Monday April 7, 2008

Hey y'all!! Just having my Monday morning coffee enjoying listening to the sounds outside. As usual it's sunny and humid but the birds are chirping rather loudly today. If it wasn't for the sounds of the cars and motorbikes I would think I was in a Disney film. We found out late last week that our things would be arriving into port early so I was happy about that. Everything still has to pass through customs which I don't see any problems with. The only thing that concerns me is Jim's sports collection. Anyone who has ever visited us knows that he has an extensive collection of sports "dolls" and memorabilia ( he likes to call them action figures ). He has about a total of 140 figurines and I'm afraid that the Malaysian government will think that he is importing them to sell and tax us on them. It's a slight possibility one that hopefully will not happen. We were hoping that since our things arrived earlier that we would be able to move earlier but that's not the case. The landlord did not start to do the work I requested on the house until he received the deposit which wasn't until the end of last week. So now hopefully when we get the keys later on this week, our stuff will also be delivered on the same day. I have managed to shop and buy most of the larger items that we will need. I got a bedroom set for the spare room, some end tables for the living room and bedside tables for our room. This past weekend I bought a new patio set which was a first for me. Not that I've never bought a patio set before but when I picked out the one that I wanted, I was told it would take 3 weeks for delivery, little did I know that it would have to be custom made! I had to pick out the color for the rattan and fabric for the seat cushions. Needless to say I've never had a custom made patio set before and the cost wasn't bad at all, around $400 U.S. for everything including delivery. So now Jim has to get on the ball and get us some tv's and washer/dryer.

So that's what we did on Saturday, Jim was in a good mood because he finally got to play golf with his boss on Friday. No, he did not let Harald win. He didn't play great but he did beat out his two other contenders. Funny thing, I noticed this in Shanghai too, all the golf courses have caddies and they are all female. Jim said on one hole he asked his caddie for a certain iron and she just looked at him like he was out of his mind for choosing that particular one, so he went with her advice and still overshot the hole but just not as badly as he would have had he gone with his first choice. Maybe if he has a caddie all the time, he might improve his game...look out Keith, Brian, Ric, and Clarkie!!

Sunday, Jim got up really early so he could watch NCAA basketball and we had a lazy afternoon watching more B movies before we decided to get motivated. Jim wanted to drive to Bangsar and test out his "divedar", his knack for being able to locate hole in the wall bars to hang out in on a regular basis. I knew that George and the Dragon wouldn't be his normal place after we hung out there one Friday night. So after getting lost for a little bit we ended up in Bangsar Village, the area down the hill from our new house and we looked for a place to have dinner. There is a culinary row here called One Bangsar and it has a variety of restaurants to choose from: Japanese, Vietnamese, N. Indian, Moroccon, French, Italian, Arabian etc. We chose to eat at the Italian restaurant Vincenzo's because we've had a craving for lasagna. I'm not able to make it where we are now for lack of a lasagna pan. It was pretty good, they were individual casserole lasagna and we also had our first "chunky" soup. Most of the soups here don't have chunks of vegetables or meat, it's just more like flavored broth or creamy broth. We sat outside since it had just finished raining and it was cool, still humid, but cool.

After dinner we put Jim's divedar to the test. There were restaurants and pubs all around all having happy hour but nothing sparked Jim's attention until we came across a place called The School. Not sure what the owner was going for when it came to a theme of the place. It was like part dance club, part sports bar. It was very dark with blacklights but then had gates up that looked like batting cages and a couple of pool tables. I honestly don't think Jim would have given it a second look if it hadn't been for the little Chinese girl who approached him on the street telling him about the happy hour specials. So we went in and popped a spot at the bar and as I tried to order a couple of beers, Jim got money for the pool table. We actually recognized someone from our last trip to Bangsar Village and Jim started to talk to him. As I'm talking to the Chinese girl, something catches my eye, and I immediately get goosebumps, I have a phobia of bugs, ANY kind, ANY size, ANY shape, ANY color, you get what I mean. Now I don't care where you live, where you visit, a roach is a roach is roach and I spied a baby roach crawling right on the bar top as I'm talking. The girl sees it too and does not react at all. I calmly picked up a coaster and flicked it away from me. I didn't freak out, just got it away from me. I can handle seeing one. Jim comes back and I tell him about it, I look down and there is another one! He kills it and then starts to play pool. Right next to us is a like a desk-top lamp and I can see that there is more movement at the bottom of the lamp so I walk away, to me if I can't see it then I can't be afraid of it. Jim walks back over to it and another waiter comes up to him and when he does Jim is killing another roach so the guys solution to the bugs is...wait for it...to turn the light OFF!! I'm sorry but isn't the darkness supposed to draw them out! not make them go away! We finished playing pool and left. Jim says that The School is a possibility for a hangout but I'm not going back unless I bring a can of Raid with me. I still felt like something was crawling on me hours later. I've been in some seedy places but nothing ever like that!

We headed home after that but not before a woman gave me flyer for a spa treatment. I don't know how many of you watch Ugly Betty but there was one episode where Wilamena (sp?) played by Vanessa Williams is trying to whoo Daniels' father Mr. Mead and she finds out that he has a foot fetish. So she hears about these fish that nibble at the dead skin on your feet to make them smooth and soft, well the flyer I got is for the nibbling fish. I'm definitely going to try it out!! It's called Garra rufa Fish Therapy, soothe your "sole". The Doctor fish, as they're normally called are found in the river basins of Northern and Central Middle East, mainly Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran and the treatment has been around for over a century. Basicly you put your feet in a warm pool and the finned 'staff' exfoliate your feet, of course there is a filtering system for the pool and the water is changed daily. I can't wait! And it's pretty cheap, for 1/2 hour it's 38 RM, a little over $10 or for an hour 72 RM or $22. That will be another post at a later date.

Hope everyone has a great week, See you!!