Last day of the first month of my blog

31 days down and the blog is part of my daily ritual. However, I can see that remembering to take a photo each day may be a struggle.

Today's photo is of my friends' (Stan and Kate) cat, Murphy. He recently had his canine (should that be feline?) teeth removed so now his lips curl up under his gums sometimes. It's a classic thing to see! He's not doing too bad for 12 though and really does not seemed phase at all - he just looks at you to say "What? What are you laughing at?".

I ended up at Stan and Kate's place after a productive morning shopping in the city. I am now officially going to have to call Air Asia and ask them to upgrade my baggage quota!

Kate, Luke and I chilled out in the afternoon and I managed to play almost every Wii game that Luke had. Just as beer o'clock rolled around Stan came home and we ordered Thai for dinner. First time I had ever had yellow barramundi curry!

We watched the tennis which was a bit dull so resorted to critiquing players physiques and dress sense - much more rewarding. A relaxing Saturday.

Wondering why I stayed!

Today is another heatwave in Adelaide and after talking to Ross about the beautiful weather in KL, I am starting to wonder why I decided to stay on! :-)

Dad had a day off today so we headed into town to run some errands and look at a few shops before heading out to The Parade at Norwood to meet friends for lunch - Dad met his friend Morris and I met Kate.

Kate and I were enjoying our lunch when the power went out. Within about 15 minutes, the cafe was like a sauna. We headed out of there and wandered into a few more shops but most were the same. Kate and I were hoping that the icecream shops had generators or else they would suffer a major loss of stock!

I left Kate to pick up Dad and we headed into the Adelaide Central Market to pick up a couple of goodies for the weekend. It too was hot but at least they had power. The photo is a quick snap taken in the markets. Despite the heat, a number of people were still around.

We're now back in the safe refuge of the aircon. I'm praying for a cool change!

Coping with the heat

After the hottest night in known record in Adelaide it was another hot one today and there is no relief in sight! I didn't do much at all - read my book, watched the tennis, caught up on emails etc.

Dad came home for lunch and we popped out to run a few errands but quickly retreated to the airconditioning again.

After Dad finished work, we headed down to the beach to catch the sunset and to get some dinner. We couldn't believe how many people were at the metro beaches!

It was impossible to get a park in Glenelg so we headed down to Brighton and walked along the beach as the sun set. As you can see from the picture, tons of people were also doing the same.

It was a bit too late (8.30pm) to get dinner around the area so we headed up to O'Connell Street for dinner - a garlicky Yiros and chicken roll before heading home.

Hottest day for 70 years

So much for my new year fitness campaign! Today it was so hot I could hardly move!

I spent the morning being a bit of a chauffeur taking Ross to the airport then picking up Dad at the depot to take him to a meeting in Elizabeth. To kill time while he was in the meeting I headed to Elizabeth City Center and hunted down a few bargains (thank god for the new carry-on bag :-)).

Dad and I headed beack home after the meeting to try to cool down for an hour or so before he headed back to work. I hope he got a bus with good airconditioning!

I headed to the supermarket to stock up on cool liquids, fruit and prwans as that will be about all we will be consuming this week at the weather continues to be vile.

As you can see from Dad's weather station, it was 50.2 in the shade under the back pergola. Officially it reached 46 degrees Celcius (112 F) giving Adelaide it's hottest day in 70 years - ridiculous! And to think Ross will be heading back to KL where it will be probably 14 degrees cooler. I spoke with my friend Jen last night and she said it was -17 in Chicago. Don't know which one I would prefer at this point!

I'm not too sure what I will do with myself this week in the heat. We'll see...

Stinking hot day in Adelaide

Today was a scorcher in Adelaide - 43 degrees with hot dry heat. Needless to say it was not the day to do too much.

We spent the morning still at Stan and Kate's place and then went up to Tea Tree Plaza in the afternoon in search for a carry-on back for all my imminent purchases over the next ten days.

In the evening we headed out, with Dad, to our friends David and Donna's place to meet Patrick, their son, for the first time. I forgot to take a photo of him today but there will be more chances. Timothy and Anabelle walked us through their Christmas presents before dinner and then we spent the evening catching up on events from the last 18 months.

As you can see from the photo, Ross finished packing when we got home. He leaves to go back to KL tomorrow :-(

Australia Day!

Ross and I are so happy to be in Australia for Australia Day! We are still at our friend Stan and Kate's place and today we headed out to watch the one-day cricket match between Australia and South Africa at the Adelaide Oval.

As you can see from the photo, we tried to get it the spirit of things with green and gold sombreros and Aussie flag face tattoos! Luke was Captain Australia for the day.

It was scorching hot at the cricket and in true (and embarrassing!) Aussie form, the "hill" was as drunk and rowdy as always. We had seats just in front of the scoreboard so we were "entertained" by the security trying to keep the rabble under control on numerous occassions.

As for the game itself, unfortunately Australia had a shocking innings with the bat and left Sth Africa a measly 222 to chase. Kate, Luke, Josh and I headed home before the end of the Australian innings as we were fried after sitting hours in the 42 degree sun. A quick jump in the pool soon cooled our core temperatures down again though. We then headed inside to watch the game on the TV with our lemon lime and bitters and a fan - much better!

Stan and Ross almost stuck it out the whole game but left when Sth Africa had ten runs to get of 85 balls - yeah, I think they were going to make it! We all crashed pretty early after a great Australia Day.

Friends in Adelaide

The weather is starting to get hot here in Adelaide. Ross and I headed over to our friends Stan and Kate's place to see them after a year and a half and also to make use of their pool! :-)

The photo is of their lounge room which has undergone renovation since last time we visited. We love the wallpaper and the slick black leather lounge teamed with the lilac wall behind. As Kate said, it takes a while to focus on the TV when you first sit down as the pattern really attracts your eye.

We spent the afternoon drinking bubbles and eating fresh summer fruit by the pool before having a BBQ and then watching the Australian Open Tennis. Another great Aussie summer day! So great to catch up with good friends again.

Bushwalking

Another beautiful day in Adelaide so Ross, Dad and I headed up to Morialta Conservation Park for a walk in the sunshine. It was just the right temperature and it was just so nice being back in the Aussie outdoors!

While we were walking we spotted this little guy sitting in the fork of a gum tree. Being a typical koala, he was pretty drugged up on Eucalyptus and so didn't move much but he was pretty cute!

Ross then lead us up a less trodden path. The name should have given it away - Steep Gully Trail. So we walked about 1km straight up before joining the lookout track. It was absolutely gorgeous with great views of Adelaide city (about 10km away) from the top.

After all our physical exertion, we headed to the Tower Hotel on Magill Road for a pint and some lunch.

In the evening we headed up to family friends (Morris, Noela and Victoria) for dinner with me nursing a homemade pavlova which looked more like a cowpat but was tasty none the less. It was great to catch up with everyone again and we drove home happy, tired and with full bellies!

A relaxing day in Adelaide

Today was spent relaxing and starting our new exercise kick for the new year. Ross and I went walking this morning and picked up a healthy breakfast (also part of our new year health kick!). We spent the morning browsing the papers (which took all of 30 minutes) and then I spent the rest of the morning updating my blog.

Once Dad came home from work we headed into Adelaide City to do a few things. The picture was taken at the "Mall's Balls" in Rundle Mall - an Adelaide icon. The sculpture was actually made by the father of a kid I went to high school with - Eli Flugelman. If you look closely, you can see Ross, Dad and I reflected in the balls (I took inspiration from the photos I took with Jen Foss in "The Bean" in Chicago!).

We headed home for a good Aussie barbie for tea.

Home Sweet Home

Our friend Dee booked us on staff flights with Virgin Blue from Melbourne to Adelaide today. We were a bit anxious this morning when Dee checked the available seats and found that there were none left on the flight we wanted nor on any flights until later that night! So we took our chances and headed off to the airport prepared for an 8 hour wait to get on a flight.

We arrived at the airport, went to check-in where they informed us the flight was full (which we already new!). But she suggested we "run" to the boarding gate just in case. So Ross and I headed down there not really feeling too optimistic but when I went to see the ground crew our boarding passes were ready for us - awesome! We were on the flight.

So now we are relaxing in Dad's house (our bedroom is shown in the photo) in Adelaide - feels like home! We walked down to the Adelaide Juventus Sport and Social Club for a veal parmi and a couple of beers for tea.

Catching up with family

Ross and I spent the day in Melbourne city browsing through the shops and enjoying another great summer day. Ross ended up with a backpack full of my new clothes and shoes - bless!
We headed over to Southbank for lunch and ended up at World, a great little bar where we had salads and sipped white wine over looking the Yarra River and watching the world go by.

From there, we headed to Flinders Street Station to catch a train out to Watsonia where Ross' brother Bruce lives.

It was great to catch up with family over take-away Indian and wine. In the picture from left to right are Christine (my sister-in-law married to Bruce), Caz (other sister-in-law married to John), Ross, Brooke, Bruce and me. You will probably notice that Charli is draped over our laps as the poor thing was dragged out of her bed to be part of the photo :-). So the whole family was there except for John who had just returned to Brisbane from Darwin that night. Wish we had more time to catch up and hopefully now we live closer to Aus this can happen more regularly.

Just Chillaxing

Dee and I headed to the nail salon, "GoldeNail", today to be pampered after all our hard vacationing. It was a lovely couple of hours and we walked out with beautiful fingers and toes.

Despite the stereotypes of the Australian male, you can see one bloke manly enough to treat himself to a MANnie and peddie. :-)

After this we spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch watching Underbelly (again!) and then Dee invited some friends around for dinner - what a hoot! Dee has an incredibly eclectic group of friends - from opera singers to cops to cameramen - so this added up to a pretty interesting night!

Another beautiful day

Another beautiful summer day and we headed to Elwood Beach for a bit of sun, some salad sangas and a couple of beers. Despite the heat, the water was freezing so we all braved the water for an instant cool down.

After a couple of hours in the sun we retreated to the cool of Dee's apartment to continue our Underbelly fix!

In the afternoon, we headed down to Acland Street for a wander amogst the shops and stopped for a quiet beer at one of the bars.

The evening was spent with Thai takeout and the Sex and the City movie - perfect end to the day.

(Thanks for the pic Dee!)

Billy Elliot

A beautiful Sunday in Melbourne, so Dee and I headed out for a bit of exercise (read: sweating out the night before). So many people were making the most of the great weather around St Kilda.

In the afternoon we all headed into the city to catch Billy Elliot The Muscial which was amazing! The 12 year old, Dayton Tavares, who played the main character was fantastic but his best mate Michael, played by Landen Hale-Brown, stole the show.

After the show, we headed into St Kilda and met up with Phil and Bec who I worked with in Kuwait and another of Dee's friends Ana. A great meal and great company!

Comedy night

So back into Melbourne, Dee met us at the airport. We headed back to her place via the scenic route along St Kilda. We caught up in the afternoon and then headed into the city for a night of comedy.

We met up with one of Dee's friends Lyndall for a quick bite at Chocolate Buddha before heading out to the comedy club. Based on Dee's rating out of 10, the first comedian we saw was a 6, the second was a 6.5 but the headliner, Bradford Oakes, was at least an 8, very funny!

It was a pretty good way to spend the night. Dee, Ross and I headed out to another bar after this and got home around 2am.

Cascade Brewery

Our last day in Hobart was spent on the Hop On, Hop Off tourist bus. This took us out to the Cascade Breweryin a beautiful setting in the foothills of Mt Wellington.

We tried a few of the local brews and one in particular, the First Harvest was fantastic. After spending a couple of hours at the brewery, we "hopped" back on the bus to take us back into the city.

The afternoon was spent watching the one-day cricket before heading out to a local bar called the Grape Bar with a great selection of Tassie wine.

After a couple of drinks, we picked up fish and chips (again!) from our favourite place Fish Frenzy and watched the rest the cricket. A pretty relaxing way to end our time in Hobart.

Sunset in Hobart

Today was spent pretty low key after last night's festivities. After venturing out for breakfast we returned back to the unit for an extra hour or two of rest watching the tennis.

About the only thing we managed to achieve was going to the pictures to watch the Curious Case of Benjamin Button in Gold Class.

On the way back from the movie, the sun was still up despite it being 9pm. The photo is looking at the apartment we were staying at.

Beautiful afternoons in Hobart!

Making the most of our first day in Hobart, Ross and I stocked up on beautiful fresh local produce and settled in for the afternoon with a bottle of champagne overlooking the harbour - goregous!

We strolled around the city and Salamanca Place for a few hours and then headed out for dinner. Dee was on a lay-over so we caught up with her and the rest of the flight crew at the Birdcage at Wrest Point Casino and of course things started to go downhill from there!

A couple of the hosties (a little younger than the rest of us!) decided it would be a good idea to head on out to the Observatory, a local club in town. I think we were the oldest there by a good many years but Dee, Ross and I showed the locals a few snazzy dance moves before we were being asked to leave when the lights came on a 2am.

Feeling a little peckish after a big night, we headed to the 24 hour bakery for pies and sausage rolls before tumbling into bed. Needless to say I am writing this the next day late in the afternoon!

First day in Aus!

After flying from KL to Melbourne, we met up with Dee our friend that I worked with in Kuwait. She is now a Cabin Supervisor on Virgin Blue. We flew on her flight to Hobart and it was a hoot! However, although the couple of free beers were appreciated, they didn't sit so well as we came in for a rough landing! Perhaps Dee's joke on the PA about the pilots being there for work experience wasn't far wrong!

Once in Hobart, Ross and I checked into the Somerset on the Pier for a few days R & R by ourselves. After some awesome fish and chips, we were pretty much finished after a long day travelling.

Year of the Ox

So yes, again I am talking about Chinese New Year. After Ross and I took Black and Blue to the boarding cattery (they left us with a few scars just to have something to remember them by!), I spent most of the day in the spa. Ross bought me a fantastic package at Kanebo Spa which included hot stone massages and facials. I walked out after 3 hours feeling brand new!

On the way back to the car, I noticed that Pavilion had put this lucky bull outside. Apparently you touch his head for good luck and prosperity - I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Ross and I spent the afternoon finishing packing and showing Brian's parents Earl and Mary around our flat where they will be staying while we are away. We then headed to the airport to fly to Aus...

More on Chinese New Year

Ross and I spent the day tidying up the place after the family left last night and getting ready for our trip to Aus tomorrow. As with any vacation, a bit of personal maintenance was in order so we headed to Pavilion - Ross for a haircut and me for some other bits and pieces.

As mentioned in one of my last posts, the city is gearing up for Chinese New Year. In the mall today we watched Chinese drummers perform. It was pretty cool hearing their beats reverberating through the entire mall!

I also took a video but because I am not that bright I filmed the whole thing sideways! Shame, because it was quite good too.

High-tea

To end their visit to Kuala Lumpur, we took Dad and Ann to the Mandarin Oriental for high tea. As you can see from the photo there was plenty of food.

Despite Ross and I being a little "delicate" we still managed to polish off the towers of food and enjoyed a couple of cups of tea.

A nice way to end their visit.

Batu Caves and KL Tower

To make the most of the second last day that Dad and Ann are in KL, we headed out to the Batu Caves, just north of the city. The caves are reached by climbing 272 steps where you then enter the Hindu temple. The caves also hosts one of the world's largest gatherings for the festival of Thaipusam.

The statue in the picture is the Hindu deity, Lord Muruga and is 130ft tall.

As we climbed the steps, many monkeys entertained us and helped keep our mind off the number of steps left to go! Actually, it was a pretty easy climb.

After visiting the Caves, we headed off to the KL Tower to get a different view of the city. It is worth going up the tower but it is pretty pricey and super touristy so I don't think we'll be going back in a hurry. Next time I think we'll go to the revolving restaurant in the tower instead.

Ross and I headed out in the afternoon to catch up with friends for dinner and drinks... and more drinks... and dancing. Needless to say I am typing this with a hangover!

Camel Rug

As you can see from the photo, we hung the camel rug that I received as a leaving gift from my Director at Reach Out To Asia (ROTA), Omnia. After a quick trip to IKEA, Dad threw in a couple of screws and up it went. It really sets off the house and with the other rug that ROTA gave to me also as a gift, it looks great. Such generous gifts!

Other than that, we pretty much spent the day reading and playing games. We also tried to concoct dinner out of whatever was left in the fridge which turned out to be zucchini pizza, green vegetable salad, roast veg and Camembert and roast garlic. Not too bad really :-)

After dinner, we honed our Mahjong skills - I really think we are getting better...

Dinner at Tamarind Springs

Today was a pretty leisurely day. Ann and I had our nails done, Dad and Ann picked up their new glasses and we picked up the camel rug from having the hanging loops put on it.

We also went to Tamarind Springs for dinner. It is a great restaurant serving a variety of food from Thai, Italian and Indo-China. After a gin and tonic at sundown, we sat down to a sumptuous meal of steamed bass with lemon grass, cashew and lime sauce, spicy broccoli and tofu, Cambodian Lok Lak (beef curry) and local lobster in tamarind sauce. It was enough to feed a small village!

As you can see from the photo, the fish was served whole but was filleted on both sides and was delicious! We topped off the meal by having dragon fruit with rum and raison icecream and fried bananas with Grand Marnier sauce and icecream. The restaurant is in a beautiful setting only about 15 minutes from the city but you really feel you are in the jungle. It also overlooks the golf course. Definitely recommended if you are visiting KL.

Genting Highlands

We are a little exhausted after a day at the Genting Highlands; about 60km NE of Kuala Lumpur. As the name would suggest, it is up in the hills - 6000 plus feet to be exact. As we climbed through the clouds we drove through magnificent rainforest, saw a beautiful Chinese temple and then emerged at the resort at the top.

The resort is made up of around 4 hotels all in the same area, a casino and two theme parks - one indoor and one outdoor. After Ann spent 10RM on the pokies, Dad, Ann and I bought our passes for both parks and then hit the rides.

As you can see from the pic, Ann had quite a good time on the bumper cars! Dad and I tackled a couple of roller coasters and the sky chairs. We all rode the monorail (snore!) and the Rio Float as well as the paddle boats. All in all a busy afternoon.

We finished the day with a ride on the cable car and hot dog before heading home. An interesting place to visit if you are into theme parks.

Getting ready for Chinese New Year

Well, the Christmas decorations are down and have already been replaced with decorations for Chinese New Year including these cherry blossom trees outside one of the malls here in KL.

We saw red and gold everywhere as we walked around today. I also made a booking for a pamper day at one of the ritzy spas here thanks to Ross' Christmas present! Should be good as it will be a day before we head to Australia.

Tonight we played Monopoly - the South Australian version (which was created to raise money for the McGuinness McDermott Foundation) which included corkers such as: Pie Floater, Fritz, Fruchocs, Barossa Valley, Port Augusta (commonly known as "Porta Gutta") and many others. Of course I was bankrupt first :-(

Mahjong

Today was a pretty relaxing, low key day with Caz and John flying out early this morning. The "remainders" (Dad and Ann), Ross and I headed off to the local mall for a bit of breakfast and retail therapy.

On our travels we came across a Mahjong set and have spent the evening taking a crash course (after printing out the rules from the Internet!). Besides the different suites (tiles) and a few extra ones thrown in, it really isn't too different from a card game. The hardest part is getting the wall set up, deciding who is the "East Wind" and where to "break the wall". Once the game starts it's actually pretty fast.

Although we're definitely not experts yet, I think we did pretty good for our first time... Chows, Pungs and Kongs were had by all!

By the way, the real game is not at all like the game I used to play on the computer for hours on end while sitting on an oil rig :-)

Mamma Mia!

Last night, I went to the stage show of Mamma Mia! with Caz, Ann and our neighbours Sonja and Emma. As you can see from the photo we had a pretty good time :-)

Before the show we went to the Trader's Hotel Sky Bar for a drink. The bar has just been renovated and now the pool is actually the hotel pool so as we sipped our cocktails, we watched kids swim laps up and down. And you wouldn't want to have one too many cocktails as the pool is only a foot away from where you sit! But the view was still worth it though. The buffet on Level 5 was pretty good too.

Although the show was at the National Theatre, there was no parking so Sonja showed us her excellent Malaysian driving skills and mad a car park appear out of no where! A good night had by all... but still doesn't make me like ABBA!

Day trip to Melaka

Today we spent the day in Melaka which is around two hours drive south of KL. Once a vital port on the trading route from China to India, it is now a UNESCO World Heritage site city.

As you can see from the photo, we got a bit tired of walking and resorted to a one hour trishaw ride. Dad and Ann are wearing their 4 ringgit hats just to make sure that we were easily spotted as tourists!

We ended the day with a great meal on the jetty before heading home. Highly recommended for a visit - Ross and I will definitely be going back.

First day of the New Year!

Well, today is the first day of 2009 and I have decided to copy Jen Foss' idea of having a blog capturing a photo a day throughout the year.

As you can see from the picture, Ross, his brother John and our sister-in-law Caz are recovering from the festivities last night. KL put on an awesome fireworks display which we watched from the balcony. There may have also been one or two drinks involved too :-).

Hopefully we will get round to taking down the Christmas decorations soon!... HAPPY NEW YEAR!