Poker-keno day

I went walking with Sonja at Lake Titiwangsa this morning. It was such a nice morning and it is a beautiful spot. We had a quick breakfast at Dome before I had to head home to do a hot turn in 20 minutes to walk out the door again to go to the chiropractor.

Today, Nick managed to crack my back really well and it felt much better. 15 minutes later I walked out and drove to Julia's place and pulled up at the same time she did. She raced in the door, got changed after her morning at Riding for the Disabled and we pretty much walked out the door again.

We drove out to Alison's place (a girl from netball) for a Poker-keno morning. We had breakfast and two glasses of champagne and orange before starting to play. We split into 3 groups of 9 with each person having a game card. The game is pretty much like bingo using playing cards - not exactly rocket science! They played it a little differently from what I was used to - basically the first one who got a line of cards won the round.

Alison had arranged 9 prizes per group. For the first round, whoever won got to pick a prize. On the second round, you got to steal everyone else's prizes if you won. I ended up with a metal Christmas wreath - not bad but definitely not worth the 150 ringgit it cost to play! The champagne was nice though.

We finished up about 1 and drove back to Julia's place. From there I headed back out to the Curve to exchange Ross' golf shirts then I drove straight home. I spent the afternoon doing nothing much before Ross got home just after 5.

We walked over to Pavilion and had dinner at Tony Roma's. I was craving a burger so we both had these massive burgers! Yum!!

We walked home and did some packing for our trip down to Singapore tomorrow before heading to bed.

Discovering something new in KL

This morning started with me heading to the chiropractor for my usual appointment. I drove back into town after Nick cracked my back and walked over to KLCC to take a whole bunch of clothes to the tailor to have altered. A few things I had been meaning to take for ages and also a lot of things that are now too big. This was a nice feeling! I cannot believe how many of my clothes are now too loose or baggy. It really surprises me that I have lost so much weight that it has really affected my clothes. The down side to all this is that I no longer have boobs :-( and all my skin is flabby!

From the tailor, I walked over to Delicious to meet up with Julia where we had some lunch. After lunch we set off on our adventure. We walked to the Raja Chulan monorail station and took the monorail to Chow Kit. From there we stumbled around until we found the road that we wanted. We walked for ages in the rain, second guessing ourselves so we called into Starbucks for a coffee and asked them where we were. After finding out we were on the right road, we continued on.

We were trying to find fabric stores in Little India. We finally found them! We first had a look in a fabric department store - some beautiful fabrics and pretty reasonable prices. We walked on and looked in a few more stores and also a couple of stores that sold ribbons/ buttons etc. We were pretty exhausted by this stage and it was also time for Phil to pick up Julia so we walked back to the main intersection with Jalan Sultan Ismail and waited for Phil.

I walked back to another monorail station - Medan Tuanku - and got off at Bukit Bintang. I walked to Pavilion and had a very early dinner at YO! Sushi. I was exhausted from a day of walking in the heat but I managed to walk home where I promptly had a shower, put on my PJs and laid on the couch watching TV. It was 5.30! I fell asleep and woke up to the sound of my own snoring.

Once I woke up, I just watched TV for the rest of the night before heading to bed. But just as I was about to go to bed about 11, I saw that the cats had left me a big steaming present on the end of the bed! The cleaners had left the shower door closed where the cats litter trays are. So obviously they couldn't do their business! I cleaned up the mess but the smell was so bad that I had to sleep in the other room! Not a great end but otherwise an interesting day.

Today's photo is of Julia waiting for the monorail - the first time she has caught public transport in Malaysia!

A good start to the weekend

This morning I woke up in time to go to the chiropractor. Nick adjusted my back and neck and they were much better than earlier in the week. From the chiropractor, I drove out to Ikano.

First stop was breakfast at Dome and then I walked over to the Curve and spent quite a while looking in the shops. I bought Ross a couple of shirts and a pair of shorts for golf. From there, I had a look in a few more stores including Tribeca - a Malaysian boutique that brings together a lot of Malaysian designers. They were having a moving out sale and I managed to snaggle a couple of maxi dresses for super cheap.

I also bought a polo shirt from Nike Women that was also on sale. I had a look in a little cookware store and ended up buying some loose leaf teas - apricot and gorgeous geisha. Next, I wandered around the market stalls that were set up in the walkway downstairs. I spent some time browsing a stall that sold wall stickers for your home. They had some pretty cool ideas and I started thinking about some ideas for our place. Maybe one day when the holes in the ceiling have been fixed and painted I will be able to do something new!

From the Curve, I walked back to Ikano and had a look in some stores there. I spent ages in the MPH bookstore and walked out with no books but a label maker, some laminating pouches, some cards, and a few other bits and pieces. I ducked into ACE Hardware and picked up some more containers for my beads before deciding to call it quits and head home. I had planned to look in IKEA but I just couldn't face it!

Back at home, I spent the afternoon organizing my beads in the new containers and playing with me label maker - yep, a big Saturday night! I text Sonja to see if she and Brian wanted to catch up for dinner and so we met up and drove to Pavilion where we had dinner at Al Amar - a great Lebanese restaurant! We sat outside on the balcony and when the rain came they pulled the shutters down - but my feet were still soaked.

We headed home about 9. I messed around with my beading stuff before heading to bed.

Today's photo is of one of the models in the Pavilion for Malaysian Fashion Week. Sonja, Brian and I thought that Ross would look good in the outfit :-)

More beads (as if I don't have enough!)

This morning I slept in until 8.20 and then started my day by going to the chiropractor. I was still sore from earlier in the week and when Nick did the adjustment on my back it cracked like you wouldn't believe! I walked out feeling better.

From there, I drove to Chinatown and parked at the Central Market. I headed back to the store that sold semi-precious stones and bought some more beads including some amethyst, obsidian, pearls and all sorts of types of top drilled beads (shaped like tear drops). After blowing some cash there, I headed to the next beading store and picked up a variety of wire and tiger tail. Finally I went to my usual store and bought a whole lot of findings including charms, memory wire and more Chinese crystals to match with the existing colours I have.

I walked back past the florist street and picked up some orange lilies. I dumped all my stuff in the car and then went into the Central Market for lunch. As you can see from the photo, I had top hats - yum!

I drove home and spent the afternoon again on the bed with the cats. In the evening I made myself a goat's cheese salad and watched a lot of bad TV before heading to bed.

Chiro and golf

This morning I went to the chiropractor. I saw Dr. Tammy today instead of Dr. Nick. I had been walking already this morning with Sonja and when we sat down to have breakfast, my back started to hurt. I told Dr. Tammy and she focused on the small muscles at the top of my glutes. She applied pressure to them as I slowly moved my leg left to right from the knee. It hurt a lot but I gradually began to feel the muscles relax. She said that if those muscles get tight, it can cause pain across the lower part of my back.

She did some adjustments and also found a spot on my neck that was incredibly sore. She asked me if I had been doing any overhead weights like tricep pull-downs and I told her that I had just started doing weights again this week. She said that I needed to be careful with the amount of weight I was lifting as I could easily hurt my neck. She said it is quite common in people with long necks. It can also cause the pain in the eye socket that I sometimes feel. She also had some electrotherapy on my back.

After the chiro, I headed to Solaris to buy some stuff at Cold Storage. Julia rang and said that she would come meet me for lunch. I ducked into a reflexology place for an hour foot massage and then went to Provodore to meet up with Julia. We had lunch and then she headed off while I went to do my shopping.

Back at home, I spent the rest of the afternoon organizing my new beads into containers and also working out what other things I need to buy. Ross came home just after 5 and we headed out to the driving range to do some practice. I was a bit sore from the chiro so I only hit half a bag while Ross got through his.

We drove back into town and had dinner at Delicious before heading home and pretty much straight into bed.

Today's photo is of my birthday dress. You couldn't see it too well in the other photos so I thought I would take one of it. I love it!

Netball night out

This morning, I headed over to Pavillion to go to the gym. I hadn't been there for a few months! I worked out on the cross trainer for 30 minutes before moving to some of the weight machines - chest, shoulders and back. I did about half an hour of weights before spending another 20 minutes stretching. It felt really good!

Back at home I had a shower in time for Annie our landlord to come with her workmen to look at the leak in the dining room ceiling. Ross came home to be there too and they cut a hole and saw that water was leaking from the bathroom above. So they are going to fix that then patch all the holes and paint the entire apartment.

I dropped Ross and work and then headed to the chiropractor. Nick did the usual adjustment and I was out pretty quickly. I had a little bit of time to kill before going to my hair appointment so I popped around to see Julia.

I drove back to Pavillion and parked the car before walking up to Lot 10 in time for my appointment at Tony and Guy. I had booked the artistic director, Gary, as I have finally worked out you get what you pay for with hair dressers. He was really good, listened to what I wanted and did a great cut and colour. I walked out with a fresh lease on life.

Back home, I had enough time to shower and start getting ready for the netball night out. Ross headed to the gym and then we drove to Julia's place. Her friend Chintzia was going to drive us over to Bangsar. We met up with the rest of the girls at Chutney Mary's, an Indian restaurant. Sam had organized pink champagne and we enjoyed a great meal with great company.

A few of the girls left after dinner and some of us headed to The Social for a drink. The Social was a bit dead so more people left and then we headed onto a dodgy nightclub called School Bus. Julia and I stayed dancing and drinking with Sam, Marnie and Olivia until about 1.30 when we decided to head home. The taxi dropped Julia off first and I finally got home about 2. A good night out!

Finally getting down to beading

This morning, I cooked eggs with feta, basil and mushrooms for breakfast to surprise Ross who was still asleep. After breakfast, we got ready and headed out to Great Eastern Mall so I could buy some contact lenses. Although we got there at 10.15, hardly any of the shops were open - including the optometrist!

So being unsuccessful there, we drove to Sungai Long Golf and Country Club where Ross was playing the in the Baker Hughes Golf Tournament. Thank god for GPS! It actually wasn't that far but it was in an area that we had never been before.

I dropped Ross off about 11am and then rang Julia to see if she was home. I had some time to kill before my chiropractor appointment at 12.30 so I went around to Julia's place to catch up before heading to my appointment.

At the chiropractor it was super busy! They called me in and I laid down with a heat pack on my back before going in to see Nick. Once I got in for my appointment, Nick did the same adjustments as last time and I was out again within 15 minutes! I saw his assistant afterwards who fitted my trainers with some orthodics - wow, they make a big difference.

From Mont Kiara, I drove back to Great Eastern to try and pick up my contacts again. This time I was in luck. I finally got home about 2.30pm. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening beading. I had wanted to see if I could copy some earrings that I had bought so I worked at making 5 pairs of earrings - I was happy that I could make them all!

Ross got home about 11.30 just as I was packing up my beading stuff. He'd had quite a few beers! We pretty much fell into bed.

Beads, beads and more beads!

This morning I did a few things around the house before walking down to the train station to catch the train to Chinatown. I got out there about 11 and went in search of the bead stores that the girls in my beading class had been talking about.

I came across one store that sold strings of semi-precious stones. I asked the lady if she did wholesale prices and she said yes. The price came down to one quarter of the retail! But the catch was I had to buy quite a bit. I ended up with strands of red agate, carnelian, garnet, lava stone (basalt), shell, bloodstone, black onyx and a few others.

From there, I had a look in one of the other bead stores up the road. I didn't find anything to my liking there so I walked back to Peter Ho for some lunch and a look around. I made it before the lunch hour, expat lady rush and managed to snag a piece of Chinese mushroom and tomato quiche - so good.

After a bit of a look around Peter Ho, I walked back down the street to find some more beading stores. I found one that sold Chinese crystals and went a bit nuts buying 22 strands of various colours and sizes. I also bought some headpins with little balls at the end of them - a bit different from the normal ones - and some ring frames.

The lady told me they also had another store and she took me over there where I filled up my basket with various findings - earring charms, chain, earring hooks and other bits and pieces. By this time, I was pretty much done.

I caught the train back to KLCC and then walked under cover back to the house. Again, I got home just in time before the storm. It pelted down! I had a bit of a break before having to head out in the rain to go to my chiropractor appointment.

I finally got in to see Nick the chiropractor. We talked for a bit about my lower back pain and shoulder pain. He asked me to stand up and he had a look at my feet. Immediately, he could see that my right foot had collapsed making my foot collapse in and therefore my alignment was out from my foot all the way up to my neck.

Next he checked my spine and said that I have a little bit of scoliosis - which I think I knew anyway - and also a pronounced curve in my spine. He asked me to lay down on the bed and he did some simple stretching and massaging before strapping my feet to the table. He then made the table go and and down at my hip level. This stretched my back again.

Next he did some manual adjustments (i.e. cracking) to my lower vertebrate and my neck. It was freaky how easily everything cracked. I stood up and felt a bit "lighter". Nick said that I should really come in twice a week for 6 weeks to get things aligned properly again. He also said that I should bring in my trainers so he can fit orthodics to help correct my collapsed arch in my right foot.

So I made an appointment for Saturday and drove home in peak hour traffic. I messed about with my new beads while waiting for Ross to come home. We made a chicken salad for dinner and then watched Transformers.