Holiday Friday

Today was Islamic New Year and therefore a holiday. Ross and I woke up reasonably early and decided to go for a walk around Lake Titiwangsa. It seems that a lot of other people had the same idea. It was nice to be out in the cool of the morning and always interesting to see what the locals are up to. We walked for about 40 minutes before heading home.

At home we showered and then drove to Pavillion for breakfast. We ate outside at the Coffee Bean which was really nice. From there, we went up to the bookstore so I could buy My Sister's Keeper. I then walked over to Starhill Gallery for my massage appointment at Kanebo. My favourite masseuse, Azura was there to great me and gave me a great 2 hour hot stone massage and worked out some of the knots in my calves and shoulders. I hadn't been for a long time so the staff hadn't seen me since I lost the last couple of kg and they all commented that I looked much slimmer. I took it as a compliment and not that they thought I looked fat before :-)

I rang Ross when I finished and he came to pick me up. We spent the afternoon doing some things around the house before he dropped me over at KLCC to meet up with Sonja so we could get our nails done. We spent an hour and a half getting a mani and pedi and walked out with much nicer looking nails. Mine had been so long they almost looked like talons but I didn't want to cut them because I knew I would get them done before going back to Aus.

From there, Sonja and I walked up to Changkat Bukit Bintang to meet up with Ross who had gone for a massage at the Thai place. We met him at Havana Bar which had been recently renovated - it was really nice now and had been a bit of a dive before. We had a drink before Brian arrived and so had another round with him.

We walked next door to Ciccio - an Italian restaurant for dinner. Sonja and Brian's daughter was there with her friend and their family. It was quite a coincidence that out of all the restaurants in KL we both ended up at the same one! We enjoyed our dinner - the food was amazing and it was nice to just have a casual night with the Miller's before they left. Sonja had the pumpkin ravioli - yum! Brian had gorgonzola gnocchi - unbelievable! Ross had chicken ravioli which was nice and I had the most tender lamb shank I have ever had! About 11, we drove them home and dropped them off at the Prince before heading home ourselves after a great night.

Ross and I read for a little while before going to sleep after a good day with friends.

Still feeling like crap!

This morning I had planned to get up and walk with Sonja. I woke up with Ross at 6.40am but just felt so awful that I text Sonja to say that I would not be going walking but would call her later. I read my book for a while before I fell back to sleep until 10.30.

I rang Sonja when I woke up and we made plans to meet and go for nails. I was going to walk over but just didn't feel up to it so I picked up Sonja downstairs and we drove to KLCC. We walked into the nail salon and got busy with pedis and manis. They did a pretty good job although I asked them to take off the polish from my fingers.

After nails, we went to the Vietnamese restaurant and had some Pho Bo for lunch. From there we grabbed a coffee at the Coffee Bean before picking up my drycleaning and alterations and heading home.

Back at home, I watched the Twilight movie which I had taped last night. It wasn't actually as bad as I thought it would be. I enjoyed the first book and it did pretty much match up. Let's see what the next movie is like.

Ross came home about 6.30 and we made a beef stirfry for dinner. Ross continued working and I watched some TV before heading to bed.

Today's photo is Black who found a warm spot on top of the TV cabinet behind the sound system.

A pretty casual day around KL

This morning we had breakfast at home and then Tara and I walked over to KLCC in time for our nail appointment. Sonja met us over there and we all began a couple of hours of pampering. We opted for the cinnamon and pumpkin masque treatment with the heated booties. It was great!

Sonja headed off with Emma and Maddie to go see Inglourious Basterds. Tara and I wandered around KLCC for a while looking in the Petronas Gallery exhibition. We had some lunch at The Apartment before picking up a couple of things from the supermarket before walking home.

Later in the afternoon, Tara and I took Eddie over to the park as JB was not feeling well. We spent an hour or so over there watching Eddie play on the equipment before heading home. We rang up the Magnificent Fish and Chip Place and ordered some fish and chips for dinner. Ross and I drove up and picked it up. It took forever because the traffic was so bad!

We ate our fish and chips and watched MILK before heading off to bed.

Up and at 'em

This morning started reasonably early with us driving out to FRIM at 8.30am. Sonja and Brian had headed out 15 minutes before us. Ross and I started off and it was super busy. We did the first slope pretty fast to try and pass a lot of the groups. Once at the canopy walk we got stuck behind a big student group and had to excuse ourselves to get past them. We had one quick break before completely the rest of the canopy section and ending up at the waterfall.

From there we walked the long downward slope back to the car. We managed to complete the whole walk in about an hour. From FRIM, we drove to the Blue Cow Cafe to meet up with Brian and Sonja for breakfast. After devouring our Chef's special omelets, we headed home.

It was a rare sunny day so we got out of our sweaty gear and into our togs. With our floaties in hand and our books, we headed down to the pool. The water was pretty cool so we tried to stay as dry as possible while we floated about for a while reading and relaxing. All the Miller's except Ian came down as well.

In the afternoon, Ross headed off to work for a couple of hours and I went to the nail salon for a bit of pampering. They had a special on pumpkin and cinnamon scrub and masque treatment so I settled in for some serious relaxation. The scrub and masque smelt good enough to eat! I had the heated booties again on both my feet and my hands. I felt wonderful after the 2 and a half hours of pampering!

I walked home and met up with Ross. We spent the evening doing bits and pieces. I made some bead jewellery to practice my new skills. Before we knew it, it was past midnight so we headed to bed.

Another great day with one more to go!

Changing of the guards!

Sonja and I headed to the PS Cafe for breakfast this morning before going to nails. We had a great breakfast, as always, and even had time to browse through a few more shops before heading to Strip! for our nail appointment.

At Strip!, we took our seats on the enormous couches and settled in for our pampering. They did a great job and actually had the right beige colour that I like for the french polish on my fingers. I had my toenails painted a bright coral colour - and I mean bright! Sonja went with more natural colours and we both walked out of there feeling and looking great!

By this time we were ready for lunch (because it had been 3 hours since we last ate!) so we went to Fish & Co. for another great meal. Sonja wanted to buy some things from MUJI (kind of a Japanese IKEA-type store) and I wanted to look for some other things so we went our separate ways and met up a bit later. We walked back to the apartment together and Sonja picked up her bags and headed out in a taxi to catch the bus back to KL.

It was great having company in Singapore for this week while Ross had to work.

Speaking of Ross, he drove back down to Singapore after work and arrived about 8. I had bought some yummy soup from the Soup Spoon so we ate that in front of the footy before heading to bed.

So today was a changing of the guards - goodbye Sonja after a great week, hello Ross for the weekend!

A bit of pampering

This morning I woke up to have breakfast with Ross and then fell back to sleep until 11! I think my body is trying to fight off this sinus infection that keeps trying to break through. Anyway, by the time I did a few things around the house, had a shower and talked to the cleaners it was already 2 o'clock.

I thought I should get off my butt so I packed my book and walked over to KLCC. I thought I would try to see if I could get in for a nail appointment at the new salon - The Nail Parlour. I went straight up and they could fit me in straight away. I opted for the hot mud mani/pedi with masque (even though Ross and I just had hand and feet treatments on Monday in Broome!).

The treatment began as normal with a soak of my feet, then she scrubbed them with an exfoliating scrub before applying a red mud all over my feet. They were then wrapped in cling wrap and placed in these hot electric booties (see photo)!

While my feet were heating up she moved on to my hands. She did the same treatment there and before long I had these massive mittens on both hands - not easy to read a book with those things on!

Back to my feet and she went through the normal pedicure routine and soon I had gorgeous coral coloured toes. Back at my hands, she removed the mittens, washed and moistuised my hands before getting on with the manicure.

When she was ready to paint my fingers, I moved to the manicure desks out the front where she applied the nail colour. I sat by the drying machine for a while before I was ready to leave. I was pretty impressed by this treatment as it was about the same price as the spa treatment at my old nail salon but was alot better. The only thing I didn't like was that she cut my cuticles too short and so now I will have to be really careful that they don't dry out and split. There is one more nail salon I want to try before I commit to any so we'll wait and see how that goes.

By the time I walked out of there it was already 5.30. Ross walked up to the park and met me and we walked home together just in time to start watching the footy. We watched until quarter time and then started thinking about making dinner. We decided to make and BBQ some beef kebabs and I made a mango and corn salsa to go with it. At half time, Ross fired up the barbie and we sat outside looking at the towers enjoying our meal.

Back inside, we caught the last quarter of a pretty dismal game between Carlton and Collingwood. We watched Boston Legal and then decided it was time for bed.

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!).

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!

Loving my life!

This morning I pottered around the house doing a few chores and organizing the spare bedroom with the old surround sound system and DVD player. By about 11am I was ready to sit down and watch another couple of episodes of B&S.

After lunch, I was a bit bored, so I rang up the nail salon and arranged an appointment. Afetr two hours of bliss, I walked out feeling (and with my nails looking) great. On the way home, I picked Ross up from the office and we headed off to do some shopping for tomorrow's ANZAC Day BBQ.

For dinner, we tried out one of Jamie Oliver's recipes where you cook a chicken in a pot with capsicum, onion, pineapple and chilli. You stuff the chicken with parsley and freshly grated ginger. Once the chicken is cooked, you remove it and half the veggies to a plate and then place the rest of the veggies with the cooking juices into a blender with balsamic vinegar and brown sugar and blend it to make a sauce - it was amazing!

I am really enjoying having time for myself and also having time to cook great meals with Ross - love my life!