Durian Delights

Getting ready for the big move

2011-04-03T21:36:00.000-07:00

Cheesy, yes. The winner's list has made it to our giant mirror in our living room. It's pretty much a list of things we need to do in order to move without too much stress. We also wrote down which restaurants we would like to eat at before we leave, places we like to visit, and things to buy. I think so far we are right on track and we look forward to actually checking off all of our items and flying back home in style as a couple of accomplished winners!

Baby Kaiser Month 5

2011-03-28T20:41:00.000-07:00

Well, we're more than half way there and Baby Kaiser is still growing nice and healthy!

Doctor Yap counted 5 digits on both of our little one's hands and feet, we looked at a strong vertebrae and a heart does in fact have four chambers. We also realized that Baby Kaiser is a bit stubborn (there is argument if this is a mom or dad trait) because she didn't want to show us her face. In the video you'll see a beautiful side profile with the best looking nose I've ever seen! Let the bragging begin!

Doc was also very good about keeping the camera on the Northern region of the babies body so the verdict if it's a boy or girl is still out there! I'm calling the baby a "her" since David is intent on calling our baby "he" and I only want to be fair. : )

Tiny Foot

URBAN BLOSSOM: Monday 28 March, 2011

2011-03-20T18:56:00.000-07:00

To All Art Enthusiasts..

Please celebrate with me the opening of my first solo Art Exhibition of Watercolor works on paper at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre this coming Monday, March 28th from 6:30-9:00p.m.

Please visit www.klpac.org for directions.

Hope you can make it!

A few photo's

2011-02-27T02:03:00.000-08:00

On our way to the doctor. David's eating his breakfast, an egg.

Ma knows what to take pictures of.

Signing in.

3-D video of Baby Kaiser at 16 weeks

2011-02-26T02:27:00.000-08:00

What an exciting day! Mom is in town and gets to come with us to our doctor's appointment, and we get to take home a 3-D video of our tiny baby!

David and I are in the talks of a baby-moon. I found out about this term while reading a pregnancy magazine, and just had to hint about it to David. Instead of honeymoon it's a babymoon. One last trip with just the two of us. We're thinking Western China.. Let the research begin!

Ciao!

The Riviera

2011-02-25T01:30:00.000-08:00

For the last three years David's been eating at these little outdoor stalls right next to his office. It's a quick walk across a dirty diaper infested river for a lunch of about $2 per plate. Today we took Ma here for some delicious stir fried rice and David had beef soup. We'll definitely miss eating like this when we leave Malaysia.

Boy or a Girl?

2011-02-25T01:29:00.000-08:00

Babies. Babies. Babies. David and I plan to keep the sex of our baby a surprise for ourselves and for everyone else. I don't mind the waiting and guessing but during the last couple of weeks it would've been nice to know if we are having a girl or a boy because with mom in town we've been doing lots of shopping! So far I have resisted buying clothes but since we will be moving away from Malaysia soon I wanted to buy a little Indian outfit that I have been eying for so long. So, here they are, a girl and boy outfit!

Perth Revisited

2011-02-15T06:57:00.000-08:00

Here I am in Perth once again.

I came here about 2 years ago and it was my first time in Australia. Yesterday I was walking into the office with my friend Tim, telling him how I was so wide-eyed taking in everything as this revolutionary expirience.

Now years later I have a completely different view of Australia and Australians. It's no longer new territory and I'm familiar with it all now. I have expectations, which I now have to force myself to stifle so I can stay open to new expiriences.

While I've changed a lot in 2 years, Perth hasn't.

It is still a wonderful place to visit. The quality of life here is hard to match. There is ample beautiful weather, open (clean) water, nature and wealth. It seems that 50% of the population cycles to work here, and everybody is fit and dresses very well.

It's inspiring to be here.

Before, this culture feuled so many wild dreams of mine. I wanted the life here, I wanted to be here. My short 2 week stint left me with dreams that when the dust settled, I wanted to be here and have a family here.

But alas my situation has changed drastically in just a few short months, and my long term dreams have (albiet slowly) have shifted to something different.

While I still envy the Perth lifestyle, my dream is to somehow encapsulate pieces of it (key points mentioned above) and adopt them somewhere closer to home.

For so long I've had little reason to move back to Houston. But that city has changed. The public infrastructure inside the loop alone is amazing. And those changes are driven by a cultural shift in Houston as well, driven largely by a wealthy, younger generation that has come into wealth and driven the changes...a good example being the buffalo bayou partnership expanding greenspace and cycling routes from the heart of the city to the beltway.

So as I jog through the Perth CBD, up to the overlook in King's Park, I'm thinking how good it would be to have this expirience then pop over to Liz and DK's for dinner. Cycle into work, then spend the weekend at the farm.

Next week I interview with Petroleum Houston, and my hopes are up. There is so much there to expirience, to build. I can't wait to see how this turns out.

Until then, I'll enjoy the great food, company and weather that Perth has to offer. It's a bit sad because I may not be back in Oz for quite some time, so I'm soaking it all up.

xoxo

2011-02-14T00:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Finished Painting

2011-02-09T22:36:00.000-08:00

Oil Painting demonstration at The Alice Smith International School.

Finally, my work finished and soon will have a new home.

Vietnam ::: Sunday

2011-02-06T01:31:00.000-08:00

Early Sunday morning we met up with Mike who arrived the night before from Houston. It was great to see him again. We had some Pho soup for breakfast and extremely sugary iced coffee and later on in the morning Mike's entire family picked us up in a van to take us to a little town South of HCMC where Mike's mom lives.

Eating and drinking in kids sized chairs. Imagine how much space you save by using these instead of the adult chairs! I don't think they could pull this off in the U.S.

Like a true Texan David teaches Mike's nephew how to shoot his toy gun at a target.
This kid was half German and I pulled off a short conversation with him. *Pat on the back*.

Mike's mom runs a restaurant called Pho 36 right here in this space. She opens every morning for breakfast only, with little kids chairs and tables included. The room has some awesome speakers. Mike's uncle played Michael Jackson and Celine Dion songs through out the day. David mentioned how anywhere else he would not be able to stand these songs, but right there in that moment he was loving it. Don't tell anyone I said that though! Ha ha!

Favorite moment. Getting suckered into getting my hair and face washed at the local hair saloon. cost. $1.
The girl (Carrie) with the pink hair tie was our translator since she is the only one in the family who knows English. The lady doing my hair is her aunt and Carrie said that she gets her hair washed every morning.

This is a videotape of David eating a Balut Egg, which is a fertilized duck (or chicken) egg, with a nearly-developed embryo inside that is boiled and eaten in the shell. GROSS! David is the brave one on our team and ate the egg. Me on the other hand stayed far,far away from it, even though everyone was trying to convince me that it is very good for the baby! Notice me hitting Mike's uncle's head with the camera while filming. I'm so embarrassed!

To be continued..

Vietnam ::: Saturday

2011-02-05T23:18:00.000-08:00

Old American helicopter at the War Remnants Museum used during the Vietnam War

Last Saturday we landed early in the morning and managed a quick taxi ride to The Equatorial hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. We usually don't stay at fancy places like the Equatorial but Mike booked a room there so we thought we would make it easier on us all by staying at the same hotel. It's funny how a 5 star hotel can still smell like sewage and charges you to use the internet. I'm not complaining or anything.

As soon as we dropped off our bags we decided to grab a bite to eat and visit the War Remnants Museum. I thought it was interesting to find out that they don't call it The Vietnam War, but the American War. Pretty terrible things happened that I didn't realize before. What shocked me the most was that 2 out of the 3 million people that died during the war were innocent people! So sad..

Looks good huh? The Vietnamese use fish sauce in almost all of their dishes. After living in Malaysia for two years I have gotten used to the taste but since my pregnancy I can't stand the taste of it! In this picture I'm actually not enjoying my meal but a girl's gotta eat!

All that walking in the heat of the day made us tired so we decided to go back to the hotel. David went to the pool and was harassed by some kids who kept jumping in the pool right beside him which resulted in splashing him while he was drinking his beer at the bar. I took a quick, I'm an exhausted pregnant woman nap in our ice cold hotel room with a comfy king sized bed. Heaven.

Later on in the evening we found a place to eat at the main square of town, and enjoyed people watching and shopping at antique stores throughout the night.

Before we left for Ho Chi Minh City I always imagined a dirty, hot city with lots and lots of motorcyclist. I never imagined how many there really would be! Here is a video of David magically crossing the street without injuries.

KLPAC Art Exhibition

2011-01-13T18:21:00.000-08:00

Good news! I'm going to have my very first solo exhibition of my watercolor paintings from March 28th-April 10th. 2011 at the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre. By far one of my favorite spaces in KL.

Baby Nursery Paintings

2011-01-12T21:31:00.000-08:00

The day that I found out I was pregnant I happened to stumble upon these cute paintings by a local Chinese artist at Central Market. Since David and I plan to keep the sex a surprise I thought these bold colors would work for a girl or a boy! They were so cheap too! I might go back for more.

The Actor's Studio

2011-01-09T02:13:00.000-08:00

Kim and I checked out a play this weekend, called "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me"

We bought tickets on Thursday, and luckily they had 2 front row seats just for us! When we sat down, we were literally 1 metre from where one the the actors was, so you could really get into it.

The play was about 3 men where were kidnapped and held hostage in a windowless cell in Beirut. One was an American, one an Irishman and the third an Englishman. The dialogue was heart wrenching and hysterical at the same time.

I never went to any live performances after high school, but since living in KL we've gone regularly. The best show to date being The Wicked Wizards last year when Dad was in town.

I really enjoyed this latest show. It's amazing to see live people acting right in front of you. The proximity to a live person gives the story so much more reality.

At one point, one of the characters was screaming and crying; spitting and convulsing. It is hard to describe how much more real it is when it's a live person suffering right in front of you.

It was a great show, and if you are in KL you should check it out!

Kaiser Updates

2011-01-09T00:32:00.000-08:00

We're back again! More than a week ago our modem decided to quit his job and retire. It took us a while but we've found a replacement and managed to train him well so he could do his job even better than the old one! Ok. I'm going stop talking about our modem like it's a person now..

The holidays seemed to pass quite quickly for us this year.

David cutting beer can chicken

Christmas Eve

David made a delicious beer can chicken dinner for the two of us. We tried to fry okra for the first time without much success, and ended up burning the whole batch. The mashed potatoes, gravy and chicken made up for it though.

Christmas Eve at the Olden's.

Christmas Day

Our morning was filled skyping the good news to our family in the U.S. More than anything I would've loved to be able to tell them in person, and it makes it a bit tougher than usual to be so far away from the people you love the most. After talking for a couple of hours we got an appitite and made pancakes and watched Christmas movies all day.

Later on Christmas Day
David's buddy Eric invited us for dinner that night with his family. As soon as we arrived, David was handed an ice cold beer and I got a drink that tastes a lot like root beer but without the carbonation and much, much sweeter. I couldn't finish the drink and I think Eric's mom picked up on that and gave me fruit punch instead. While we ate our Indian dinner we talked to Erik's uncle who is a Malaysian retired marine and told us all about his encounters with ghosts over the years. (A lot of Malaysians truly believe in them) He told us he kept a bible with him in bed and believed that God would protect him from all evil. Eric's mom knew I was pregnant so she made sure I ate extra veggie, and Erik's uncle thought I should eat two full plates since I am eating for two. David's new joke to people is that since I'm pregnant he's now drinking for two. hee. hee.

New Year's Eve
On New Year's Eve my friend Danya, who I met through Gaelic Football, asked me if I wanted to join her and her partner and their neighbors for dinner at a new Thai restaurant at Bangsar Shopping Centre. Afterwards we went to their place and celebrated the New Year by watching fireworks displays all around KL. We counted 5 going on at the same time, and the one in downtown was absolutely amazing. It must have gone on for 15 minutes. After the finale we had to laugh at the huge cloud of smoke covering the Petronas Towers. Danya made mixed drinks for everyone and we played games and chatted until early into the morning.

Other fun Things
Earlier on this week I took a Thai cooking class with Danya and Lynne. I learned how to make fish cakes, tom yam soup, Green Chicken Curry, a strange water chestnut/coconut dessert.

I'm actually not stirring anything at all!

Yummy Fish Cakes

David started taking Classical guitar lessons a while back ago, and he sure sounds good when he practices! I'm still practicing piano on my own time. I'm learning the theme song for Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky.

Coming up is a trip to Ho Chi Mihn city, Vietnam late January. February, David is going to Perth, Australia (did you know there is a Perth, Scotland?) and then he'll be back for a couple of days and on to Singapore. In March he will also go to Johannesburg for three weeks!

My first Feltie

2011-01-09T00:12:00.000-08:00

With it being baby season I got an itch to create little dolls out of felt. I found a book at Borders bookstore called Felties: How to Make 18 Cute and Fuzzy Friends by Nelly Paillpoux. The Polar Bear is the first one I made and I feel like I did pretty well! I want to make a bunch of them and eventually create a Baby mobile for our little baby. Below is my inspiration found on Etsy by a company called Asial embroidery creations.

Baby Kaiser

2011-01-09T00:09:00.000-08:00

Last wednesday I got my second ultrasound! I can't believe how fast time flies when you're pregnant! This is Baby K. at 9 weeks. At this time the baby is about the size of a grape. So tiny! I had a happy tear in my eye when I saw the arms and legs for the first time.

Besides taking lots of naps and going to bed early, I've been feeling good and continue to day dream of what the future has in store for us.

Lots of Love

My new sweet baby - spec!

2011-01-07T02:56:00.001-08:00

What do you think about my little new baby spec?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

I had to do it! ha ha ha!

Christmas Treats

2010-12-24T02:04:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-24T01:03:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-20T20:09:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-19T00:32:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-19T00:15:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-17T12:53:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-12-15T14:21:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-02T01:57:00.000-08:00

Moving.. It's a slow process.

Inspiration and action

2010-12-02T01:53:00.000-08:00

"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

2010-12-02T01:12:00.000-08:00

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

Christmas Bazaar

2010-11-29T23:04:00.000-08:00

Alice Smith School Christmas Bazaar is coming up this friday and I'll be selling my cards and watercolor painting there. This is the same school where I also did a week long workshop.

A room with a different view

2010-11-28T12:47:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow we get the keys to our new apartment. It's not the fanciest of places, but I do like how it's closer to the ground and it feels very peaceful when you walk in. We will also be paying half of what have been, so the remaining money will go to our future dream-house piggy bank.

Living room

Guest bedroom/ studio/ offices

Kitchen

Bedroom

The Return of Durian Delights

2010-11-28T11:14:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been a year since our last post!

Yesterday morning David and I returned home to Malaysia from our lovely trip to Houston, Texas. My favorite highlights were tamale making day with the Kaisers, a 30 minute chat in the HEB cheese section with my sisters, long walks with Ma and my sweet dog Katie, Thanksgiving in the rain with 5+ different families, chicken soup at Oma's and Pumpkin cheese cake with my best friend.

Since David's work contract ends in 6 months I thought I would start up our blog again so we can share our dreams, another move to another apartment 15 floors down, and our list of places we still would like to visit while we are still here. Hope you enjoy!

-Kim

Texas, here I come!

2009-11-18T00:53:00.000-08:00

KL -> Singapore -> Moscow -> Houston

2009-11-08T03:47:00.001-08:00

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

2009-11-08T03:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-26T16:54:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-02T22:21:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-09-23T18:52:00.000-07:00

Busy preparing for this weekends Art For Grabs..

The Sunday Tradition

2009-09-21T04:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-20T23:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-20T21:59:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-17T01:21:00.000-07:00

Oma Olden's Art Work

2009-09-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-16T02:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-14T19:20:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-13T02:31:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-10T16:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-10T16:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-05T18:23:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-09-01T02:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-27T19:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-27T18:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

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!"

2009-08-22T21:55:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-08-21T08:57:00.000-07:00

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

Daily Drawings By Kim

2009-08-19T23:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-13T21:24:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-13T20:32:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-17T01:57:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-11T20:23:00.001-07:00

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!!!

2009-07-10T01:52:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-07T06:22:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-06-30T01:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

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'.

Happy 24th Birthday, Erik!

2009-06-18T04:55:00.000-07:00

Feeling Hazy

2009-06-15T06:34:00.000-07:00

This time of year the farmers throughout Malaysia and Indonesia clear their land by setting fire to it. Due to the wind patterns, all the smoke heads on over to the Klang Valley, and right on top of KL. In the photo above you can barely see the communications tower, and the twin towers are completely shrouded.

It's been depressing lately...sort of like a long winter. When you walk out you can smell it, and it gets into your clothes. For the Houstonians reading, it is a lot like the fires in Mexico that caused everybody to retreat to the indoors for a few weeks. ugh...really hating it. But luckily it rained hard over the weekend, and the skies were so clear.

I'm sure the haze will return, but until then I'm praying for rain!

For an interesting article, Click Here!

Photos on flickr!

2009-06-09T07:14:00.000-07:00

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Back Home!

2009-06-09T06:59:00.000-07:00

What a week! Kim and I finally are back in KL after a eventful, yet relaxing week. We topped the trip off with a full on Olden family reunion, and while I didn't really understand what anybody said, I could feel the love! haha, just kidding. It was great seeing everybody again, and the cousins had a everybody laughing, and Tante Anneke had everybody well fed!

After a long flight home, we walked up to Sri Penaga and I surprised Kim with a clean house! After a bit of unpacking we headed to Nirvana for some banana leaf, and went home and crashed.

I'm overwhelmed by the Dutch hospitality and very thankful to have such good family and friends.

The highlights

2009-06-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

1. Personalized tour of Warmond and Leiden
2. 170 kph on the autobahn
3. Eating zure haring in Katwijk
4. Fighting the Dutch winds on a fiets
5. Ears turning bright red after drinking homemade Croatian liquor
6. Bitterballen!
7. Stumbling upon that city where the guy with the flute made all the rats follow him, and eating a schnitzel the size of my head.
8. Hearing how Tante Anneke and Oom Lutzen first met
9. Disney trivial pursuit!
10. Underground canal tour in Den Bosche

Den Bosch

2009-05-30T07:27:00.000-07:00

After 12 hours of no leg room and restless sleep, I have arrived in Amsterdam!

I was not-so promptly picked up by Kim and her great friend Renee, and swooped off to Den Bosch, where Renee's family has a beautful spread of land.

After I had a shower, we had a very dutch breakfast in the sunlit yard. Renee's family is very warm and kind, and this is turning out to be just the trip I needed.

Well, I'm midway through a belgian brown ale, and it is time for a walk through the surrounding fields. Hope everybody is doing well.

koppershnoffells,

DK and KK

Amore

2009-05-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

So we're on a cooking kick, so invite yourself over while you still can because it won't last!

Tonight we had Dennis and Jocelyn over for some pizza. Kim cut up and the ingredients, stewed the tomatoes and kneaded the dough before I got home from work. When I arrived I rolled up my sleeves and we got under way with pulling of 2 homemade pizzas in 45 minutes!

Not sure if these photos are appetizing to you, but I'm pretty sure it tasted alright because there was none left after the dust settled.

The rest of the night was great; we chatted about more food, travel and I think Kim is finally sold on buying a Wii ('cause lord knows I am!).

Can't believe it is Thursday tomorrow...Kim is off to Nederland Friday, and my friend Cam is in from Sing Sing for the KL grande tour. Should be an interesting few days!

Winsor Newton, etc.

2009-05-19T22:29:00.001-07:00

I'm super duper excited because the art supply store in Bangsar Village opened up yet another art store right across the street and they carry the oil paints that I use back home. (Winsor Newton) It's the best thing that's happened all week! (Besides home-made tortillas of coarse) : )

Also, I started packing my suitcase for my two week trip to The Netherlands. David's coming a week later. It's been more then 8 years since my last visit and I'm curious how much things have changed, or maybe it will be just me that has changed! We will see! I just can't wait to see if I still enjoy the foods that I used to drool over, visit old friends and family, and show David, Warmond, the town where I grew up as a child. I'm guessing it's going to seem a lot smaller to me now! I hope to update the blog while I go back into past as well as create some new memorable experiences. Until then!

I really meant to just write about the paint. I guess going to Holland will be the best thing that's going to happen all week! Ciao!

Tortilla Time!

2009-05-19T06:51:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since we've had some good Tex-Mex

food...today we took matters into our own hands!

The biggest problem with Tex-Mex in Malaysia is a good tortilla is impossible to find. At first we decided to settle for what was in the stores, but Texans don't settle on an issue of this magnitude.

Next we tried to forget about eating Tex-Mex, and only allowed it to enter our conversations when we talked about going home. But time wore on and while it could have been a hallucination, my blood started itching. I hate to admit this, but I was going through Tex-Mex withdrawals.

So today we put our collective foot down and decided to do something about it. Chicken fajitas or death!

The Fajita marinade was easy. I tried 2 cloves of

garlic, bit of cumin, bit of salt and pepper, chili powder and some soy sauce. I cooked it over low heat in a covered skillet and pulled it off the burner just in time. It was perfect.

Next was some salsa. It took a little while to figure out, but coriander and cilantro are pretty

much the same thing (Although Mexican cilantro

is much more flavorful). Anyway, I blended up 6 tomatoes, half a large onion, 3 cloves of garlic, a heapin' handful of coriander/cilantro, 3 fiery Malaysian chilies and salt to taste. I threw it all in the blender, mixed it up and upon tasting, I found I had not lost my touch. Yum.

Finally, we made our own tortillas for first time! It actually is extremely simple, but very time consuming. Just some flour, Crisco (or lard if you really wanna go all out), baking soda and water. It was great! And a lot of fun as well. We didn't have a rolling pin, so Kim used a glass cup to flatten the flour balls and I did the cooking.

All up I ate 3 and 9/10ths Fajitas, and dipped tortillas into the salsa to my hearts content. I ate until I was full, and then ate about 3 times more. I'm proud of our little creation. It could be that I have not made a trip to Ruchi's, Mario's or Cinco's in a while, but I think we pulled tonight's dinner off with the skill of a 90 year old Mexican Abuela

Back in the Saddle

2009-05-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

We've tried to find some kind of sport activity, but nothing ever sticks for us. Squash, swimming laps and rock climbing were the most promising candidates...but they just didn't become a regular thing. Rock climbing didn't pan due to either Kim being too light, or me being too heavy (prolly the latter!); either way it was difficult to be climbing partners. Swimming never stuck because the lack of scenery (how long can you stare at pool tiles?). And finally, I think squash didn't stick because Kim got tired of me beating her (or was it the other way around? I forget!).

So I finally broke down and bought another bicycle. I wish we would have brought our bikes from home, but I'm happy to have an excuse to finally upgrade! Ha! The bike is a BH Expert 7.7, and it's a dream. Every single detail on this bike has been thought through. When looking for a bike, a buyer will mainly focus on frame, drivetrain and brakes. This bike is the whole package, and you can hold a magnifying glass to any part of this bike and it is all high quality, from the external bottom bracket, to the machined seat post clamp, to the aero spokes.

This Saturday I woke up and the first thing that hit my head was, "Let's ride!" I went through the normal ritual of checking the bike, filling the camelback, checking for tubes and tools and kissing the wife goodbye (because I wasn't sure I was coming back!).

Away I went! I shot out of the complex and headed downhill at roughly 60 kph. "Man she flies!" I thought. I wanted to take a back way to avoid a bit of traffic, but when I got to the bottom of the hill I realized I had gone the wrong way.... Back up the hill I go, and go, and go. It's been 6 months since I rode a bike, and I could feel each lethargic day burning in my muscles.

I finally got the the correct road, and went down a different hill. Woosh! I was off again, flying down the hill with the air rushing into my ears, and through my hair...wait...why is wind in my hair? AH! Forgot my helmet!

Slow down, make a turn in some gravel and the fall is slow and painful. I am using clip-in pedals for the first time, which allow you to lock you foot to the pedal so you can push and pull while pedaling. Sadly it also comes with a steep learning curve when trying to figure out how to clip out! In my lowest gears I creep back up the hill, slowly moving, slowly bleeding.

The combination of the heat and exhaustion (not to be confused with heat exhaustion) made me a bit delirious when I finally arrived back at the apartment. I pulled up to the curb and tried to unclip but again, slowly, with no control I fell on my side. A man walked by and said, "Awe damn! 20k and you fall at your front door!" "Only because you were watching" was the only response I could muster (note that I haven't lost my sense of humor).

After drinking some cold water, eating a handful of nuts and seriously considering calling it a day, I hopped on the bike and headed back down the hill. Yeeehaw! Man this bike goes! It is about 5-7k to the trail head, and it can be summarized like so: 1k down. 2k up. 2k down. 1k up.

At the trail head I was lying spread-eagle on the grass pouring precious water on my head to stop it from popping! The road section to the trail head is largely unshaded, and the heat from sun feels like the weight of a boulder, pushing you into the road. The heat from the road is saturates even the air making it difficult to breathe. The grass welcomed me with open arms, and taking a nap crossed my mind. But after I rested, it was time to ride!

Bukit Kiara is a section of land in KL that has been used for biking and trail running for years. Over the years the land has been invaded by expressways and condos, but new trails appear and the evolution continues. Most recently and Equestrian center opened and a lot of the trails were widened for horses. The trails weren't compacted when widened, so there is a lot of mud and sand in these areas. There is still some single track out there, and that is was I was in search of.

I started on "Plan C" which has a easy section of single track that I liked. I have a feeling the trail was created by rubber tree workers, because it follows a row of rubber trees, just like in the plantations. I heard that the rubber will make you go blind if you get it in your eyes, and now I'm flying inches from the collection buckets. Shikes! First impression is the single track is much tighter than home. Every meter is a tree or rock just inches off you bars. Nice.

I came up on a service road, and took it all the way up to a water tank. I popped into another trail and came upon a small village of construction workers. They were at the top of a hill overlooking the "88 Unnecessary Bungalows," with a sweet view of the Petronas Towers.

I took in the view for a bit, turned around and headed back down and found the trail, "Boulder." This was a bit muddy, very steep and technical. I usually wouldn't have a problem on this trail, but my feet were locked into my pedals and if I went over, the bike was coming with me! I made it though, and I was very proud of myself. I used "Upper Short" to get to "Twin Peaks" and stopped where "Mondo Cool" splits off. I hung out for a bit and watched a troop of Long Tail Macaques make their way through the treetops in their never ending quest for fruit.

At this time I didn't know I was at the beginning of "Mondo Cool," if I had, I would have kept on. I heard this is a great trail, but I hadn't found a proper map yet, and therefore had no clue where I was.

Anyway, I turned back and decided to make my way back. I fell twice trying to get back up the hills. It was comical I admit, but very frustrating. When you fall with clip-in pedals, you start to go and you're are desperately trying to pull your foot out, but it doesn't come out! So you literally are sitting in the riding position and fall on your side. So stupid!

I make my way to the last bit of "Plan C" and hit a bush and wham, fall into a ditch. I shout a few expletives, and while the Macaques didn't understand they words, they got the gist of the message.

Riding the roads back was not near as bad as going there. I was warmed up I guess, and I didn't try to jam it up the hills. Just took my time. Along the way I crossed the area where I fell for the first time that day and I had a good chuckle.

I didn't fall again, and after I got home I savored a cold beer and proudly examined my cuts and bruises. Once I'm done with this blog I imagine I'm going to hit the road again and give "Mondo Cool" a try. Once I am a bit more confident in myself, I'll start riding with a few groups, and with that I'll start racing again. I like where this is going.

Now where'd I put those band-aids?

The Rambutan

2009-05-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

I'm a big fan of apples. In Houston I would bring my lunch to work which included a delicious crispy apple. To my disappointment, apples in KL are just not quite the same. I would say they aren't as fresh. But, I really don't mind waiting until December for my next apple because my new lunch replacement is the rambutan fruit. As you can tell in the picture the fruit looks fun, with the hairy, colorful skin on the outside, which is also easy to peel. The white fruit on the inside is kind of chewy and very sweet, like candy. Just watch out for the seed!

2009-05-10T20:10:00.001-07:00

I bought Kim a doll to keep her company when I'm away on business! I think they'll become best friends!

Big day tomorrow

2009-05-08T08:32:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy day. I managed to buy some last minute items at IKEA this morning, hustled back home for some curry leftovers from dinner last night, and then packed my art work, and hired a cab to The Annexe Gallery in Chinatown. After hours of taping, taking down, moving around, putting back up my daily drawings I finally managed to be satisfied with my display. I'm also very thankful for the air conditioning inside the building! At around 4 p.m I finished and rushed back home in order to grab my music books for piano lessons.

I'm very excited about tomorrow! My first public display of my art in Malaysia! I know I'll meet a lot of great people and hopefully sell some art at the same time.

Time to read and then to bed.

How to end a trip...the proper way

2009-05-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

As you've read from Kim's last blog, we may have hit an all-time low in accommodation on our last trip to Palau Perhentian. I'm not kidding, we spent last Christmas morning in a stinky hotel room with paper thin walls and I liked that place better (the owner at least had a bit more character).

But other than that, it was a great weekend!

Kim's fear of breathing underwater was overcome, my tan was a bit restored after months of office confinement, we saw the biggest black tipped reef shark to date (1m), and made new friends. Oh yeah, my favourite, barracudas are here in MY are just as freaky as back home (Dappa - remember the guy in key largo who fed 'em outta his mouth?).

After the trip was done though, we didn't go straight home. We wanted to smoke hookah and have some Indian food. To Bangsar village we went, to our fav Indian joint. We had Tikka ayam, a brinjal and potato dish and buttered chicken

masala. The whole point of this blog is to show you the photo of me after the Indian food. After 3 days in paradise, finished off with a big plate of curry and rice, I nearly fell asleep in the booth at the restaurant!

Labour Day Weekend

2009-05-04T00:57:00.000-07:00

David's sitting next to me at the moment listening to music on his Ipod on our bus ride home from the airport. It's 8 p.m. which means that so far we've traveled for 8 hours. The sun is setting, and the overhead light doesn't work, but I will still write a bit in my little blue notebook so that when I get back home I can type it up on our reliable computer.

We have complained quite a bit this weekend about our short 3 day trip to Pulau Perhentian. It started with having to fight to catch a boat ride to the island and when we got there our room was on the back side of the resort with a terrible view, the room smelt like sewage, plus the electricity went out 5 times on us. Each time this happened we had to ask the person at the front desk to have someone fix it, which took at least an hour. What topped it was the buffet. The resort was packed with people, including the constant screams of children. People pushing each other to grab their food. Now, that's all I'm going to say. I don't think we over reacted. This was supposed to be a four star resort. With that said, our time spent on the Island was mostly outside viewing or hearing distance of the resort. Did I mention that on our way home a tom cat decided to mark his territory on my backpack while we were eating lunch at a restaurant? That was very nice. David laughed at me, saying that would only happen to me! hmmm..

But, I have to say, it wasn't all that bad. When traveling you have to expect these things to happen and move on! Some positive sides about our trip to the Perhentian Islands:

#1 Discover Scuba Dive

In KL I decided that I would try a sample of scuba diving before paying the big bucks for the entire Open Water Course. I'm really glad I did this, because my first dive was with David, (just in case he needed to rescue me.) Thankfully I survived the dive and had a GREAT experience. I'm actually pretty proud that I pushed myself to do this! An Open Water Dive Course is on my list of things to accomplish next!

#2 Snorkling

A shark behind glass is nothing compared to calmly snorkeling in the ocean and looking up,

and to your surprise you see a shark! Wahh! I pointed out the large fish to David and he looked pretty calm. I guess it's okay not to freak out? Then another one, and another one! I think we saw a total of four of them. Yikes! In the end David said they weren't dangerous and don't attack people. Now isn't that nice! My parents must worry so much about me at times..

#3 Jungle Trekking to Government Beach

Our scuba instructor told us about a trail you can take up a steep hill and then down again which would lead you to Government Beach. We ended up snorkeling, swimming and soaking up the sun on a nice secluded beach for the entire afternoon. Absolutely Wonderful.

Some other fun moments were:

#4 Meeting Jim the bartender at our resort. We gave him tips on how to improve his bar. Plus fireworks at night

#5 A beaver walking around on the beach. What on earth is that animal doing here?

#6 Finishing yet another book

#7 Watching three Chinese girl try to jump over an area of water, with one losing her shoe during the process.

#8 Front row view of a lightning storm with Tiger beer in hand.

Interview with Kim..one week ago..

2009-04-26T02:07:00.001-07:00

*PERSONAL DETAILS

Nicknames? Kimbo, Kimosabe, Kimmie, Psycho Dutch Girl, Meisje
Where do you live? KL
What's your age? 26 tomorrow!
Hair colour? Brown
Eye colour? sometimes blue, sometimes green.( a mixture of my parents! ) David say's they are blue right now.
Height? 5' 6"
Shoe size? 8-8.5 depends
Date of Birth 18 April, 1983
What's your star sign? Ram
Element? Earth?
How many siblings? 2 brothers, Mark en Erik, I'm in the middle!
How many pets? 1
Obsessions? Finishing a piece of art work
Bad habits? Biting my lip when I'm nervous
Phobias? Leeches and Ticks
*ABOUT YOU
What makes you happy? Blue Skies, green grass
What really irritates you? Daily jackhammer's next door
What makes you sad? Being away from family and friends
What makes you angry? Teksi driver's ripping me off
What makes you scared? Strange noises at night when David is out of town
Who is your best friend? Amanda and Renee
Ever broken a bone? None! Just a tooth... is that a bone?
What's the best advice you've ever received? "Don't worry! Be Happy!" ---- Zacharia from Melakka, Malaysia
What trainers do you own? I don't know.. Adidas?
What was the last CD you bought? City of Satellites- The Spook
What was the last book you read? Lovely Bones
Who was the last person you spoke to? Random man on elevator, I recommended the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" to him
What was the last thing you ate? Buffalo Wings at Bangsar Chile's? (David made me tell the truth)
What was the last thing you drank? Tiger beer
What's the best thing you've ever bought? Rock Hopper-my mountain bike
What's the worst thing you've ever bought? cheap clothes.. over and over again. They never fit correctly after the first time I wear them!
What's the best thing you've ever been given?. Engagement ring! It's so shiny and purrrtttyyy.. ahhh.. so romantic
What are your future goals? to become a mother
Describe your bedroom? Wooden floors, large windows, king size bed, green view!
What's your most embarrassing moment? too embarrassed to say! he he.. maybe when I'm 80 I'll be able to tell!
Favourite thing to do on a hot summers day? Jump in San Marcos river and float down it in a tube with beer in hand!
Favourite thing to do on a snowy winters day? First play in the snow, then hot cocoa on coach while watching a movie underneath my favorite blanket that my mam made for me.
If you were granted 3 wishes, what would they be? A vacation house in the mountains, Katie with me in KL, and a brand new black BMW! YES!
If you could go back in time to see or change something, when would it be and what would you do? I would go back to age 18 and recommend that Erik's friends Jeremy and Adam to spend the night at our house. yeah...
What's the first thing you think about when you wake up? How am I going to make my day a productive one?
Have you ever been in love? Yes
Do you believe in the after-life? Maybe.. Yes and no, I can't tell.. I'll tell you when or if I ever find out
Where do you see yourself in 10 years time? I see myself with husband David,children, a dog and cat, in a place that makes me happy, and painting of coarse..
If you could choose your own death, how would you go? Like Oma Olden, in my sleep.
Would you ever consider having plastic surgery? definitely not
What's the funniest joke you've ever been told? I don't get it??
Do you have any regrets in life? regrets are temporally
What advice would you give to a kid. sometimes your parents do know better then you do
Any hidden talents? I can touch my tongue to my nose
Is yours an 'innie' or 'outtie'? If you would like to know, come visit us in KL, we have a swimming pool!
Last job? Artist / Web designer/ Computer Assistant
Current job? Artist/ Professional Expat's Wife
Dream job? Artist & Professor
Who is your hero? My parents
Describe yourself in 3 words Floatable, Between, Dimensions
*FAVOURITES
Favourite colour? It's been a greenish year (actually a year and one month).
Favourite number? 4 & 8 (since I was just a little girl)
Favourite animal? Tiger, I love the way they walk with such purpose
Favourite sport (to play)? Hockey
Favourite sport (to watch)? Voetbal! Hup Holland! Hup!
Favourite soap? Dove, ;like the body soap
Favourite programme/s The Unit
Favourite radio station? None
Favourite movies? Amelie, which is so fantastically artistic, creative, colorful and such a great story!
Favourite band? Ani Di Franco
Favourite song? Too many to choose from, but I always sing my heart out to "Brown Eyed Girl" by van Morrison.
Favourite room in the house? Living room
Favourite football team? Feyenoord
Favourite footballer? Giovanni van Bronckhorst
Favourite famous celeb/s? Scarlett Johansson
Favourite board game? Levensweg
Favourite video game/s? Pac Man
Favourite PC game? Yes, actually, No
Favourite food? Lebonese
Favourite fast-food? Franse frietjes
Favourite drink? Sauvignon Blanc, Malbourough
Favourite magazine? People Magazine, please don't tell anyone
Favourite place? Overlooking a valley, on the top of a mountain
Favourite cartoon character The whole Looney Tunes crew
Favourite advert/commercial? Don't have cable
Favourite day of the week? Everyday!
Favourite day of the year? Christmas Eve
Favourite season? Spring
Favourite car? Yes
Favourite shop? GAP body
Favourite holiday? Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!
Favourite girls name? ay, ay, ay
Favourite boys name? oh, oh ,oh
Favourite country? Netherlands
Favourite smell? Pine needles or freshly baked bread, or freshly baked chocolate chip cookies! yum! yum!
Favourite sound? Rain drops
Favourite accent? Australian
What are you wearing My comfy clothes, Jeans, flip flops and blue t-shirt
What's the latest news? I'm going to visit Holland in May/June, which I haven't been back to since 8 years ago. It's a long time coming and I'm a bit scared
What's the weather like? Oh, the heat! when will I live in a cold climate again? I miss it so much! But, swimming in the pool was kind of nice. : )
How do you feel? I feel pretty good
What time is it now? Time to stop drinking tiger beer!

What to do with ugly furniture..

2009-04-22T23:16:00.000-07:00

Before...

And after..

With the help of Venesa,who's an Interior Decorator, we transformed our plain, lifeless living room into a place of color and energy, budget style!!

Bike Shopping

2009-04-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

It's late and I'm up surfing the web trying to find a new bicycle to buy. We've moved into another floor in our building and there are showers that we can use, meaning I can start riding to work again!

Man...there is a lot to consider...

I'm getting a road bike this time (always had a mountain bike) which means I have to fork over a lot of dough. Additionally, I imagine I'll constantly complain to Kim about how I want to ride trails and whatnot. But the road bike is most sensible, because the trails are a bit too far to ride on a weekday, and we don't have a car to go out on the weekend. Road bike it is!

So...what kind of road bike? crap. I've always played with the idea of riding a single-speed. The beauty of the SS is that it is reliability, extremely low maintenance and a lot more challenging to ride (i.e. more fun...for some). Downside is that you can't shift gears, and it is all uphill from Midvalley to the top of Bukit Bandaraya where we live. I'm not giving up though, and I think I'll go with this option if I can. Check out the Specialized SS Tricross...this bike is hot.

Then there is the issue of cost. I'm a firm believer in not going cheap when buying bikes, but I also don't want to drop a grand on a bike only to get it stolen in the first week! I could order the tricross and have a blast on it, but I would be too worried about it. My commuter bike in Houston was an old Frankenstein bike and I rarely even locked it up...it was nice. I've looked into buying an old Italian frame and converting to a single speed, but I don't feel like cheaping out on this.

So tomorrow I will visit my 5th bike shop in KL. This one is called the Bike Pro Centre, and their website preaches knowledgeable staff and good customer service. I'm coming to the end of my search I can feel it, and I'm giddy from thinking about riding again...

Watch Your Step!

2009-04-21T20:17:00.001-07:00

This is an example of the random holes (this one is very large in particular) you will find in KL, and another reason why it's a good idea not to walk at night.

A DWK & DKK KL Birthday Weekend

2009-04-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

The Birthday weekend started with a wake-up call from my parents in Montgomery, TX. We chatted for about an hour and it was nice to hear their voices. The last time we spoke was a phone call to my dad on his birthday on a busy street in Adelaide, a couple of weeks ago.

On friday I emailed David at work telling him that I missed our Katie dog. With that in mind, one of David's birthday gifts to me was a LEGO set that included two dogs and a doggie house. So, before our movie date at The Gardens Mall theatre we sat down on the floor and put together my new LEGO set. I forgot how entertaining that used to be as a child!

Part of being the birthday girl I convinced David to take me to the movies to see He's Just Not That Into You. While the cast was great, the plot was a bit disappointing.. Nevertheless, I can't complain about a wonderful date with my husband and.. fresh popcorn! Yum Yum

Next on the list, was a race back home to book a table for 10:30p.m. at NO BLACK TIE, a small music venue known for great Jazz Music. I've wanted to check this place out since we moved to K.L. so this was my chance! With a few hours to relax, David played his computer game, Call of Duty 4, while I practiced my new songs on the piano. My teacher, Reena, is a tough one! Later I changed into my birthday outfit and at 9:00p.m. my friend, Vanesa and her husband, Mariano, picked us up in their car and in no time, with the help of their GPS, we were eating dinner at a Brazilian restaurant very near to No Black Tie. The food was great, plus I had my favorite mixed drink the Mojito. *note (they make it much better in Texas)

At 10:35 we walk a short five minutes to the music venue to listen to some jazz. David heads over to the front desk and tells the woman with the list his name and that we booked a table for four. She scans her list and says there are no tables left. We find out that they gave away our table right after 10:30, thinking that we weren't going to show up! Ahhhh!! That night we learned a great lesson that the Malaysian way of taking your time doesn't really work at No Black Tie. A bit bummed, but not defeated we leave the venue and walk past a bar with the sound of good live music and decided to go for it. The night ended up full of laughter, good music, dancing, great company, plus someone else was celebrating her birthday at the bar so I even had birthday cake! Happy Birthday to me! 26 years and so much more to live!

Interview with David

2009-04-17T21:40:00.000-07:00

Since David has been away from blog-land for a while now (I don't blame him, he's a busy man) I thought I would surprise him with a questionnaire during our dinner at Chile's last Friday night. So, now he's sort of blogging in a way. You like that idea?

*PERSONAL DETAILS

Nicknames? Deek (family), Dave (friends), Kaiser (work)
Where do you live? Sri Penaga Condos
What's your age? 25, going on a 110
Hair colour? I would like to say "brown," but Kim says "dark brown"
Eye colour? Brown...matches my hair
Height? 6'1" unless I'm standing next to my little brother, then I'm 6'.
Shoe size? 46
Date of Birth 11.07.83
What's your star sign? Cancer
Element? Earth
How many siblings? 3
How many pets? 1 (Katie dog)
Obsessions? Detail
Bad habits? Disobeying the "beer before liquor, never been sicker" rule
Phobias? Muddy water
*ABOUT YOU
What makes you happy? Family & Solitude
What really irritates you? People who do things half-heartedly
What makes you sad? (silence)
What makes you angry? When people get mad about the wrong things
What makes you scared? Kim in trouble
Who is your best friend? John, Ryan and David for all different reasons
Ever broken a bone? Little toe, after all those years!
What's the best advice you've ever received? "If you're upset about the current situation give it time, it will change"
What trainers do you own? Solomon adventure racing shoes
What was the last CD you bought? MC Solar latest album - French hip hop
What was the last book you read? Gomarrah:The Other Italian Mafia
Who was the last person you spoke to? Anna, my violin teacher
What was the last thing you ate? Royal Stout
What was the last thing you drank? Royal Stout
What's the best thing you've ever bought? My first Isuzu Trooper
What's the worst thing you've ever bought? KX80 - dirt bike
What's the best thing you've ever been given?. My dog
What are your future goals? To live life at the current speed I'm living now
Describe your bedroom? Wooden floors, massive windows with a great view
What's your most embarrassing moment? Breaking a mailbox, getting caught, it ended up being my friend's mailbox
Favourite thing to do on a hot summers day? Hammock, shade, half beer nap
Favourite thing to do on a snowy winters day? Playing in the snow with friends and family
If you were granted 3 wishes, what would they be? The ability to reach into my pocket and pull out enough money to buy anything, Ryan's magic grappling hook and the ability to speak every language in the world.
If you could go back in time to see or change something, when would it be and what would you do? Age 13, tell myself to take it easy
What's the first thing you think about when you wake up? My day at the office
Have you ever been in love? Several times
Do you believe in the after-life? Nope
Where do you see yourself in 10 years time? I hope to have another degree, a cool job, and of course Kim will be right there.
If you could choose your own death, how would you go? Quick, without me knowing I'm dying
Would you ever consider having plastic surgery? no
What's the funniest joke you've ever been told? Giuseppe the Sailmaker
Do you have any regrets in life? Duh!
What advice would you give to a kid. "You really can be whoever you want to be" It's important to believe there are no limits
Any hidden talents? I am a balloon artist
Is yours an 'innie' or 'outtie'? None of your business
Last job? Business Analyst
Current job? Project Analyst
Dream job? Professor
Who is your hero? Ian Theron
Describe yourself in 3 words Repeat the question?
*FAVOURITES
Favourite colour? Midnight blue
Favourite number? Lima
Favourite animal? Sea Turtle
Favourite sport (to play)? Adventure Racing
Favourite sport (to watch)? Not cricket
Favourite soap? Dove
Favourite programme/s All songs considered
Favourite radio station? NPR
Favourite movies? Lets not go there
Favourite band? Modest Mouse
Favourite song? "First Day of My Life" -Bright Eyes
Favourite room in the house? Living room
Favourite football team? The underdog
Favourite footballer? Dennis Rodman
Favourite famous celeb/s? Obama
Favourite board game? Levensweg
Favourite video game/s? GTA series
Favourite PC game? Hitman
Favourite food? Malaysian Mixt Rice
Favourite fast-food? Don't eat fast-food
Favourite drink? Caipiroska
Favourite magazine? Nat'l Geographic Adventure
Favourite place? Waterfall by Joe's Crab Shack, San Marcos River
Favourite cartoon character Peter Griffith- Family Guy
Favourite advert/commercial? Don't have cable
Favourite day of the week? Thursday
Favourite day of the year? New Years Day
Favourite season? Fall
Favourite car? 85' BMW 325i
Favourite shop? FCUK
Favourite holiday? Thanksgiving
Favourite girls name? Anneke
Favourite boys name? Andrew
Favourite country? Netherlands
Favourite smell? Kim's hair
Favourite sound? Beat of a drum
Favourite accent? South African
What are you wearing floral 70's shirt, blue slacks and chacos
What's the latest news? news flash.. David needs another beer!
What's the weather like? warm and comfortable
How do you feel? pretty damn good
What time is it now? 10p.m

Art For Grabs: Flyer

2009-04-17T02:08:00.001-07:00

Look what I did in Photoshop? I'm oh so proud of myself. All those layers..WOW! hehe : )

Art For Grabs

2009-04-12T21:34:00.000-07:00

Today I went to The Annexe Gallery in Chinatown to pay for a spot in this years Art For Grabs on Sat 9 & Sun 10, May 2009 from 12:00 noon to 8:00 p.m. It's very similar to Houston's First Saturday Arts Market, but instead of a monthly event it's yearly and the best thing.. it's indoors! So no worries about a sudden evening rain storm or the extreme humidity I had to face today. The interior structure of the gallery looks interesting with beautiful wooden floors and very high ceilings to hang my art work!

I plan on selling just my Daily Drawings since all art work must be under 100 ringgitt! This is great for anyone looking for a good art deal! I'm pretty sure I wont be coming home empty handed myself.

Happy Birthday Pa!!!

2009-04-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

Flip that Switch!

2009-03-24T21:20:00.001-07:00

Earth Day is this Saturday, March 28th and part of the worlds first global election between Earth and global warming, 2,712 cities, towns and municipalities in 83 countries have committed to switching off their lights for one whole hour. Check out the official website.

Kuala lumpur is part of this initiative and for earth hour they will be switching off the Petronas Towers! I have to say I'm a little bummed that I wont be in town to see this but David and I will make sure to turn off our lights in Adelaide. 8:30PM local time, wherever you live on planet earth. Saturday 28 March 2009. Pass on the news!

Girl Talk

2009-03-24T06:59:00.001-07:00

Anayo and Kanibo, my new Japanese friends from Batik Class invite me and Vanesa to join them for lunch at an Italian restaurant in Bangsar Village today.

We sit down in a nice corner of the restaurant and discuss our lives prior to our move to Malaysia and find out that Vanesa and Kanibo are both Kindergarten teachers and Anayo used to work in cosmetics. From there we get advice from her on skin care in this humid climate. And ladies, just a heads up, don't use lemon juice or cucumber on your skin. It really isn't that great for your skin.

I also find out that Kim is an extremely popular surname in Asia, which means that people probably think it's weird to call me Kim because it's like calling me Smith or Johnson. I told them they could just call me Princess Kim if they liked that better. I'm not sure if they thought it was funny??

We go around the table and ask each other about the stereotypes of each others countries. We ask Vanesa if everyone in Argentina knows how to dance the Tango?' That's a "no", just in case you're wondering. We also ask our Japanese friends about sushi and when it's A.O.K to wear a kimono.

And finally it's my turn. They ask me if I just love to watch baseball? I have to remind them that I grew up in The Netherlands and somehow after living in the U.S for 10 years I still haven't figured out the rules of this complicated game. Innings, Outs and Home Bases. That's just way too much to figure out! : ) Anayo and Kanibo look disappointed and tell me that today is the World Series and that Korea and Japan are playing against each other in L.A for the finals. Huh? The Japanese and Koreans play baseball? That's news for me! I thought it was just an All American thing! I ask them if the Japanese drink lots of beer and hotdogs while they watch the game. They tell me that they do drink beer, but replace the hotdogs with a healthier choice of salted green beans!

As Anayo explains to me that she really wants Japan to win because her husband is Korean,

I look up at the TV screen and guess what's on? The Game! So, during our Italian lunch, the four ladies from all different backgrounds cheer on the Japanese and scream out loud when they finally win the World Series!

Where in the world am I?

2009-03-23T23:53:00.000-07:00

I'm enjoying my time here in Adelaide. It is the first time in 5 months that I've left SE Asia, and you forget a lot of those little things. The weather in really cool here (major plus) and the sun is shiny!

Now, if you will please open your GoogleEarth application, we can get the tour underway (Make sure to activate your "Streetview" layer!)

First things first, let's visit "129 North Terrace, Adelaide Australia" Pop into the street view bubble and look north. Behind the big tree is the Hyatt where I'm staying, and behind there is a river that I'm about to go jog down.

Next we move to "100 Gawler Place, Adelaide Australia" If you look directly West you can see the entrance to the office where I'm working. I had a Ham and Cheese sandwich at the café for lunch. Very good! Coffee is bitter though.

Now head over to "123 Gouger Street, Adelaide Australia" Look South and you will see The Bar on Gouger. Massive beer list! Malaysia has the worst beer selection, which is my only beef with the country. I had a La Fin du Monde, followed by a Little Creatures Pale Ale, then washed it all down with a local IPA. Man I missed that crispness!

Last night while passing "198 King William St., Adelaide Australia" (look west) there were 2 skinheads bumming around. As I approached, the alpha male walked over and spit on the ground about three feet in front of me, then stared at me. I looked back at him with a warm smile…partly because skinheads need a caring smile in this cold world, but mainly to dissuade him from punching me in the head.

Finally, we are going to visit "220 Rundle St., Adelaide Australia" Right there on the corner is Cibo Espresso, where I will take Kim when she arrives. Good coffee and atmosphere. Please note the stereotypical "Aussie Bloke" on the corner. Leather hat and all!

Too much to blog

2009-03-20T03:14:00.000-07:00

Blogging, such exhausting work! Haven't posted a blog in a while not because things are slow, but they are running so fast that it is difficult to take stock (i.e. blog). I'm a fan of lists so here are a couple that will recap:

Top 5 Events Since Last Post

1 year anniversary! - Who said marriage is hard? This is a piece of cake!

Dad's visit! - We haven't seen family in 5 months now, so this was a treat. Mary was definitely missed though!

Wicked Wizards - This was a fantastic comedy/magic show we saw last weekend. These guys had the same sense of humor as me, and I was on the floor the whole time laughing. Fantastic!

Mixt Rice - We hadn't had the classic Malaysian mixt rice from a stall in a while so this was a treat. After dinner we washed it down with a few pints of beer at Finny's

Right Now - It's 7pm, Friday night and I'm wrapping up work. I'm listening to Matisyahu and watching the sun set at the edge of the Klang Valley. I'm very calm.

Top 5 Dad Visit Stories

Laying in the hammock on the porch, watching an Eagles DVD while Dad drummed away on the coffee table.

Rocking up to Sri Penaga at 2am, feeling fine...until the next morning that is!

Dad eating banana leaf with his bare hands like a champ.

Eating fruits off a stick while cruising Petaling street.

Relaxing in the Buddhist temple, smelling the incense, soaking up good energy.

Top 5 News Stories

Ryan and Amy having a baby shower! yeeeeeeee!!!! Amy and the baby doing great!

Ma and Pa olden had a anniversary party for us! (sorry we couldn't make it)

Kenai almost got a cat

Approaching the 6 month mark and officially getting homesick, just like the transition guy said we would. Actual phenomenon or self-fulfilling prophesy?

Andrew still missing at sea, but we have hope he'll come back soon! (i.e. write more little brother!)

Top 5 Up and Coming Events

Headed to Australia for 2 weeks tomorrow!

Kim headed to Australia next week to meet me!

Plans for annual leave coming together, looks like May/June in Nederland!

Next violin lesson I will learn Adelvice!

Kim is starting to change the apartment up a bit. Hopefully we'll have new drapes by the time I get back!

OK, time to head home! I have roughly 24 hours to goof off before I have to pack and make that trip to KLIA again!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T17:31:00.000-07:00

A Thousand Splendid Suns

2009-03-10T18:18:00.000-07:00

On our weekend trips around SouthEast Asia, I tend to bring a book to read. I had a problem last weekend though, because I finished my book on the two hour flight over to Cambodia! When we got to front desk of our hotel, I noticed that they had a bookshelf with numerous books in all sorts of languages that previous travelers to Golden Temple Villa had left behind. I looked hard for a Dutch book, but the closest to that was in German. (My German in not that good.) So, I traded in Rendez Vous by Esther Verhoef for my fellow Dutchies, and found a book (written in English) by Khaled Hosseini called A Thousand Splendid Suns. At first glance I didn't recognize the authors name or the books title but on the top of the front cover it said International Number One Bestseller By the author of The Kite Runner. I read The Kite Runner right before they made the movie, and I really loved it, so I gave it a try. I read the 402 page novel in two days, it was that great. Compared to the Kite Runner which starred two young boys, this book is about a friendship between a girl and a woman. I would definitely suggest this book to whoever has read and enjoyed The Kite Runner and is up for another great story by Khaled Hosseini. That's it! My first book review. He He

**It seems that Columbia Pictures owns the movie rights to the novel, but production has yet to begin.

*** I absolutely love the warm colors and design of the books front cover

Another DK Masterpiece

2009-03-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

Cambodia

2009-03-06T16:59:00.000-08:00

One of the best things about Kuala Lumpur, is not just the close proximity to all of SE Asia, but the multitude of 3 day weekends that make travel a breeze! I should also mention AirAsia who will pack you in a sardine can and slingshot you to practically anywhere you want to go for whatever you have in your pocket!

So this long weekend we put down a map weighed our options:

"Hong Kong sounds cool...nah we live amongst the bright lights and big city, we need fresh air."

"Oh! But what about Hanoi? Shikes, no flights la. hmmm..."

"Bali? Not ready for that, sounds like the Cancun of SE Asia"

"Cambodia? What is the food Like there? What kind of money do they use? Actually, I don't know much about it at all...Let's find out!"

This was last Tuesday. So the research began, and with every bit of information we have learned, the draw to visit this wonderful country grew. I don't want to bore the world with a 10 page blog, so please use the following itinerary as a discussion guideline the next time I buy you a beer! I'll fill in all the detail then!

4:00am - Wake up! Kim went to bed a 9:00 like a normal human being, David stayed up till 1:ooam reading and playing with his new congas (to be introduced in a later blog).

4:30am - Cabby meets us downstairs for the long haul to the LCCT (low cost carrier terminal) at KLIA.

7:00am - David and Kim board flight with Egg McMuffin in their bellies. For some reason it is acceptable to eat McDonald's at the LCCT before early morning flights...still not sure why.

8:00am - Siem Reap! Visa process takes a while, and we didn't bring photos for the Visa. A bit of the "dumb tourist" act and a couple fines later and we are home free!

8:30am - Mr. Piyep picks us up in a Cambodian style Tuk Tuk, which is basically a rickshaw attached to a moped. With the wind in our hair and our lives in Mr. Piyep's hands, we navigate towards our hotel!

9:00am - Checked into the Golden Temple Hotel (Highly recommended)...breakfast time! The waiter chats to us the entire meal, and I get the proper pronunciations of all the Khmer words I have been destroying all morning. Kim gets the best banana pancake I've ever tried (after posting I will go have another!). After breakfast we decide to have a beer...why? Why not!?!?!

10:00am - Back on Mr. Piyep's rickshaw, we head to Angkor Wat. Roughly 38 seconds after leaving the rickshaw, Kim drops the water bottle in the moat. David fetches the bottle of water and the smell reminds him of Huntsville State Park.

10:00am to noon - Angkor Wat has made it's impression. It is absolutely stunning. We walked all around the complex, took breaks in little alcoves and read aloud, as tourists do, the meanings of the chambers and artwork throughout.

noon to 3 - Visited Ta Prohm temple complex. Now we're talking! This was found not long ago, and the jungle was in the process of reclaiming it! We had free reign the the entire place and crawled through the entire complex. We were Indie and Lara! There were these massive trees with roots snaking through the ruins, and I couldn't tell whether they were supporting the fragile structure and tearing it down. Stunning, magical, like nothing I've ever seen. It's in my top 5.

3:30pm - Mr. Piyep takes the adventurers home. David was fading so he grabbed his book and a beer, and beat feet to the hammocks. Roughly half a beer later he was out cold!

5:00pm - Kim read about "Happy Special Pizza," a local shop that puts a local herb in their pizza that produces a satisfied customer. The pizza was happy, and no doubt special, but I'm pretty sure the herb is a marketing ploy.

7:00pm - Stop by the the "Lounge Lizard" for a drink and some hookah. Yum! Beers are $0.75!

9:00pm - We make it home, and fall into bed after a cold shower.

It's been a long day and we need to conserve our energy for our big day tomorrow. We plan to...well actually there is no plan. We'll play it by ear again; seemed to work today!

P.S. Sorry for no photos. I added a few links here an there to help visualize!

What Business?

2009-03-04T22:24:00.000-08:00

I picked up my new business cards today! After I uploaded the image to the computer I noticed that Www.dianakimkaiser.com is capitalized.. ahhh..!! It's not that obvious, right? You can tell me the truth, or else David will! He he! : )

P.S. We're leaving tomorrow for a long weekend to Cambodia! YEAAAHHH!! Life is GREAT!

Tuesdays Batik Class with Sam

2009-03-02T23:53:00.001-08:00

This is a picture of me and some of my fellow classmates at the Fine Art batik Training Center. I realized later on that I should've taken a picture with Sam the teacher as well. Next time! On Thursdays I'm going to teach Vanesa (sitting across from me) how to paint in oils. We found out in class that our husbands work together! They recently moved to K.L. from Argentina.