good Ride

I took the opportunity of low haze and a cool afternoon to get out on the mountain bike this weekend.  Off to Bukit Kiara I went, hoping to find some new trails. 

As it turns out, the maps I have found are pretty out of date, and the whole area is criss-crossed with jeep trails, MTB single track, rubber plantation trails and horseback trails.  Which can be hard to decipher, and in the jungle it is very difficult to get your bearings. 

Each week I go out and get lost a bit, keeping in mind Coach Rick's famous advice, "Never get lost by staying found!"  This was usually followed up with, "now stop lookin' at me like an idiot and get to running!" but that is not the point!

So I get lost, try and find landmarks, remember old trails and just take in the cool air and wildlife.  My goal this week was to make it to the top of Bukit Kiara, so when the trail split, I would just go up! 

Up up and away I went, stopping to say hello to a rubber harvester, a pack of wild dogs, a troop of Macaques and for the very first time...a big snake!  I still haven't been able to identify the guy, but I'm pretty sure I should stay away from him.  In Malaysia, if the snake can't kill you with it's venom, it can probably swallow you whole...or something like that.

Anyway, lot's of excitement on this trip.  By the time I made it to the 'summit' I had about 15 seconds to snap this pic and run for shelter from the rain.  I found refuge under some big banana tree leaves and was really in the moment.  I hung my camelback from the tree and stood at the lookout with a banana leaf, filled that baby with rainwater and dumped in on my head. That was refreshing!  

Standing there, letting the big raindrops crash into me, I saw three bolts of lightning connect to a house far below...time to go!

I stumbled upon some sweet single track and flew all the way down the hill that took me so long to get up.  I assure you my smile was from ear to ear!  The rain was pouring, the trees were swaying and I was covered in mud.  It was one of those moments you want to bottle up. 

Anyway, made it back in time to test out some of Kim's delish potato salad, shower up and head to Marion and Vanessa's house for some world class Asado.  Finally hit the sack at 3am and slept straight on to the mornin'.