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Published: March 31st 2013
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Viv has asked 3 times now if there's another blog on its way ... so I guess it's time for updates? There have been lots of wee adventures since the last one, based on the fact that after Kapas, I decided there's not much point staying in my wee rat-infested city during the weekends, so I've been more proactive at getting out and about. This combined, with readopting my "content is just not good enough" philosophy (back in business for those discussions), life has been pretty sweet.
So, in no chronologically-particular order, this is what I've been up to:
I finally met the elusive "Chris", who's a trainer that has been living in KB for over 2 years already. He succeeded, where I had failed, in convincing Jo and Brian that it was a "great idea" to pack some bags and head to the Perhentian islands the next day! So, we met bright and early and followed him down to the jetty, with only a slight mishap, of a flat tyre along the way. There was a lovely malaysian guy at the side of the road, that pushed us all out the way, to get the tyre changed and
refused the wee few ringgits we offered for his help. We arrived on Bukit Kecil, just in time for some monsoons, but it didn't dampen the spirits as we sat under shelter, with an excuse for lazing about, singing along to the guitar and having a wee beer.
The highlight, apart from the beautiful views, holiday feeling, best pizza on the whole island (!) was seeing a giant sea turtle that came up onto the beach to lay eggs. The turtle was soon rescued (?) from the busy beach and helped back into the water, though the suspicion is that the eggs were then rescued (?) into someone's stomach!
A return to Kapas this weekend took me on my first ever snorkelling adventure. Wow, it's a whole nother world down there (as I'm sure most of you have known for sometime before me!) The coral in itself is amazing and then there are the crazy tropical fish with all their electric colours. Plus we saw a sting ray (though, I lived to tell the tale, unlike our favourite crocodile hunter! 😞
The "attenbourgh adventures" as Dave referred to them, continued when Helen and I went to Tasik
Kenyir, a lake close to KT. We found the elephant sanctury, where the 8 elephants are taken out into the jungle every day and return about 2.30 for a hose-down and food. And on our drives around, we (well, I .. Helen was looking at the road) saw a hornbill "in the nature", a snake and a couple of squashed monitor lizards on the side of the road. We investigated taking out "house boats" on the lake. The house boats, I expected to be something similar to those in Oxford, but in fact they're two-story houses on a boat! So, we're planning that for June holidays.
So, enough of the nature. Went to KL for a few days, where I did city stuff, like drinking illy coffee! Best coffee in Malaysia, and for you Barlettani out there, it would give Bar Mazocca a run for its money! (definitely better than bar denise!).
I bought a saxaphone. Decided that living in a remote area is a perfect opportunity to learn a "new skill", but in fact, just the conversations it generated while buying it and carting it around KL, would've been reason enough! (me and a taxi driver are
gonna start a band!) 3 self-taught lessons in, I can play a song! For those of you (Amber and Kathryn especially) that were a part of our "learning new instruments" at high school, it takes me right back there! Getting out those first sounds (reckon it took a good couple of lessons on the flute), and then all the songs in the books are the same! Getting back into diaphragm breathing (tho wasn't such an issue on the violin, eh!). But the fingering is all the same as the flute, so it's keeping me engaged while reminding me not to run before I can walk. Back to scale practice! 😊
So, the reason for the weekend in KL was to go and see the grand prix. It gave me such a good excuse for procrastinating in the two years I was doing my masters, I felt it was too good an opportunity to miss to see it live in the flesh! And, it didn't disappoint! We had uncovered hill stand tickets, which gave great views of the track. The KL monsoons are still true to form, downpours about 4pm every day (right about the time that the race starts),
so in the practice laps, while the track was still wet, and the drivers were seeing how far they could push their cars, 9 out of 10 of them, came off at the second corner (obviously, much to the delight of spectators ... after all, aren't we all just waiting to see a crash in formula 1?) 😉
While I'm always a hard core Italian supporter, there's something about ferrari that I find slightly annoying. And, I like Hamilton and I love Webber, so I was well-excited by Webber leading the race, until that dirty Vettel didn't hold position on team orders! We were robbed! It was noisy and you don't know what's happening half the time without commentry, but I loved it!
So, it's been a great, and busy month. Of course, that's all the social side of it, and there is work in between! This week, I've inherited another 2 trainers, so I'm currently managing 11, which keeps me really busy. It involves a lot of travelling, but driving back from an observation the other day, I stopped by the beach for 5 mins, to have some water, look out to sea and appreciate what my
job here entails .... not always sitting behind a desk.
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