First day in Hanoi! (6 months complete on the blog!)

The alarm went off at 4.10am this morning - not fun! I was in the taxi to the airport at 4.30am. I had checked in online so I went to the bag drop and before I knew it I was boarding the plane to Hanoi. An uneventful three and a half hour flight and I arrived in Vietnam with a driver waiting to pick me up.

I arrived at the hotel at about 10.30am and my friend Dee met me not long afterwards. The Church Hotel where I was staying was a cute little hotel in a great area. After meeting Dee and chatting about her tour in Cambodia and other parts of Vietnam over breakfast, we walked up to one of the main shopping areas in Hanoi - about 10 minutes walk from the hotel.

We wandered around for a while looking at bits and bobs. We were so hot and sweaty that by the time we came across the first bar, we were ready for a beer - it was 11.15am! We headed back towards Dee's hotel for lunch and enjoyed Pho noodles (pronounced 'fur') for lunch with a Hanoi beer. After lunch we walked to Dee's hotel and she introduced me to a few of her tour companions and we spent a couple of hours relaxing in her room before heading back down to my hotel.

We recovered from the heat there for an hour or so before heading down the street a couple of doors to La Salsa for a sangria and some tapas on their balcony overlooking the catherdral. As we sat there, a huge rainstorm rolled in and we watched the world outside try and escape from the torrential rain.

After finishing our drinks, it was still raining so we jumped in a cab into the Old Quarter for dinner. We went to a great restaurant called Green Tangerine which was in an old (1926) villa. We sat in the open air but covered part of the restaurant and enjoyed a great meal of Asian fusion seafood, salmon for me and seafood paella for Dee. As you can see from the photo, Dee (and I) also enjoyed dessert! After dinner, we wandered around the streets for a while looking through some of the shops before heading back to our respective hotels. We were exhausted after both having a long day of travel.

I said goodbye to Dee as she was heading off to Halong Bay for a day and half and we will meet up again on Thursday.

I got up to my room, fell into bed and slept like a log! Great first day in Hanoi!

Tidying up loose ends

This morning I woke up and walked over to the gym for a workout. On my walk over, it seemed that half of KL's workmen were also out on the streets so I must have looked a little odd walking in my work out gear.

I worked out for just over an hour then went to Coffee Bean for breakfast. I made a few phone calls - one to check if I had a dental appointment for my root canal and the other to cancel my facial that I had booked for today :-( - before walking home. I also rang Ross and we agreed to meet up for lunch.

While waiting to meet Ross, I did some washing, played with Blue out on the balcony and caught up on my blog. I drove over to pick Ross up from the office and we went to Delicious for lunch. We beat the usual lunchtime crowd so it was nice and quiet and quick. I had an awesome Vietnamese chicken salad - just preparing myself for my trip to Hanoi :-).

After lunch I relaxed for a while on the couch, started sorting out my packing, did a few more chores and before I knew it Ross was home from work. We walked to KLCC for dinner at Sakae Sushi and picked up a frozen yoghurt for the walk home. I spent the evening finalizing my packing and making sure I had everything - money, visa and travel guides most importantly! (see photo).

It will be an early night as I am being picked up at 4.30am tomorrow! Hanoi here I come...

A busy Sunday too!

This morning I woke up reasonably early and snuck out to the lounge room to let Ross sleep. Once he woke up, I made pancakes for breakfast - yum!

By this time, we showered and got ready to drive back out to Ikano Power Center to exchange the BBQ rotisserie at BBQ King. Ross had to print out his credit card statement as we had thrown away the receipt. We exchanged it for a cast iron baking dish that fits in the grill. At Ikano, we also went to see if we could find a cat door at the pet shop (no luck), we put our Playstation controller in to be fixed, bought a flyscreen for the bathroom window and did a quick bit of food shopping.

Back at home, we busied ourselves doing stuff around the house. I potted my herbs and threw in some cat grass seeds to see if they will grow. Ross installed the mesh on the bathroom window where the cats litter boxes are so we can keep the window open. About 1, we decided to take a break and watch a bit of the footy before we had to head out to Ampang for our golf lesson.

After a bit of a shaky start, my swing finally started to come back and I spent the entire time just hitting ball after ball trying to get my swing consistently good again. Eric gave Ross a few more tips and left both of us to practice. We both hit 100 balls each and were sweating after it!

From golf, we drove to Great Eastern Mall to pick up Ross' trousers that were being altered. I also managed to exchange some Ringgit into Dong for my trip to Vietnam (just love the name of the Vietnamese currency!). We also looked in the pet store for a cat door again with no luck but we did pick up some cat litter. I popped into the optometrist to see if they could replace the lenses in my glasses. They said it would take a few days so I might drop them off tomorrow so they are ready when I am back from Hanoi so we can go to Aus.

On the way home, we dropped into Ross' office so that I could scan all my medical claim forms and receipts to send off to BUPA. By the time we got home we were pretty tired. We showered and made an early dinner of mushroom fajitas. After dinner I made us a couple of Singapore Sling's by modifying the original Raffle's recipe. They were really tasty!

We spent the rest of the night working on the T-shirt transfers for our trip to Broome. After a couple of near misses, we managed to print all four tank tops with the R.E.C.D. Tour logo (RECD stands for Ross, Elyse, Cherie and Dee).

We tried to watch the Hulk movie but Ross fell asleep so we just headed to bed about 10. A really full weekend!

Health and Fitness check:

Weight 70.8 kg (almost there!)

Exercise: (a really good week)

- Interval training: 45 minutes
- Walking uphill: 35 mins
- Weight training: 45 mins
- Elliptical trainer: 45 mins
- Walking (FRIM + treadmill + KLCC): 35 +15 + 45 mins
- Driving range: 30 + 45 mins
- Netball: 45 mins

A busy Saturday

This morning started by Ross and I going to the gym. I got down there and started on the elliptical trainer and I could tell my body wouldn't cope with that today so I headed out to KLCC park to walk instead. I walked for 45 minutes and completed 3 and a half laps before walking home. I was knackered afterwards!

Ross and I drove out to Ikano Power Mall for breakfast and to run a few errands. I wasn't in a great mood this morning and when my two poached eggs came out and were more like rubber hard boiled eggs, I wasn't impressed. DOME was not doing well this morning! I sent them back and waited for new eggs which came back a bit better but not great. After throwing down my eggs, I walked over to Strip for some maintenance and met up with at Starbucks Ross afterwards.

From there we did a quick hit and run at IKEA to buy some pots that hang on the balcony so I could grow some herbs. After IKEA, we drove to Plaza Mont Kiara where I had a dentist appointment to look at my tooth that they fixed 3 weeks ago. I have been taking the pain killers that the dermatologist gave me for my foot because the tooth ache was so bad! We had lunch at Marmalade first while we waited for my appointment. At 1, I went up to the dentist and explained what was was going on. She made me bite on these little sticks about 6 times to see where the pain was coming from. I was ready to jump through the roof by the end of it! She decided that I had "cracked tooth syndrome" and most likely needed a root canal to take away the pain although this might not save the tooth in the long run. Great! Just what I need, more dental work! She rang the root canal specialist to see if I could get an appointment before I travel and they said they would call me back on Monday.

After a pretty crappy dentist appointment, we decided to drive out to the POS Malaysia depot near the LCCT airport terminal. We had ordered the KittyWalk Town and Country - basically a mesh play pen for the cats that can go outside on the balcony - from the US and we got a note in the mail that it was ready to collect. So we drove for an hour to get to the post office before it closed at 4pm.

We got out there about 3 and we prepared ourselves for the experience of clearing our stuff through customs. It started at the gate to the carpark. They needed Ross to give them two pieces of ID and then we each received a visitor's pass. Inside the office, we were directed to counter number 2- the customs broker. We gave them our forms and then we sat to wait to get more forms. Once we were called up and they gave us the forms, we were directed to counter 1.

At counter 1 we gave the guy our paper work. I filled out more forms, he took my visitor's pass and we waited for the box to come through on the conveyor belt - so far so good! Once we had the box, we were told to take it to counter 5. Here, the customs officials made us open the box and we tried to explain what it was (not easy!). They had a discussion amongst themselves and then decided that we needed to go back to counter 2 to get form number 1.

So back to counter 2 we ask for form number 1 and are told to wait for about 20 minutes while they decide how much import tax to charge us. Again, we had to try and explain what the item was and what it was made out of. Eventually they call me over and tell us that we need to pay 288 ringgit to clear the item and that we need to take this new form back to counter 5.

Back at counter 5, they look at the forms, stamp them a couple of times and tell us to go to counter 4. At counter 4, we try again to explain to the customs official what the item is. In the end we just tell him its a cat cage. Next, he asks us where the cat is. We thought he was joking but apparently not! I think he thought we were importing a cat as well. He told us that it was a lot of money to buy a cat cage - in my head I told him to "go away" but not quite in those words. Outwardly, I nodded and smiled. He did some more stamping and signing before he sent us to counter 6.

At counter 6 we paid the tax. More stamping and we were told to go back to counter 1. At counter one, they took one of the forms and gave me my visitor's pass back. Then we were told to go back to counter 5. At counter 5 there was a hell of a lot of stamping, they took some of the forms and finally we were allowed to take our stuff!

What an ordeal! So just to recap we went to counters:

2 -> 1 -> 5 -> 2 -> 5 -> 4 -> 6 -> 1 -> 5

Not bad huh? The whole process took over an hour but at least we walked out with the cat cage!!

By the time we got home we were pretty exhausted but we put up the cat play pen and let Blue play in it out on the balcony for a while (see photo).

We were too tired to think about cooking so we drove up to Changkat Bukit Bintang for fish and chips - they were awesome! From there we walked down one of the side streets to our Thai massage place and had a full body massage for an hour. We walked out feeling much more relaxed!

Once we got home, I walked in the door and straight into bed! I was completely shattered!

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

This morning began like any other with the alarm going off at 6.30. After 3 snoozes, I finally rose and flipped on the TV to find the news that one newspaper had reported that Michael Jackson had died of cardiac arrest although it wasn't confirmed yet. Ironically, the song that was playing on my iPod to wake me up was Man in the Mirror!

Ross was already in the shower so I went into break the news to him and we watched together as more information came in and the coroner confirmed his death - what a shock!!

After the shock of this news, I got ready for netball and headed out to pick Julia up at 8.30. It was super steamy playing outside today but none the less, I had a great run around. Today's photo is of all the girls who played. After netball I dropped Julia home and went home myself for a quick shower before driving out to Great Eastern Mall to meet Rimma and Kiki.

I met Kiki and her friend Andy at Starbucks and we had a coffee while waiting for Rimma. After fueling ourselves up we hit the shops. Kiki had found out that two big sales start today - one at the Island Shop and one a British India so we headed to Island shop first where I bought a yellow dress and aqua top with matching earrings. Next was British India where I went a little nuts buying a pair of white linen wide legged trousers, three tops and a shirt for Ross. At least everything was on sale - 50% or less.

After all the shopping I headed home and relaxed for the afternoon watching MTV's MJ R.I.P. videos - so much great music you forget!

A great day

This morning I slept in a bit and woke up about 8. I pottered around the house until about 10 before driving to the Vietnamese consulate to pick up my visa.

From there I drove to Ampang for my golf lesson at KDE. Eric let me warm up by myself and was happier with what he saw compared to Sunday. I concentrated on keeping my body "quiet and neutral" as well as not twisting my wrists in my back swing. Through the lesson, Eric got me working on little things until the end where my swing was looking closer to what it should be. I was happy that things were improving again. We'll see if it continues on Sunday.

Ross was at home when I arrived as we had the electricians and the oven repair men in the house fixing things. They didn't take too long and Ross and I had lunch together before I drove him back to the office. I spent a few more hours tidying up the house before walking over to Pavilion.

At Pavilion, I went to the gym to work out for an hour or so. It felt good to work on the weight machines today and I was happy I finished all my sets. I showered and then went to Roxy to exchange a visor I bought for a top. I thought the visor would be a good idea - yeah, not so much.

I then walked down to Tang's to the Belfry to get my hair cut. Mark did a good job cutting my hair and we chatted about working out - he was annoyed because he is only 64kg and cannot put on any more weight despite working out and taking supplements etc. I told him I wish I had that problem! He told me that one of the trainers in the gym (the same one I go to) offered him steroids and he said he thought about it but decided that the side effects weren't worth it. I asked him what weight he wants to get to and he said 80kg. I diplomatically tried to suggest that perhaps he needs to think of a more realistic goal like 70kg.

After my haircut, I rang Ross to come pick me up and we made green chicken curry for dinner. Ross was exhausted so we headed to bed pretty early.

A pretty typical Wednesday

This morning I woke up early and drove to Julia's place so that we could go to FRIM. We walked the usual route and it was all pretty uneventful - no monkeys or snakes. However, I did manage to roll on my ankle and fall over! Nothing major though.

After our walk, we drove back to her place to pick up her husband Phil who is home recovering after surgery to remove a lump on his spine. He was a bit ginger getting in and out of the car but in general he was doing really well considering he got out of the hospital on Monday.

We went to Marmalade at Plaza Mont Kiara and I had "green eggs". Scrambled eggs with pesto and feta cheese wrapped up in a tortilla with mushrooms, baked beans and tomato and avocado salsa on the side - yum!! This came with a huge freshly squeezed OJ - all in all a pretty good deal for 26 ringgit!

I dropped Phil and Julia home and then drove back to Stonor for a quick shower before heading to Pavilion to meet up with Kiki and Rimma. I arrived late and the girls had already started the mani/ pedi's. It was pretty relaxing and I opted for the spa pedicure and a normal manicure. They finished before me and had to head off to pick up their kids from school. I finished just after 1pm and walked out with lovely looking nails!

From Pavilion I drove to Great Eastern to buy cat litter, cat food and pick up some contact lenses and then headed home. I spent the afternoon on the couch watching a movie called Pay It Forward with Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment. It was an OK movie and good for an afternoon on the couch. By the time this finished it was about 5pm and raining cats and dogs outside! I knew Ross wanted to get home in time to watch the State of Origin so I went and picked him up from the office so he didn't have to walk in the pouring rain.

Once he got home, we went down to the gym. He worked out and I did some stretching. We came upstairs, ordered room service pasta for dinner and watched the State of Origin. Ross got up and did a happy dance when QLD scored their last try! I was exhausted but managed to stay up until 9 before heading to bed.

The photo today is of my chest x-ray as I forgot to take a photo of anything else during the day although I had plenty of opportunities! I saw this crazy pink car that was spray painted with Hello Kitty stuff all over the outside and had so many toys and crap inside the driver could hardly see! It was quite a sight and I wish I had gotten a photo - but oh well. My chest will have to do for today (and yes, they are my boobs!).

Maintenance inside and out

While Ross headed to Miri for the day very early this morning, I stayed in bed for an extra half hour before getting up and dressed in time to get to Prince Court Medical Center for my Well Woman check-up at 7.30.

Going through the usual rigmarole of sanitising my hands and wearing my pink sticker to show I was clear of Swine Flu, I headed down to the Executive Health Department. I was met by a nurse who registered me, explained the procedures I would do today, showed me to the changing room and asked me to pee in a cup - good start!

From there I was led to the laboratory where they drew a lot of blood for the numerous blood tests - cancer markers, HIV, glucose, blood work, venerial diseases etc. I was also given an eye test checking for colour blindness and my general eye test. Next was weight, height, waist to hip ratio and lung capacity test. The last test in this batch was a hearing test.

After all this, I waited in the lounge for the radiology department to open so I could go and get my chest X-ray, ultrasounds and bone density scan. I was escorted to the department and changed into my pink "scrubs" and fluffy robe! First was the chest x-ray then I went to the MRI department for the bone density scan. Next was the ultrasound of all my internal organs and my boobs. Then this stage of the check-up was done.

Back in the Executive Health lounge, I waited for the doctor for the next part of the exam. The doctor asked me some standard questions and then gave me a pap smear test as well as an abdominal, chest and breast examination.

I left the doctor and next up was the stress test - i.e. running on the treadmill to measure your heart. The nurse explained the procedure, hooked my up to the electrodes and then took my resting heart rate and pulse. Then it was onto the treadmill. The machine spends three minutes at each level and with each level increase, it gets faster and the incline gets steeper! The aim is to get to at least 85% of your target heart rate (220 - your age) and then continue onto 100% target heartrate if possible. My target heartrate was 187. It took me about 9 minutes to get to 85% and I managed to go 2 minutes longer until I got up to Step 4 and 95% of my target heartrate. By this time I had to hold onto the hand rail as the slope was pretty steep. I had 6 minutes to recover before the test was over. If you ever wondered what your heart looks like when it's working hard - see the photo of the ECG.

This was the last test in the check-up. I took a shower, ate the lunch they provided me and went out to Coffee Bean (which was in the hospital) for a cappuccino and to wait for my results. Before I knew it the nurses came to find me as all of the results were in. I met with the doctor again and she took me through everything. All my tests were in normal ranges. The only thing that came out of the tests was that my good versus bad cholesterol showed an indicator of becoming higher in the future. Although my bad cholesterol was 2.9, well within the recommended 0 - 3.4 range, the doctor said that the international gold star standard to avoid heart disease was less than 1.9. She recommended I take fish oil supplements, oats and muesli daily and also a supplement called Lecithin. She also said I should cut down on red meat and seafood. I was suprised about the seafood as I didn't think this affected cholesterol and I eat quite a bit!

So I walked out of the clinic 4 hours later with a clean bill of health. I drove to Pavilion for my hair appointment and although I was early, I hoped I could get in - but no luck. Instead I went to Parkson and managed to walk in to Benefit for a brow and lip wax! Certainly a way to kill time. I walked out in time for my hair appointment at The Belfry. I changed from my other salon, Andy Ho, because I wasn't happy with the colouring that they do. I met Marc who put highlights through my hair and definitely toned down the yellow colour left behind from the other guy. I walked out with a better head all round :-)

I went up to the next level and went to the gym for a great workout. I pushed myself on the cross-trainer for 45 minutes before getting on some of the weight machines. I ended with some stretching which felt great and I left Pavilion with new hair, eyebrows, lips and hopefully a better body :-)

Before leaving, I went down to Sumo Sushi for a quick bite and pretty much gorged myself as I was so hungry! I went home and caught up on my blog, did some washing and have a feeling it won't be long until I am in bed.

Not much on the agenda today

This morning began with me heading to the gym. On my return, I ran myself a bath and while it was running had breakfast. After satisfying my hunger, I soaked in the bath for quite a while trying to rejuvenate my sore bones while keeping my foot out of the water!

Once dressed (obviously!) I drove over to Pavilion to have lunch, wander around the shops, book into a new hairdresser, buy some movie tickets and do some more food shopping. I also bought myself a new watch at Fossil. I had been looking for a white watch for ages and finally found one I liked.

By the time I had done all that it was 4.30 and I headed home. Ross blew in the door just after 5, quickly got changed and headed to the gym for half an hour. We then headed back to Pavilion to catch a movie - State of Play with Russell Crowe. What a great movie! It had been a long time since we had seen a good crime/ thriller at the cinemas.

We headed home after the movie but on the way we came across the BMW exhibition at the bottom of the mall. The new Z4 convertible is my new car of choice (if I had a choice!!) - see photo. At home we cooked up some fish cakes (Weight Watcher's recipe) to snack on for dinner. They were really good and so simple. I simply chopped up a chilli, some coriander and spring onions. Popped them into the blender with some fish sauce and the fish. blended it until smooth then made them into little patties and cooked them!

Practice makes perfect!

This morning started a little slowly with Ross and I easing into the day by doing a few things around the house. Ross cleaned out his closets and ended up with two garbage bags worth of clothes to give to the cleaning ladies.

After leftover pizza from Friday night for lunch, Ross and I headed out to KDE in Ampang for our golf lesson. Eric divided us in two half hour lessons. While Ross had his lesson, I hit a few balls. Eric gave him a few simple changes to make and he improved instantly! Ross was now hitting all his balls within a 15 degree arc rather than all over the shop.

Next came my turn. I knew that my swing was messed up after the disasterous lesson with Mr Ado during the week - Eric was also surprised I think how bad it got. I was now swinging my hips too much and rolling my wrists - not good. We spent the entire lesson relearning everything - pretty much back to square one! I was so pissed off with myself and Mr Ado. But we'll continue to work on my swing next week and hopefully it will come back pretty quickly.

From golf, we headed to Great Eastern Mall to do some shopping. We had invited Brian around for dinner to try out a couple of recipes from Robert Rainford's seminar yesterday - prawns with love sauce and rotisserie chicken. We bought all the ingredients and headed home for a shower and to get started with the preparations.

First on the agenda was fixing the rotisserie to the BBQ. Ross headed out to BBQ and wouldn't you know it, the bloody rotisserie we bought doesn't fit! It's about 20cm too short! So no rotisserie chicken then. And to top it off, the oven stopped working on Friday (we had to cook our pizzas in Brian's oven!) so we couldn't simply chuck it in to cook.

Luckily we still had the prawns. I marinaded them and made the love sauce by throwing all the ingredients into a blender. Pretty easy! By this time Brian came over. We gave him the head's up about the chicken and he offered to cook it in his oven. So we headed out to the BBQ to cook the prawns. I left the boys to it and within 5 minutes they were back inside - the gas had run out! So much for our BBQ!!!

Brian came to the rescue again and brought over his little weber BBQ for the prawns and also put the chicken on to cook. I got busy making a grapefruit, fetta, avocado and rocket salad while the boys waited for the chacoal to burn down a bit (see photo). The prawns came up a treat and were so good with the love sauce and salad! We were almost full by the end of it.

Brian went over and brought back the cooked chicken which smelt absolutely amazing with basil, lemon zest and garlic stuffed under the skin. We carved it up and ate it off our laps while watching the last quarter of the AFL game. Although we were all pretty full, we managed to polish off over 3/4 of the chicken!

We finished watching the footy and Brian left. Ross and I cleaned up the kitchen before heading to bed. So today was definitely about practice makes perfect - both with golf and BBQing!!

Health and Fitness check:

Since I forgot to do it last week I will add it here:

Last week:

Weight: 72.4kg - looks like I overindulged a bit in Langkawi!!

Exercise:

- 120 minutes on the driving range
- 60 minutes interval training
- 20 minutes cross-training
- 30 minutes weight training
- 1.5 hours kayaking

This week:

Weight: 21.2 kg - back on track!

Exercise: not that much this week because of my foot

- 45 minutes interval training
- 20 minutes walking around KLCC park
- 2 hours on driving range

A day with the King of Grill

This morning we woke up in time to meet Brian downstairs to drive to Bangsar Village II. We grabbed a coffee and walked around for a while before we went upstairs to the seminar room for our workshop with TV chef Robert Rainford.

We arrived reasonably early and got good seats. The audience was primarily made up of Malaysians with very few expat faces. Chef Rainford arrived in time to rescue a chicken that was in flames on the rotisserie! He obviously wasn't too impressed with his assistant chefs.

Despite the shaky start, he showed us three great meals - prawns with love sauce, rotisserie chicken and pulled beef sandwiches. We got to taste all the dishes. My favourite was the prawns with love sauce but the steak sandwich was also hard to beat. He uses a lot of spices in his cooking so it looks like we'll have to stock up!

He was pretty funny during the workshop, cracking jokes and playing to the crowd. After the workshop Chef Rainford stayed to take photos with everyone. He was a really nice guy and we chatted for a few minutes and had our photo taken before leaving the workshop.

We walked up the street and had lunch at Tewali Street Bistro, a great restaurant/ bar. After lunch we went down to BBQ King to buy some new BBQ tools for Ross. We managed to bargain a discount because we went to the workshop. From Bangsar Village II, we drove up the hill to look at the antiques store to show Brian. They had some lovely things, particularly a partners desk that Ross has his eye on!

We drove home and spent a few hours relaxing before meeting Brian downstairs again to walk to Trader's to catch a cab back out to Bangsar for the Robert Rainford dinner. We arrived about 6.30 and found our way to the rooftop. Big marquees had been set up with tables and really nice decorations. We stood on the roof watching the sunset with a Tiger in hand (although I did have to do some sweet talking to get the first beers!).

The dinner was due to start at 7pm. By about 8, it hadn't started and the MC came out to apologize and explain that we were waiting for the VVIP guest - the ex-Prime Minister of Malaysia. In typical style, he was over and hour and a half late so in the end, the served the meal. Robert Rainford finally came out just as everyone was finishing their meal and did a quick demonstration to show us how to cook a beef tenderloin with blue cheese stuffing. It looked really good! Will have to try that one.

It was a nice night despite the time delays. We had a young Malaysian guy named Patrick sitting at our table. He was pretty quiet but a nice guy. Ross, Brian and I stayed around till about 10 and made the most of the free flowing beer before heading up the road to Finnegan's for a quiet last drink. We got home about midnight after a great and different way to spend our Saturday.

A pretty mundane day

I woke up around 9 this morning and organized the house so it was ready for the cleaners to come in this afternoon. I caught up on things online, had a quick shower, then drove to KLCC in time for my check-up with Dr. Guru. He took the dressing off the wound and was quite happy with how the wound is healing. He also said that there is no need to continue with the freezing. I just have to keep the wound clean and not go swimming for a week to allow a scab to form. I am happy that this is over and done with!

I rang Ross on my way out of KLCC and picked him up for lunch. We drove to Great Eastern and had lunch at O'Briens - a good sandwich place. Ross also dropped into the tailor and picked up his pants that he had made and a shirt that he had altered. We picked up a Starbucks and I dropped Ross back at work.

From there I headed out to Mid Valley mall to look for tank tops and a T-shirt for Ross. We are going to make tour T-shirts for our road trip up the WA coast so Elyse, Dee, Ross and I will look like the Wiggles in our brightly coloured matching shirts. I will iron on the logo this weekend.

I drove home in the rain and got in about 3. I spent the afternoon on the bed watching TV with the cats until Ross got home at 6. We made gourmet pizzas for dinner (although we had to ask Brian if we could cook them in his oven as ours stopped working!) and I whipped up a batch of Pina Coladas (see photo) in time to watch the AFL. A lazy Friday night.

We were supposed to have a golf lesson tonight but it has been changed to Sunday. Probably a good thing as it will give my foot an extra couple of days to recover.

Ladies who... morning tea!

This morning I did a few chores around the house before getting ready in time for Rimma to pick me up to go to morning tea at Kiki's place. We stopped to pick up Mihkah and her baby Victoria from her place on Jalan Kia Peng before driving to Kiki's house in Ampang.

Quite a few other ladies were there already when we arrived - some I had met before and some new people. We spent quite a few hours drinking tea, eating great food and chatting. Again, it was really nice to spend time with a group of ladies here in KL.

Rimma picked up her son Luke and brought him back to Kiki's for a while and we stayed on a while longer before Rimma dropped me home. By this time it was about 2pm.

I spent the rest of the afternoon doing a few things around the house and on the computer before Ross came home. We had leftovers for dinner before heading over to KLCC to do a bit of shopping and to browse around. We stopped for a coffee before heading home and by the time I got there, my foot which had the wart removed was really swollen. I lay on the couch for a while with my feet up to let the swelling go down before heading to bed.

Golf and Guru

This morning I woke up with Ross and headed off for golf lessons at Titiwangsa at 8am. I bought myself a bucket of 100 balls, did some warm up stretches and started to hit some balls. I could already tell today was not going to be my day on the driving range!

Rimma arrived about 8.30am and there was still no sign of Mr. Aro our coach. Rimma asked the man behind the desk to call him and find out where he was. Aro finally arrived at 9 - an hour after he was supposed to. This already put in bad mood as I hate waiting for people and wasting my time.

Anyway, we started as usual with him taking one of us and hitting some balls. Today I was having a shocker and really only hit about 10% of the balls correctly. Aro was frustrating me too by telling to change one little thing each time - it was all too much to think about without enough time to practice in between.

Rimma was also frustrated but she was doing better than me. I was watching the way that Aro was teaching Rimma and it was completely different from the way that Eric teaches at KDE. Her arms were bent on her back swing and he was asking her to pull the club back until it was parallel with the ground. With me, he was asking me to 'throw' the club at the practice mat rather than work on a smooth swing. In the end I just hit ball after ball not really listening to him as he was really starting to piss me off.

After our 'lesson' Rimma and I both agreed that he was a real pain today. I know I won't be continuing with him in the future and will just stick with Eric. I think being taught by two different coaches was not a good idea to start with. Now I have to try and remember the way that Eric was getting me to swing last week in time for our lesson on Friday. Ross is going to join me so it should be fun.

So after a bit of a frustrating moring at the driving range, I went home, jumped in for a quick shower and walked to KLCC in time for my appointment with Dr. Guru. On the way to the clinic, I picked up breakfast which I drank and ate while waiting for my appointment. I didn't have to wait too long today, about 15 minutes, before Dr. Guru called me to look at my wart again.

He said that we could continue freezing it but it would take at least another 3 or 4 sessions or he could cut it out today. I thought about it for a bit and despite the inconvenience of having to stop going to the gym or swim for a week, I decided that it is probably best to cut the bloody thing out and get it over and done with.

I went back outside while they prepared the stuff they would need and then was shown back in. Dr. Guru cleaned up the area then sprayed some really cold spray on my foot to take my mind off the pain of the local anaesthetic. Yep, that didn't work too well - it hurt like hell!

Once the anaesthetic kicked in, he used a thermal cutter to cut around the wart to remove it. The first cut he made really hurt as I could still feel the heat but after that it got a bit better although it was a really weird sensation and I wanted to keep pulling my foot away. The smell was awful too! In about 15 minutes he had removed all that he could but said that I would probably still need more cryotherapy to remove the last of it as it was really deep. They bandaged me up and sent me on me way with a bill for 1000 RM. Not bad for 20 minutes work!

Now I have to keep the dressing on until Friday when he will remove it. I am a bit pissed off that I have to slow down on the exercise but I guess one week isn't too much to ask. Actually it will take 1 week for a scab to form and then I will need to be careful after that. I just hope it is all fixed by the time we go to WA in July as I want to be swimming every day :-).

After visiting Dr. Guru, I walked around KLCC for a while. I bought a three tiered tray in preparation for the inevitable ladies morning tea that I will host at some point I'm sure and also did a quick bit of shopping before hobbling back to the apartment. The photo today is of the Taj Mahal... made out of Lego which was on display in KLCC.

At home I had some lunch and spent the after noon on the computer catching up on things and also finally finishing the iTunes library - YIPPEE!! So now I can synchronize my iPod again. I also downloaded some new music to add.

Ross came home about 7 and we had tomato, tuna and olive pasta for dinner. After dinner, I tried to catch up on all the medical claims that I have had over the past few months. I will have to spend more time tomorrow submitting 5 outstanding claims to BUPA to be reimbursed. But the main thing is that they will cover it.

Ross and I both feel into bed about 10pm exhausted.

The departing of Dee

This morning I woke up about 7.30 and Ross had already left for work. I got up and headed straight down to the gym for a quick workout before Dee woke up. I was back up in the apartment about 8.45 after slogging it out on the treadmill for 45 minutes trying to make up for the indulgence over the weekend to find Dee awake and ready to go. I had a quick shower and we headed out.

We walked down the road to the Vietnam embassy to drop off my visa application before continuing on to Delicious cafe at Dua for breakfast. We both got the Eggs Royale, poached eggs on smoked salmon with hashbrowns - yum! And the juice was delicious too!

After breakfast we stopped in at the grocery truck that was downstairs at Stonor to pick up some milk and a couple of other essentials. Dee loved the idea that the groceries came to your door. It really is handy!

We went upstairs and grabbed her gear before heading to the car for my first drive ever to the airport. Now that I am a lady of leisure, I guess I really have no excuse not to drive to the airport - unless the traffic is nuts. With a bit of guidance from the GPS, we made it to the LCC terminal with no problems.

Dee checked her bag in and it took a while despite having done the web check-in the night before. Apparently Air Asia are not organized enough yet to have the bag drop at the international check-in desks yet. We went and grabbed a coffee to kill time before we boarded her plane.

After leaving Dee, I drove out to Damansara to pick up the Robert Raniere tickets from BBQ King at Ikano mall. Robert Raniere is 'the King of Grill' on TV and is doing a workshop and then a dinner here in KL on Saturday. Brian, Ross and I are going to go along to pick up some tips for the BBQ.

While I was at Ikano, I did a bit of food shopping before heading home. I stopped off at the loo and found the sign behind the toilet door quite amusing (see photo). You definitely know you are in Asia! I did find it interesting that the sign was only in English though.

I spent the afternoon trying to catch up on my blog and chatting with Daisy our cleaner. Ross came home about 7 and we cooked salmon and asparagus for dinner and then headed out for a couple of laps around the KLCC park before heading to bed. Looks like life is back to normal... for a while at least.

Leaving Langkawi :-( but Dee arriving :-)

We woke up early this morning (6.30am) to be able to have breakfast and check out in time to get to the airport in time for our 9.30 flight. We were really sad to leave the villa behind as we had had an amazing time and despite only being there for 3 days we really felt like it was a week. We were both completely relaxed and rejuvenated.

Taxi to the airport, an uneventful flight back to KL a long ride on the bus and then the taxi ride home occupied us for the next 5 hours. We got home about 12 and Ross got changed and headed to the office for meetings. I unpacked and organized the house a bit as well as catching up with things online.

Our friend Dee was flying into KL from Melbourne today to spend the night before heading to Bangkok to join an Intrepid tour of Cambodia and Vietnam. I waited to get her text to say that she had landed and was on her way to Sentral Station before walking to KLCC to catch the train to Sentral to meet her.

She got in just before 7 and we braved the peak hour commuter crush to catch the train back to KLCC. We stopped in at Santini's for a beer and to catch up before walking home. Ross met us pretty much as we arrived at the apartment and we had another drink (see photo) and a chat before we all got too hungry and decided to head out for dinner.

We drove over to Pavillion and had dinner at Carlos' Mexican restaurant (accompanied by a margarita of course!). By this time we were all knackered from our travels so we headed home and off to bed. So great that Dee is here!

Langkawi - Day 3

After lazing about for most of yesterday, we were up and at 'em this morning. Again we woke in time for breakfast to be delivered and then we headed straight out to the water sports area to hire kayaks.

Having donned our wide brimmed straw hats (provided in our villa), we jumped in the kayaks and began to paddle out to the next island - perhaps a kilometer away. We crossed the shipping channel with no incidents and there was little wind so it was relatively easy going although it did take a while for the shoulders to warm up.

Once we were over at the island, we paddled around the coast until we came to a small sandy beach where we stopped to stretch our legs - and shoulders! We passed a family that were fishing from the beach - at least that's what I think they were doing. Not sure if they lived on the island but I couldn't see any means of transport that they had. We walked up the beach a bit and came across some monitor lizard tracks. By the looks of things, he was quite a big one with a claw span of maybe 10cm. Shame we didn't actually see the beast though.

Back in the kayaks, we turned the 'corner' of the island and paddled in the open water for a while before coming to another 'corner'. We actually thought that we were already back on the other side but we soon realized that the island was actually shaped like a U. So we paddled into the U-shaped bay where there was another stretch of beach - much bigger and nicer this time - to take another break and go for a swim.

Obviously people had been living on the island at some points as there were remnants of buildings just up from the beach. Someone had even put a plastic desk chair on the sand. It was so peaceful there - nothing but the sound of the lapping waves and birds in the rainforest - gorgeous!

We jumped back in the kayaks again ready for our final stretch home and feeling refreshed. We came out of the U-shaped bay and around the corner again and by this time, the wind had picked up. As we paddled around the coast, we were soon in the shipping lane again and we were definitely finding it tougher going with the wind and waves against us.

As we were paddling, a ferry sailed past and added to the challenge by providing us with plenty of waves from its wake. As we got nearer to the headland, both Ross and I were really digging deep to make headway. Once we rounded the headland though it did get a bit easier although we were still working hard. From the beach, the distance to the island didn't seem very far and we did the trip out pretty quickly and easily. Heading back it seemed to take for ever and the beach at the resort never seemed to be getting any closer. But we eventually made it back in, a bit exhausted but more really energized by the morning trip.

We jumped straight into the splash pool to cool off and not long after the rain started to come down. Luckily we weren't still out on the water as it was really choppy now. After a shower, we decided to take the free shuttle bus to the mall just down from the resort to see what we could have for lunch. We jumped in the van and were dropped off outside the biggest mall in Langkawi - really it was pretty small. We walked around for about 15 minutes before deciding it really wasn't what we thought so we walked down the street to the ferry terminal where we had seen a Starbucks. The terminal also did not provide many healthy eating options (plenty of fast food though) so we drank our Starbucks and jumped in a cab back to the resort.

We were starving by this time so we ordered a quick bite and again started to watch a movie but fell asleep. Just like yesterday, we woke up in time for happy hour so we headed up via golf buggy to the bar for another free martini - pineappletinis this time. We stayed for another drink (I had a melontini and Ross had a Flirtini) and by this time it was 7.30 and we headed down for our secluded, romantic dinner on the beach.

Our waiter was there waiting for us and we ordered a bottle of white wine we sipped as the sun went down. Despite a bit of a shaky start (the pre-appetizer a little red octopus each!), the rest of the meal was fantastic. We both had fish for the main course and it was just beautiful. We were so stuffed after appetizer, soup, sorbet and mains that by the time dessert came around we could hardly fit it in... but we tried! Ross had white chocolate cheesecake and I had the chocolate indulgence. Despite how good it was we simply could not finish it.

We were completely stuffed (and a bit sweaty!) by the time we finished the meal but it was a beautiful setting and we really enjoyed it. We had to stay up for a while just to let all the food digest!

Day 2 in Langkawi

This morning we woke up in time for breakfast to be delivered to the villa. After breakfast we relaxed in the villa and lounged around outside in and out of the splash pool. Finally we headed to the main pool for a while before getting hungry again and heading back to the villa for room service lunch. Just as we stepped inside it started to rain so we were glad to get at least some sun. After lunch, we tried to watch a movie but both fell asleep before the end.

We woke up a couple of hours later and remembered that happy hour started at 5.30. We showered, dressed and rang for the golf cart to take us up to the lobby (we didn't want to get all sweaty on the walk up there :-)). At the bar, we enjoyed our complimentary cocktail and canapes before we headed down to the restaurant by the pool for a light dinner before our spa appointment.

We shared a great beef Caesar salad and some duck rice paper rolls then walked down the beach to the 'Heavenly Spa' for our ‘Mahsuri & Darus Romance’ treatment. The treatment was in one of the rooms at the Heavenly Spa Villa - a private beachfront property specially reserved for couples. The website describes the treatment better than I ever could:

"The treatment honors the legend of the love affair between Mahsuri a beautiful maiden and Darus, warrior and the son of the headman of the village and Chief of Langkawi. The three-hour experience includes a vigorous soap scrub that is given upon a stunning outdoor heated marble plinth inspired by the Turkish Hammam tradition. Included are sensual soaks made with fragrant flowers of Water Lily and Hibiscus and the Mahsuri Massage that is a strong yet soothing warrior style massage that comprises of traditional martial arts techniques."

So three hours later (and at 10.30pm) , Ross and I floated out of the spa and wandered back up to the bar for a night cap. Ross ordered a chocolate martini while I had a Capriyanha cocktail and we watched the entertainment (three female singers with a bloke playing a synthesizer - they were pretty good!) for an hour or so before we got too tired and went to bed. What a relaxing day!!

Off to Langkawi

This morning Ross and I were up early to start our journey to Langkawi. We left the house by 7 and wheeled our suitcase down the road to the Traders Hotel to catch a taxi to Sentral Station. At the train station, we boarded the Skybus to go to the airport. The flight was pretty painless and uneventful and in an hour we landed in Langkawi.

A short taxi ride from the airport and we arrived at the Westin Resort and Spa. It felt hotter and was definitely sunnier than KL. While we waited for the paperwork to be completed, we went to the bar for a drink - a good start to the holiday! The view from the bar was amazing (see photo). The front desk staff brought over our rooms keys and we jumped on the golf cart to take us to our villa.

The villa was stunning! Lounge/ dining room, small kitchenette, king-sized bedroom, massive bathroom and dressing area. Outside was a 4ft deep splash pool - also a desent length - two sunloungers with an enormous umbrella and a gazebo with a day bed. The view looked directly out to the beach, ocean and islands. We were gob-smacked!

We ordered some lunch and spent the afternoon in the splash pool. We moved to the main pool and whiled away the afternoon with a cocktail or two while looking out at the ocean watching the boats go back and forth through the islands.

By about 5 o'clock, we were well and truly pruned so we left the pool and headed back to the villa, walking along the beach. We spent the evening drinking white wine in the gazebo, ordering an amazing Indian pizza (with banana, tandoori chicken, mango chutney) and lazing in and out of the splash pool. We fell into bed exhausted but so happy to be in paradise!

Two things to occupy my day

Ross stumbled home last night just before midnight drunk as a skunk so by the time I got to bed around one he had completely star-fished on the bed and was snoring his head off. So I went to sleep in the other room and didn't get much!

Needless to say this morning, after I forced Ross to get up, I went back to sleep until 9 before having to get up for my golf lesson. I drove to KDE where I met up with my instructor, Eric. He told me that we also had another lady joining us today, one of the girls from Sonja's original golf lesson group. Eric also implied that he found this woman a bit annoying!

So we went to the driving range where I met Gillian who was Sth African and Barbara who was Dutch (and the one that Eric had mentioned). Sure enough the Dutch lady was a bit of a pain talking about her new clubs and spouting off her husband's advice all the time. Considering how she talked, she wasn't that good. Gillian seemed nice but I didn't really get to chat with her much.

My swing was a bit messed up from my lessons with Mr. Edo at Titiwangsa. We spent most of the lesson focusing on keeping my body weight grounded and loosening up my arms. As usual, after watching myself on video, listening to Eric's advice and practicing it all came back and at the end I was coonsistently hitting straight and efficiently again even though I was only using half a back swing. I don't think I will continue with Mr. Edo as I think I will just keep getting confused. Will have to break the news to Rimma and Letty. I think I will just meet them to practice.

At the beginning of the lesson, I looked into the water and saw an iguana swimming around despite the hail of golf balls! Eric said that this was the only baby iguana to survive and not been eaten by its mother (who is apparently huge!). The iguana was swimming around for ages and managed to avoid getting hit.

At the end of the lesson, Eric told the other ladies that they would be by themselves next week as I will be doing lessons with Ross. I scheduled a time for Ross and I to have a lesson together next Friday - looking forward to it!

I finished up at KDE around 11.30 and drove home, took a shower and spent some time with Ross who came home for lunch as I haven't seen him much over the past few days. After a quick lunch he walked back to work and I drove over to Pavillion so that I could walk over to Starhill Gallery and go to Kanebo for a massage and facial (still from the package that Ross bought mee for Xmas!).

I was in desperate need for a massage as my body was really sore. I had the same massuese as last time and by the time she finished with me I felt I had been run over with a steam roller - but I definitely felt better! Half asleep, I donned my robe and walked to the other treatment room for my facial. The lady today was really quiet, very gentle and thorough. I actually fell asleep during the facial massage - first time ever. I woke myself up with a snort!

By about 5.40, it was all over and I floated out of the spa feeling great. The photo is of the foyer of Starhill Gallery. I walked back over to Pavillion to pick up some bread before braving the traffic to drive home. It took me 20 minutes to drive 800m!! The traffic is nuts at the moment with kids on holidays and peak hour.

I got home about 7, went straight to the fidge and heated up some broccoli soup that I made last night. I ate it in front of the TV with a couple of slices of the yummy bread I just bought. After dinner I got on with the packing for our trip to Langkawi and also organized the cats stuff and the spare room for when Dee arrives on Monday to visit.

Ross got home just before 9 having been out for work again to some big-wigs "Shrimp boil" at one of the fancy hotels. This time he was sober :-) We caught up on the past few days and fell into bed ready to get up early for our trip tomorrow - very excited!!

And I was worried about quitting work!

Today was a wonderful day. It started early as usual on a Wednesday with me picking up Julia for FRIM. Sonja is back in the States so it was just Julia and I today. We walked up the usual direction and kept a really good pace with only 3 short stops on the way up. At our second stop, we came across a family of monkeys enjoying the cool morning grazing in the trees. It was really nice to see as usually you only see monkeys scavenging near humans. These guys were definitely in their own habitat doing what monkeys do.

We arrived at the waterfall and instead of taking the long leisurely path back to the car, Julia took me down the steep rocky path that takes you to the picnic ground. The path follows the creek and the water pipe so although it is barely more than a track, it was pretty hard to get lost. At the end of this path, we came across another family of monkeys, this time hanging out because humans obviously feed them in the mornings.

FRIM is becoming much easier and Julia and I agree that we need to start doing the uphill/downhill path twice. I'm completely by myself next week so we'll see how I go!

We drove back to Julia's place and while she had a shower and changed, I played with their dog Sheila (well, she played and I got mauled). We then drove back to Stonor Park so I could have a shower before we headed to Rimma's place for morning tea.

We arrived at Dua and finally found the way to Rimma's apartment. She had been busy cooking and had made two cakes (choc and banana), choc chip cookies and choc/caramel slice. Her friend Kiki made some Indonesian fried noodles while another lady, Mikhah, from Vietnam bought spring rolls. The food was delicious and it was really nice chatting with a new bunch of girls. I knew Rimma, Kiki, and Letty previously (Rimma, Letty and I do golf lessons together) but I met some other new ladies who seem like great people also. The photo is obviously of all the ladies. On my right is Julia then Letty. On my left is Mikhah, Kiki, Diane and Ciska. Rimma is up the back behind the couch and the lady in yellow I can't remember her name!

I spent some time chatting with Mikhah (who was about 4' 10"!) about her life in Vietnam and how her culture really impacted who and when she should marry - it was really interesting. Coincidentally, all of the ladies were Asian (Indonesian, Malaysian or Vietnamese) married to Western men who all work in the oilfield!

I left Rimma's place about 12.30 and dropped the car off at home before walking over to Pavillion for a manicure/ pedicure. By the time I finished that and walked home again it was about 4.30.

Today was a lovely day spent with great people. I cannot believe how much I am enjoying not working! Ross was out with work colleagues tonight so I cooked myself some broccoli and potato soup and finished working on the iTunes library - hooray!

To the gym... again

I woke up late this morning after a wonderful 11 hour sleep! Ross was up and out before the sun even rose so I took advantage of the peace and quiet. When I finally did wake up, I had some breakfast and then headed to Pavillion to go to the gym. It had been a week since I went and worked out on the machines. After 25 minutes on the elliptical trainer, I hit the weight machines for another 30 minutes.

I went to shower and realised that I had forgot a towel so I had to dry myself with my tracksuit pants - not cool at all! Also not that absorbent as they are 'climacool' and designed to repel sweat! Anyway, I made do with my makeshift towel, got changed and went to Dome for lunch were I caught up on my blog and did a few other things online.

From Pavillion, I drove to Great Eastern mall to run a few errands and do some shopping. By the time I had finished there it was already 5 - amazing how time flies! Ross came home about 6 to find me in much better shape than yesterday. I cooked prawn and asparagus pasta in a cream sauce and we sat on the balcony to eat and catch up on the day over a glass of wine - a nice evening!

As we sat outside, the sky turned this amazing shade of pink behind the towers. I know the photo looks surreal but this was the true colour. I never get sick of looking at those things!

Doctors and dentists

This morning started with a golf lesson at Titiwangsa. Letty walked from her condo next door at Park 7 to Stonor and I picked her up to go to the driving range.

We arrived a bit before our lesson was due to start at 8am. We bought a bucket of balls and I had a bit of a hit before the instructor arrived.

We did some warm-ups before practicing our swings again. I was starting to get the hang of the full swing now. We took it in turns to hit about 15 balls each. Rimma was doing really well and although she didn't hit the balls too far, they were always dead straight. I was hitting pretty far (around 100m) and mostly straight with a few errant balls every now and then. Letty was a little more inconsistent but was definitely getting the hang of it by the end.

After hitting 200 balls between us, I was completely exhausted! I think that hitting balls on driving range yesterday was perhaps not the best idea as my body was already sore. Last week, I bought a glove so my hands wouldn't get so sore but because I have "man hands", I could not find a glove to fit my right hand and so ended up with a burst blister on my thumb after just a few swings. Who knew golf could be so painful! :-)

At the end of the lesson, I dropped Letty back and had a quick shower before driving to KLCC - I was too exhausted to walk! I had my second appointment with the dermatologist to get rid of this wart on my foot. He cut away the dead skin from the freezing last week and froze it some more. He didn't seem too confident that it would clear up by freezing alone so it looks like he may have to cut it out next week if there is not much improvement. I'm not looking forward to that as it is really deep and I don't really want to have to stay off my foot for any length of time. Anyway I guess we'll see how it goes.

I had to wait an hour before getting in to see Dr. Guru (love the name) and by the time I hobbled out of his office it was already 1pm - the time I was supposed to be at the dentist at Mont Kiara. Of course, I had left my phone at home so I couldn't even call them to tell them I would be late so I arrived half an hour late to find Dr. Sharifa in the front office waiting for me.

She didn't seem too fussed that I was late and we chatted about my foot for a while. Some how we got talking about the gym and she said that the latest research shows that you shouldn't drink sports drinks straight after exercise because you have only a small amount of saliva to protect your teeth from the acid in the drinks. She said to wait 30 minutes before having one. I don't like sports drinks anyway but I thought that was interesting to know. She said that the sports drinks have been linked to increases in tooth decay.

Anyway, after our chit-chat, we got down to business. I had been having terrible pain on the bottom left side of my jaw and it was realy sensitive to hot and cold. I thought I must have a cavity. Dr. Sharifa took a look and showed me with the mini video camera that I actually had a split in one of my molars and that was why it was so sensitive. It was in a tooth that was already filled when I was a kid so she said that she would remove the amalgam filling and replace it was a tooth coloured filling and fill the crack also.

She gave me the dreaded local anaesthetic injections and while she waited for my mouth to go numb she gave me a scale and polish. By the time she had finished, I was drooling so I assumed the anaesthetic had kicked in! Out came the drill and away went the amalgam. She used a clamp to pull my tooth together so she could fill the crack properly. She set the filling with UV light and after some filing, I was done. All in all it took about an hour. I walked out feeling like half my head was made out of marshmallows.

By the time I got home it was 3pm. I was completely exhausted and hungry but the numbness made eating a bit of a challenge. Let's just say that my crumpets with vegemite ended up mainly on the side of my face - not a good look.

I was so exhausted that I fell asleep on the couch and just woke up as Ross came home around 6. I was feeling a bit sorry for myself with a sore tooth, foot, thumb, finger and lip so Ross made me chilli con carne and then ran me a bath. The anaesthic had completely worn off by then and I had a massive headache which I also nursed with laying in the bath.

I was in bed by 8.30pm... exhausted!

Today's photo is of the lilies that I bought from Chinatown now starting to open up.

A fairly active Sunday

This morning Ross and I woke up and headed straight out to the driving range in Ampang to hit some balls. We both had a lot of fun doing this together. I think we will make this a regular weekend activity. 12 ringgit for 100 balls and you can just show up to the driving range - bargain! I also had a go at a few of the other clubs. The irons were fine but the fairway wood was a completely different feel and although I could hit the ball, it didn't go very straight.

We did have to laugh as some little bloke donned a motorcycle helmet, jumped in a dinghy and headed out on the lake with a net to collect the balls as around 50 people continue to hit them at him! Another classic was his mate who was on the island in between the two lakes holding an umbrella in one hand and a net to scoop up the balls in another. Safety First!

We'd worked up an appetite by this time so we drove to Delicious at Dua for breakfast. I had waffles with baked bananas and Ross had a crab omelette - yum! We drove home and surprisingly we both forced ourselves to go to the gym for about an hour. It was a good workout and I'm glad we went because otherwise we wouldn't have gone all day.

After the gym, we went back upstairs, changed into our togs, grabbed our pool lounges and headed back downstairs to the pool. We floated about for an hour or so - lovely! Back upstairs and after a shower, we spent the afternoon doing things around the house. Ross finally cleaned the BBQ which was disgusting and I continued on the iTunes library - yep, still not finished.

By about 5 o'clock we were pretty hungry having had no lunch so we had an early dinner of Weight watchers Korma (curry) with the leftover chicken from last night. It was pretty good but obviously nowhere near as tasty as the real thing with all the ghee and oil!

Ross wanted to pick up a couple of things from the shops so we drove to Pavillion. After a stop at the bookstore, we grabbed a coffee and wandered around the sports stores. I desperately needed a new pair of trainers to give my feet more support so I ended up buying a pair of Asiics - they a brilliant! We actually found a helpful sales assistant who measured my feet and looked at my arches to recommend the right shoes. I'll let you know how they go.

It was also the last day of their sale so I picked up another pair of workout shorts, a gym top and some socks for 40% off - bargain. Pity the shoes weren't discounted although Ross did try and get one.

All in all a really good Sunday. I think we will both tumble into bed tonight.

The photo is of Black and Blue being bookends on the bar. We came home from golf to find them like this - too funny.

Health and Fitness Check:

Weight: 71.6kg - obviously have hit a plateau :-(

Exercise:
- Driving range: 60 + 30 + 45 mins
- Walking (including FRIM): 40 + 70 + 35 mins
- Elliptical trainer: 20 mins
- Weight machines: 20 mins
- Netball: 60 mins

*Milestone: lost 5cm on my waist, lost 5.5cm on my chest, lost 2cm on my thighs, lost 2cm on my arms in 7 weeks and dropped one dress size! (But put 1cm on my hips - go figure?!)

Dragonboats

We had a slow start to the day this morning after the relatively late night last night. Ross cooked bacon and eggs for brunch about 11am. I remembered that the Dragon Boat festival was on in Putrajaya so we showered and took to the road.

We had never been to Putrajaya before so we entrusted the GPS to get us there. Stupid machine wasn't working properly so we had to rely on our memories and the highway signs but we found it city pretty easily. Putrajaya is a "planned" city a bit like Canberra with a lot of government ministries etc. It is a unique city in its architecture as well. However, today, there weren't many people around - don't know if this is the norm or not.

We drove around for a while trying to find the dragon boats and luckily we heard an advert on the radio telling us which precinct it was in. After that it was pretty easy to find. We parked the car and walked down the the huge man-made lake system where the races were being held. We worked out that we had missed most of the races as they had happened in the morning but we had about 45 minutes to wait until the last three races of the day.

We wandered about the stalls and across the other side of the lake where there was a newly opened resort called Pullmans. It seemed empty but looked beautiful. While we were walking along the promenade, a little ferry pulled up to dock and we realized that this was the scenic lake tour boat. Something we need to try next time. We also saw that there was a bike path that ran throughout Putrajaya. It would be great to bring the bikes down, ride for a while and have a picnic by the lake.

We walked back to the grandstand and took our seats for the final races. They were all pretty close and actually quite interesting to watch. I was amazed how fit these guys and girls were! They certainly made it look easy however I am sure that it is not!

After the races we left Putrajaya and drove to 1 Utama to buy snorkels and fins for our trip to Langkawi next weekend. We had some lunch first at a groovy sushi place called... Sushi Groove :-) Excellent sushi! We picked up a Starbucks and wandered amongst the throngs of people trying to find the scuba shop that we remembered seeing.

We found it and bought some decent masks, snorkels and fins. While we were looking for the scuba store, we came across a home improvements shop where we found a great shower head - almost like a rain shower I guess. So we bought it! On the way out, we did a hit and run at Cold Storage to pick up some essentials. By the time we left 1 Utama it was already 7pm - incredible!

We were home by 7.30, installed the new shower head to enjoy a shower, made a chicken salad for dinner and vegged in front of the Saturday Night footy match - Brisbane vs Carlton.

Spending the day with friends

Today started with netball in the morning. I went to Julia's place to pick her up and had a coffee first with her and Phil (it was a holiday today). Julia and I drove to netball and played for an hour - my god it was hot! I played one quarter as center and it almost killed me!

As usual we went to Fogel's for breakfast afterwards with a few of the netball girls. They really are such a nice bunch of girls! Julia and I left them and headed back to her place to shower and change. We had another coffee with Phil before leaving to drive to Chinatown.

Julia took me to Jenny's bag shop - a high-class knock off place where the bags are made from leather rather than PVC that you find in Chinatown. It was obviously a popular place to shop as it was full of expats buying bags and wallets to take back home for summer. I was suprised by home many French women were there - I didn't think they would go in for the fakes! The bags aren't cheap but they are really good quality. I found a couple that I liked but she was so busy we couldn't be bothered waiting so we left. But at least now I know where the shop is.

From there we headed into Petaling Street. Julia was looking for a gift for her friends daughter and I was looking for a couple of polo shirts for Ross. We found what we were looking for and wandered around a bit longer before going to Peter Ho's with the intention of having a look around and something to drink. On our way to Peter Ho's we came across a small fruit and veg stall selling fresh lychees - as you can see from the photo, Julia was pretty excited to find them :-)

Peter Ho's was packed also. I guess being Friday people have a longer lunch break and because it is almost summer, everyone is out to buy gifts to take home. We couldn't get a seat for a drink so we just wandered about the shop. I spotted some lovely lamps that I think I will take Ross back to have a look at. I also bought a pair of unusual silver earrings. They are very chunky but I really like them.

On the way bacck to the car, we stopped at the florist and I picked up a couple of bunches of tiger lilies that were mostly in bud so hopefully they will open up over the next week or so.

I drove Julia home and headed back to Stonor. I relaxed on the bed for an hour or two before Ross came home from work and joined me. Sonja called and said they would like to meet up and go out for dinner and some drinks. They came over about 6.30 and we had a margarita before walking over to Jalan Raja Chulan for dinner.

We ate at the Argentinian steak house. The food was pretty good as was the service. But I do think the steaks we bought from the dodgy Chinese butcher were just as good if not better. We had a couple more drinks there before walking to the Trader's hotel for a cocktail. As the boys were in shorts and thongs, we sat upstairs which was actually a better view than by the pool anyway and quieter. Sonja had a Lychee Rose, a vodka martini with lychee, rose water and vodka - very nice and one that we will try and replicate at our bar. I had a Selangor Sling - a variation on the Singapore Sling. And I can't remeember the name of Brian's drink but it was something Negro?? Ross had a Long Island Ice Tea.

We walked back to Stonor and had a final night cap at our place while watching the Broncos game. Sonja and Brian left about midnight and we fell into bed after a great night with good friends. Sonja and the kids leave on Sunday night for 6 and a half weeks - I will miss her company!

Another golf lesson

This morning I woke up in time to get ready and drive to Titiwangsa golf course to meet Rimma and Leti for a golf lesson. This was the first lesson for them and I thought I would go along too as more practice can't be a bad thing!

Luckily I remembered to throw Ross' 7 iron in the car because unlike the other lessons I have been taking, this time you had to bring your own clubs. Our coach, Ado, was a Malaysian guy who is a member of the Malaysian PGA. We started by stretching with our clubs to warm up - probably a really good thing to do! We then stood at our individual positions as he took us through our grip and the swing.

I was a little worried that this coach would tell me different things from what Eric was teaching me and that this would confuse me but instead, this coach was happy with my grip and my swing. I had only been doing 3/4 swings with Eric and Ado was helping do a full swing. We practiced without hitting any balls for ages then he took us one by one to hit about 15 balls at a time.

Like my last lesson, I kept tending to hit the balls to the right. Ado showed me that by rotating the club slightly to the left that I would be able to hit the balls straighter. It worked most of the time. It was also nice to feel what a full swing feels like.

The other girls did pretty well too and enjoyed their first lesson. I really liked it because it gave me more practice.

From there I drove home, got changed and walked to KLCC. I went to Isetan to find a golf glove. The women's gloves were way too small so I ended up buying a men's glove. They were having a sale so I also picked up two golf polo shirts - the quick dry type that you need here in KL! I also looked at the golf shoes and found a pair in my size that didn't look too dodgy - they actually look like gym trainers. So I guess I am really into golf at the moment!

Ross rang just before lunchtime and I walked from KLCC to his office to meet him. We walked to Delicious cafe at the Dua Complex. This is a really nice cafe (the one where I had afternoon tea with Sonja earlier in the week).

After lunch, Ross went back to work and I walked home. I was pretty tired again so I crawled into bed to watch some TV and ended up sleeping for two hours - what a nice nap!

Ross came home from work about 6 and we drove out to Great Eastern to get all his new shirts and trousers from Singapore altered. He is also getting a pair of light tan suit pants made for work.

We went downstairs and had dinner at Alexis which was really nice too. After dinner we moved outside and shared a slice of Banoffee Pie with our coffee - heaven! The photo is a bit of a shaky shot taken of the Petronus Towers on our drive back home.

A good day.

No snakes today

FRIM this morning went well. Julia, Sonja and I walked it the other way - man it was steep! I didn't realise how easy we had been doing it until now! Anyway, we survived the walk with no incidents - no snakes today.

We went for breakfast at a cafe called Marmalade in Plaza Mont Kiara. I had the museli parfait which was sensational! The other girls meals looked great too - eggs benedict and wholemeal pancakes. After breakfast we popped by Elleke's house as she and a couple of other girls were selling some of their wares - jewellery, Thai cutlery, sarongs, other bits and pieces. Sonja bought a couple of things. We only stayed for a short time before leaving to drop Julia off for home.

Sonja ad I drove back to Stonor. We both went to our apartments to change into our swim suits and then met downstairs to float about in the pool making the most of the sunny days we have been having lately.

Ross came home dead on 5.30pm to watch the first State of Origin match (as you can see by the photo). We made steak and onion wraps and watched the game. Obviously he was pretty pleased by the results!

We had a pretty early night as we were both exhausted!

Embassies and plans

This morning I woke a little earlier than yesterday even though I had real trouble sleeping last night. I showered, had breakfast and then started my walk to the Aus Consulate to have Ross' Change of Name Certificate attested.

It was the first time I had been to the High Commission and it was nice to hear some true Aussie accents! I arrived just as they opened so the whole thing was over and done with in about 20 minutes.

From there, I walked back over to KLCC, picked up a couple of coffees. The photo is looking down at the bottom of KLCC where a Lego exhibition is set up. You can see a lego model of the Petronus Towers in the photo. We'll have to go take a look soon.

From there, I headed to Ross' office. I sat with him while we had our coffees and then I was off again, this time to the Vietnam Embassy. The embassy is just around the corner from the apartment.

I picked up the visa form and walked home. I had worn my pedometer today and was suprised to see that I had walked 5km without even noticing. I spent the rest of the afternoon finalizing plans for our trip to WA and also my trip to Hanoi. I made some real progress and now almost all the arrangements are done.

Ross came home and we both headed to the gym for a good workout. We made some pasta for dinner and now are just relaxing on the couch watching the news and just feel sick thinking about the Air France 447 flight that is still lost.

Golf lesson 2

This morning I woke up really late - 9.45am! But just in time to shower and walk over to KLCC to go to the medical center to have the thing on my foot looked at. Yep, exciting stuff! I had been to the GP before and he told me it was as corn but the dermatologist told me that it was a Verruca (wart) - gross! He froze it but I need to go back next week to freeze it again.

After the doctor, I went to Dome for breakfast and to catch up on my blog from the time in Singapore. This took me a couple of hours and before I knew it, it was 1pm. I walked home, did a few chores and then drove out to Ampang for my second golf lesson.

I met Sonja on the driving range and my coach Eric let us warm up by ourselves. Today, I didn't feel as good as I did last week. I was hitting them but not well. He videoed my swing and I could see that it looked all 'floppy' compared to what I was doing last week. He took me through my backswing again and after that I was away. I spent the rest of the hour trying to consistently hit the ball. I think by the end I was sending the balls in the same place about 80% of the time. It's amazing, when you feel it, it becomes easier to replicate it time and again.

After our lesson, Sonja and I went to Delicious for afternoon tea. It was fantastic! Sandwiches, biscuits, scones, strawberries with chocolate dipping sauce and your choice of any cake from the display (we had lemon meringue pie) with a pot of tea. We caught up on the last few days for a couple of hours before heading home.

Ross was home when I got there and headed down to the gym. We didn't do too much in the evening.