Christmas Treats

Ferrero Rocher, you're my best friend. 

My mom has always made sure that every year on Christmas Eve there would be enough snacks to feed an entire army. She will have all sorts of different dips, the best cheeses, cookies, and my all time favorite being Ferrero Rocher chocolates, a.k.a "The Hand Grenade".  Thank goodness they sell them here in Malaysia because I can't get enough of them. What are your favorite Christmas treats?

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! Today has been especially warm outside, but that hasn't stopped us from getting into the Holiday spirit.

Tonight's menu will includes roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and fried okra a' la David. Following dinner we will get our competitive spirit's out with a game of levensweg (Life). We also rented "Scrooged" with Bill Murray. That's always a great classic.  It will be a quiet, relaxing evening and we look forward to presents and chatting with family tomorrow morning.

It took me a week, but I finally finished my gingerbread house.
I'm pretty sure it will not withstand a hurricane.

Rex Hotel

In the new apartment we have this ashtray in the kitchen that is really over the top. It’s from an old hotel, so I googled it today and found out that this hotel has a lot of history.

It’s based out of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), and housed solidiers during the Vietnam War (or American War if you are from Sth East Asia). The daily press conferences on the war were held here (see: The Five O’Clock Follies) and now it’s a really high end hotel.

Kim and I will be in Ho Chi Minh in Jan, so I think we’ll be stopping in for a drink! Maybe we can spot a similar ashtray!

Check out The Rex Hotel info Here

Pioneer's Return

JT came in town this weekend, and she called ahead to make plans for some Banana Leaf! We made plans to meet at Kanna Curry House in PJ, a favourite which I haven't been to in a looong time.

Seeing JT and Dennis again was like old times. Noth

ing really changed. It was great hearing how life in the Singers office is, and hearing what Dennis has been doing as well (he's always juggling a few things at once!).

Joan came with her two munchkins and a feast ensued. Somehow I made more of a mess that her two kids put together...

We had Banana Leaf and all the "fixin's". Curry kambing, curry ayam, ayam goreng and ayam stir fried in some spices provided by Dennis and JT's spice business. Niiiiice.

Polished it all off with some nice rasam dan satu lagi limau ice. The drive home was long, but the call of the couch was loud.

Settling In

For the last week I feel like things have been crazy. The house has been in disarray since we moved in, and we just haven't had

any time to get things in order (or even do laundry).

I've been feeling sick lately so first order of business was to sleep in. I had 12 consecutive hours of sleep my friends, and it was glorious.

I got up, watched some TV, ran errands (later blog). Around 3 I was looking for so goggles in all the boxes and while doing that, I started cleaning and putting things away.

This went on for 5 consecutive hours, and I think for the most part, the house is settled.

I went ahead and slept in again this morning, and it was great.

It's good to be settled.

Ocean Kayak Trip

Erik was in town for a couple of weeks and finally after a week long of moving boxes to our new apartment and cleaning an old apartment we decided to take a nice long weekend in Phuket, Thailand.

We all agreed that the highlight of the trip was our kayak tour of several caves off the mainland.

First picture of the day. Excited about kayaking and then slightly frustrated because we realized we weren't actually going to kayak ourselves. A "professional" guide was going to do it for us  . I guess they don't trust us tourists!

At this point I'm sitting/almost laying down in the front of the kayak and slightly understanding why they can't have everyone kayak for themselves. I still believe I would have the skills! 

On our last stop we finally got to take the kayak and do some exploring of our own. yee!  With Erik lazily sitting in the middle of the boat we found a small cave of our own.

Barbeque for dinner. Yes, Please! 

Did you know that the Thai flag looks like this?

This rock formation really looks like it has teeth. 

This photo was taken at the end of the trip. We made this with the help of our guide. Ok, I lied, he pretty much made the whole arrangement. We just stuck a few flowers in there!  We learned that in October, during a yearly Thai monsoon festival,they make these and then at night they light candles and incense in them, float them on top of water,  and finally make a wish! When we went on our last cave excursion we got to do this as well.  Imagine a pitch black cave and all you see is little lit up arrangements floating around and the smell of incense burning. It may sound cheesy but it was a  beautiful experience. 

It's a HO HO HO night.

I meant to post this two weeks ago, but a move to another apartment, a short trip to Phuket, Thailand, and no internet for a week got in the way!

Alice Smith Christmas Bazaar

I was a bit worried the first hour and a half of the Bazaar.  My table was out of traffics way.  The person on the right of me even noticed that as well.  Oh poor me..

When David and Erik arrived I had only sold a few cards. I asked David if he would babysit my table while I made my rounds.  I spoke to a local artist and she asked me if I wanted to sell my cards at her shop in Damansara.  She also suggested a couple of galleries that would display my art work.  I have to say, the artist community is really great here in KL. I love they don't act as if you are their competition, but as fellow artists that are there to help out. It's wonderful. 

After I finished my big circle, watched kids run around the school,  and bought Erik his first Malaysian chicken sate with peanut sauce, I went back to my table and it was packed with people surrounding my art and chatting with David.  I believe it's David's good looks that attracted all those people and from now on I need to convince him to come with me every time!  The remainder of the evening continued to stay busy and I even saw a couple of my Gaelic Football mates. So all in all, I would say it was a successful night! 

The Shopping Cart

Moving.. It's a slow process. 

Inspiration and action

 "If only I had the sober ambition to follow through with my drunken ideas." -Anonymous (you know who you are! he he)

 In a small country town on a cool November night a brother and sister decide to catch up with a late night out of town. They drink beers at a local bar by the lake and play a few games of pool. The sister really tries her best to beat the brother but it's not her night. They play a few songs that remind them of the days of driving to High School together in their old pick-up truck. The night continues and they move on to the local Irish Pub. The bar is smokey. Tonight's juke-box music of choice is hard-rock.  It's a busy night and a group of college kids are playing a game of darts. The brother recognizes a group of old friends and they play fours.  The brother and sister beat the old friends and the sister is happy and asks the brother. Brother would you like to visit me sometime at my new home? The brother says "yes, I would really like that". The sister smiles and they continue their night out in that small country town.

And here we are two weeks later. Poor jet-lagged Erik has poison oak all over his body, but still makes an effort to smile for the camera. 

Malaysian-Indian lunch at Lucky Garden's. Dee-lish!

Minor Details

Yesterday I met up with our realtor, Adrian. He's been a great help since he found us an apartment the day before we left for The U.S.   Part of the handing over the keys process we had to look over every single item in our new place. It's a list of three pages long. It took us a while, and as I waited for Adrian to change the batteries to the A/C remote controls I discovered a few things that you might not notice at first sight.

Most Malaysian's don't have ovens in their homes. So, when they built our condominium they didn't realize that most foreigners do like to use their ovens. Pizza, duh!
Our owner obviously had to change this for his Western tenants a while back. The funny thing is that they obviously didn't care about details and just cut a square and stuck the oven in. As long as it works, right?

Then we got to the living room. On the list of items to check it said, blinds behind desk. I asked Adrian, "what do they mean with blinds behind desk? I don't see anything". He looks at me surprised and says, "blinds, you know, those things that open and close!" Like I'm stupid for not knowing what they are!  Then, after that comment, he decided to tell me there is an actual window behind the desk! I'm really lost on this one.

Finally, this really made my day. The largest and only ashtray I've ever seen in a kitchen! Maybe I can make use of it and put a plant in it? he he