Monday April 21, 2008

Good morning!! or for the majority, good evening. I am up and about today and trying decide what to do with myself this week. I'm about sick of shopping and not really in the mood to wrestle with a local for a cab. So I've decided to turn my efforts to finding myself a doctor. My insurance company doesn't have a list of participating doctor in Malaysia like they do at home, we've actually been told that we will have to pay out of pocket for all medical and then file for reimbursement. This stumps me because I've spoken with our insurance company and have been informed that our Cigna plan currently doesn't cover us outside of the States and that Jim's HR person would have to switch us to Cigna international for coverage. Jim informed HR and was told to pay out of pocket and that HR would file reimbursement forms. To me it just doesn't make much sense, why wouldn't they just switch us to the international plan. I told Jim just imagine if I did in fact get run over by a scooter, how much that would be in hospital bills and then have Cigna deny reimbursement because we're in Malaysia. I guess I just have to trust that HR knows what they're talking about. In the meantime I've been looking for any resources to help me find a doctor and have struck out. So I have to use the public for answers. I have a yahoo account but I only use it to participate in Yahoo answers. You can post questions and the web audience gives you answers. This has come in handy for me because they have a Malaysian forum. Some of the answers I receive are helpful and some are just down right stupid and that's because when you answer questions you receive points which build up so you can reach different levels. Currently I am level 2, I try to answer questions when I know what I'm talking about and I know what it feels like to receive a stupid or rude answer. So hopefully I will get a person out there who thinks like I do.

We had fun this past weekend. From my last post everyone knows that I was able to get my internet hooked up. I do have some problems making phone calls through Skype because sometimes the connection is very slow so when I talk there is like a 10 second delay before the other person hears what I'm saying, so everyone thinks that I've hung up. Jim thinks that installing an external antennae should remedy this problem but one thing at a time. Friday, Astro came out and hooked up our satellite tv so now I have something else besides the internet and reading to help pass the time. We chose several programming packages but I still can't find anything to watch. We'll have to have Astro come back out again because they only installed one decoder box that's in our spare room and once Jim buys his tv for the living room they'll have to install another one plus wire our master bedroom so we can move the smaller tv once we get our bed...how I love moving!!

Friday night we went out to dinner at a place called La Bodega at the mall. It's a spanish style place that mainly serves tapas. I would not recommend going here except to have cocktails and a small bite to eat. Jim thought we would have enough for the two of us but not with our appetites. Later we went upstairs to City Golf, the golf simulator club. I had been inside once before, they haven't officially opened yet but Jim has managed to get to know the staff so they let him in whenever he wants. The simulator itself is pretty cool, Jim was swinging his club and hitting the ball just like he would on the golf course. I took a couple of swings and have to admit that I am pretty terrible, half the time I wouldn't even hit the ball. You won't see me appearing in the LPGA anytime soon!! I'd definitely try it again but with Jim as my teacher it's frustrating and embarrasing. Golf is not easy! I do better playing it on a video game.

Saturday afternoon we were just plain lazy!! We had stayed up late Friday night because after golf we went downstairs to George and the Dragon and closed the place. Jim did get up Saturday to go and check out a golf course he is thinking of joining and then we just laid around, ordered Pizza Hut delivered and rested. We had plans to go to dinner with Jim's boss Harald and his wife Susan who I've met before. Dinner was at the mall at a place called W.I.P. that stands for Work in Progress. The decor is supposed to be like a construction site although it doesn't look anything under construction, it's actually a little chic. The floors are concrete and the walls looked stripped, the staff wear brown overalls with bright yellow shirts and bandanas. The lighting is dark in some places so the waiters wear mining lights on their heads to help you see the menus which are papers on a clipboard. They have 3 kitchens offering different cuisine, one is western, the other asian and lastly indian. Another couple joined us who were friends with Harald and Sue, Barry and his wife Janet who are Australian and this is the second time they have lived in Malaysia. Barry works if I can remember correctly in the oil industry with a German firm. They were a lot of fun and easy to get along with. They enjoy Kuala Lumpur so much that they have bought their home and plan on retiring here. Jan also gave me some tips on how to deal with the people here. All of our food was good, I ordered a North Indian dish that consisted of chicken in a slightly spicy sauce served with rice, a mixture of peas and mushrooms, grilled flatbread, and crisps which are like tortilla chips but I think are made out of rice and are thinner. Jim had vietnamese beef noodles. The only awkward moment and this is one thing that I've noticed is quite common, everyone's food doesn't arrive at the same time. It's like whenever it's done in the kitchen they bring it out and if you order soup or salad you have to specify that you want to have it first otherwise you'll get your main meal and then your soup. After a chat with our waiter everyone finally had their dinner. After dinner we all headed to George and the Dragon and Sue got to watch her soccer team win ( Sue is originally from England and an avid fan as well as a lot of fun to be around ). Eventually everyone left us and once again Jim and I closed the bar after making friends with a guy from Puerto Rico but who also lived in the States, New Orleans to be exact. We exchanged phone numbers and made plans to get together.

Sunday we made the trek back to Ampang to pick up a table that I purchased there but for some reason was never delivered and then came back to Bangsar. We went to Mid-Valley mall to buy a washer/dryer and got a wonderful surprise. We were looking for a place to have lunch and low and behold...a Long John Silvers!!! You can barely find them in the States, never would I have thought I'd find one in Malaysia!! This trip just keeps getting better and better.