Beading and Ross home!

This morning I got organized in time to head out to my second to last beading class. It was nice to see the other girls again and we spent 3 hours creating a wired pendant and some gypsy hoop earrings.

From beading, I drove out to IKEA again and had a look for some ideas to display my jewellery. I ended up buying some black frames and some off-cuts of fabric to cover the inside of the frame as well as some Christmas decoration hangers which I can use for displaying bracelets and necklaces. I also picked up a wire trash can which is an easy way to hang up my earrings for now.

I also dropped into the stationary store and found some plate stands, acrylic sign displays and a few other bits and pieces I thought would come in handy. The only thing I didn't find was a hot glue gun.

By this time it was 3.30 and I raced home to meet Ross who had just flown in from Vietnam. It was so good to see him again! He hadn't traveled for ages so having him gone for 6 days was actually quite long. We spent some time catching up on things before we had to head out to our golf lesson.

Out at golf, Eric worked with both of us on different parts of our swings. I was finally starting to get it now and hit some beautiful shots! Ross wasn't doing too bad either. Eric took me out on the putting green and showed me how to putt. This was the first time I had had anything other than a 7 iron in my hand since I started taking lessons. I was pretty proud when I got two balls straight in the hole!

We were pretty pumped after our lesson. We drove to KLCC and had a pizza at California Pizza Kitchen then headed home. We pretty much fell into bed. So nice to have Ross home again!

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!

Morning Tea with the girls

This morning I was up early doing some last minute things to get ready for the morning tea. Sonja came over just before 10 and then Debbie arrived not long after. Rimma and her sister-in-law Michelle arrived next followed by Lettie and then Kiki.

I hadn't seen a lot of the girls for a long time - it was great to catch up. Debbie hadn't met any of the other girls before so we spent the morning chatting, eating and drinking. I also showed the girls my beading so I could get their feedback. They gave me some good ideas. About 12, everyone slowly started to head off home. It was a great morning and made me realise that I should catch up with these girls more often.

After I cleaned up, I spent the rest of the afternoon doing some more beading. Ross came home about 6 and we got changed and headed to KDE for our golf lesson with Eric. It was such a great lesson! Eric showed Ross a couple of things to change and before you knew it, he was hitting the balls further and consistently straighter. Same with me! He sorted out my posture and then I was back in the swing of things. Ross and I both agreed it was great to be back at lessons.

From golf, we drove up the road to Tamarind Springs and although we weren't really dressed for the occasion, we had dinner at the Thai/ Malaysian restaurant. We were both so hungry and it was so good!

We drove home, showered and pretty much went to bed.

Not much doing today

This morning Sonja and I drove out to FRIM. Julia couldn't make it today so Sonja and I trudged up the canopy walk - it was not easy today! I had to be back at the apartment by 10 so we skipped breakfast and headed home.

At 10, repairmen came to fix the water heater and also our land lord Annie came with the Stonor maintenance guy to look at the water damage through the roof in the dining room. Not good. Ross came home too to talk to Annie about the damage.

I drove Ross back to work and did a couple more things around the house. I booked appointments with the chiropractor and dermatologist and also rang Singapore to find out if they could send me some more of the supplements that the naturopath prescribed.

In the afternoon, I walked over to KLCC and had a manicure and pedicure. They used a mint masque on my feet and then put on the heated booties. My feet felt really weird - kind hot and cold at the same time. I walked out feeling a lot lighter and cleaner.

I walked home just in time to miss the storm. I did some more laundry before Ross got home. We changed and headed out to the driving range. We hadn't been out there in months but Ross has a golf tournament on Saturday so he wanted a bit of a practice.

I was a bit nervous about swinging the club again because I was not doing so well last time. But tonight I didn't do too bad. Not great but not too bad. After slogging 100 balls each, we drove to KLCC for dinner at California Pizza Kitchen before ducking to get Ross some golf supplies and then heading home.

We showered, had some berries and yoghurt and headed to bed.

Definition of Lady of Leisure

So today really was a great day. This morning Sonja and I walked at FRIM. For the first time, we only stopped once on the way up (normally we stop twice or sometimes even three times!). It felt great to be back there again. From FRIM we headed to Bangsar for breakfast.

Delicious was shut so we went to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and had a long relaxing breakfast. I wanted to check about the 70s/ 80s night tickets at MANZA so we left Bangsar and drove to MANZA house. They had just finished a committee meeting so Sonja and I met a few of the other ladies who were all really nice. We found out how much the tickets were and what was included - sounds like a good deal!

We headed home and I relaxed for a couple of hours before driving over to Pavilion to park the car before walking to Kanebo for my afternoon of pampering. For 4 and a half hours, I enjoyed a facial and a hot stone massage. Wonderful!

I floated back to Pavilion and met Ross for dinner at Thai Express - not the greatest Thai food but it was ok. After our meal, we drove home, ran upstairs (well, not literally), got changed and then headed back to the car to go out to the driving range. We picked up Brian on the way out.

Out at the range, we all hit 100 balls each. I was terrible! It took me about 70 balls to even become remotely back to normal again. But oh well, I guess practice makes perfect!

So today really was a lady of leisure day - exercise, coffee, pampering and golf. Perfect!

Today's photo was taken inside Bangsar Village.

A great Saturday - start of the week of dresses

This morning Ross cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast and we eased into the morning pottering around the house. About 11, we walked over to Pavilion to do a couple of things. While we were over there, we spied the biggest pewter beer tankard in the world (or so the sign said)! Almost 2 metres tall and with a capacity of 2796 litres, we decided that it would take quite a few people to finish one beer!

Ross was looking for golf clothes and so we walked around all the possible stores in Pavilion with little luck. We walked home again spent the afternoon watching sport before heading out again about 2.30 to go to our golf lesson. The traffic was terrible going out towards Ampang and we had no idea why. But we made it in time for a lesson. We both warmed up for 10 minutes or so before Eric started our lesson. He started with me today and we worked again on my back swing - moving my hips more and also working on my contact with the ball. After a few pointers, it all started coming back to me. I was also starting to get a bit more confident with my new clubs which are heavier than the one I had been learning with up until now. Basically I spent the rest of the lesson hitting ball after ball trying to feel when my swing was good and when my swing was bad and if my swing was bad, what I needed to do to correct it.

Meanwhile, Eric worked with Ross on his short game - putting and pitching - as well as showing how to swing the driver correctly. It didn't take Ross long before he got in the 'swing' of things :-)
I loved watching him hit the balls with the driver - the thing is so big and makes a great sound when it connects with the ball. Ross was hitting the balls about 200m - I was impressed!

Eric left us to continue practicing by ourselves and I reckon I hit about 200 balls or so in just over an hour - a good workout! From golf we drove to Great Eastern, had a coffee, picked up a couple of things and headed home. We made another pomegranate and feta salad for dinner.

After dinner, Ross and I broke out the old Sony Playstation and had a go of all our new 5 ringgit knock-off games that we bought last weekend. Indiana Jones was pretty cool as was Ice Age 3. I had bought the latest Sonic the Hedgehog game which took me back to my mis-spent youth. We also played Street Fighter which brought back many memories! What fun! We played until about 10 and then headed to bed after a great day.

Note: Today starts 'The Week of Dresses'. I have so many dresses in my cupboard that I rarely wear so I decided that this week I would wear a dress each day.

Learning something new

This morning I woke up with Ross again. I got ready and headed out the door just before 9 to drive out to Petaling Jaya for my first beading class. Although the traffic was bad, particularly on Tun Razak, I managed to get there on time. I registered and then went into the classroom where one lady was already waiting.

Our instructor Hester was there also and a lady called Margaret who I assume is the owner of Beadazzle. Another lady turned up not long after I did and then we got started. Hester gave us our tools and asked us to pick out the colours of the beads that we wanted for our first project.

The first thing that we were making was a floating necklace using plastic pearls and nylon string. Hester taught us how to knot the string properly and then thread the beads. We made the necklace with three strands and alternated the order of the beads on each strand so that when they hung together there would not be a group all the same colour.

We were then taught how to finish the necklace properly with crimp beads, oyster callets and a lobster claw. It was a little fiddy but easy enough. I used different sizes and shades of silver pearls (see photo). Although it's not really my style of jewellery, I know that a lot of people like the floating necklaces. I could imagine combining many more strands and making a really chunky necklace.

Our second project was a weaving project this time using acrylic bicone beads and bugle beads again with nylon string. This one was a bit more fiddly as the string was an uneven length and also the bugle beads are tiny. However, it did give it a really good effect and once we weaved the 'wings' down the sides, I can imagine it as a nice bracelet to wear out.

I finished the projects early and left just before 12 although the class went on until 12.30. I drove home and when I arrived Ross was there to meet me for lunch. We had a quick lunch together before I took him back to the office. In the afternoon, I tried to make another bracelet like the one we made in the class to make sure I knew how to do it. Although I didn't have exactly the same materials, I managed to use what I had to make a bracelet (without the wings). I also worked out how to combine the beads to make diagonal stripes rather than the pattern we did in class.

I didn't do too much for the rest of the day except hang out with the cats and watch some TV. Ross came home early and we had a quick dinner of pommegrate and feta salad before driving out to the driving range at KDE for a bit of practice.

Out at the range, we ran into our instructor Eric and booked in for a lesson with him on Saturday. Ross and I each got 100 balls and set about hitting them into the lake. This was the first time I was using the clubs that our friend Mark had sent me from China. They were a bit heavier than the ones I had been practicing with but I did ok. Not great, but ok especially considering I hadn't done anything for over 4 weeks.

On the way home we stopped at Great Eastern Mall for a coffee and shared a piece of cheesecake before heading home. A good day.

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 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.

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

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.

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!!

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?!)

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.

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.

A pretty exciting day

This morning started like any other Wednesday with Sonja, Julie and I heading to FRIM. Every week we go through the same thing - they keep charging us different prices to get into the park. Today, I just drove straight through with everyone else who seemed to be doing the same thing.

We walked up the hill and I was really struggling today. So much for thinking this was getting easier last week! On our walk back down the long path, we were suprised to come across a snake. Not just any snake, a blue coral snake which is pretty rare, nocturnal and highly venomous! Sonja almost jumped out of he skin as we almost stepped on the thing! She screamed, pretty much jumped on my back, and ran about 500m before turning around. In this time, Julia and I watched the snake writh in reaction to Sonja running and I did have a brief moment of concern when the snake almost looked like it was going strike out at us. Luckily it slithered back into the undergrowth. The photo is not a photo I took, but when we got home I did a bit of research to find out what snake it was. Someone else took this photo of the same type of snake but it was also taken in Malaysia. I emailed FRIM to confirm if these snakes do live there - we'll wait and see. The only other snake I could find that looked simiilar and was found in Malaysia was more black and far more elusive so I doubt we saw that one. This snake was definately bright blue with a red tail and head - amazing!

After our adventure and laughing heartily at Sonja, we went for breakfast and then headed home. I did a few things around the house before Sonja picked me up to head out for my first golf lesson. We went out to the 9-hole course in Ampang where I met Eric our instructor. Sonja had already been taking lessons for a couple of months whereas this was the first time I had picked up a golf club properly.

Eric was an excellent instructor and once he showed me the proper grip and stance, I was managing to hit almost every ball into the water from the driving range. He also videod my swing to show me a comparison with a pro and he was really suprised that my swing had most of the same characteristics. I was pretty pleased with myself when he said I had a natural ability and that he had a lot to work with. It was interesting how I would lose my swing after a while but when Eric held the club up the right way and I felt the difference, I could easily replicate what he had shown me and hit the ball with no worries. And when you hit that thing right it really goes!

I had a blast! I actually didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did. I will definitely be continuing lessons with Eric. I think Ross would also like lessons with him as he is a great instructor and from Brisbane :-)

Sonja dropped me home and I got busy preparing dinner as Sonja, Brian and the kids were coming over. I roasted some veggies and made a couscous salad and roasted two chickens. Sonja brought baked potatoes and corn on the cob. It was really nice to just sit down and have a quiet dinner with everyone - something that I had been meaning to do for ages as I tend to invite myself to there's if Ross is not around.

A great day - but now I am completely exhausted - in a good way!