Rainy Friday

This morning was supposed to be netball but we didn't have enough players and by the time I woke up it was pouring rain so we wouldn't have played anyway. We did however make plans to meet for breakfast for one last final goodbye to Sam.

I drove out to Plaza Damas early and did a quick bit of grocery shopping before heading to the Blue Cow to meet up with the girls. There were about 8 of us who made it in total. It was a nice morning and Dino, the Kiwi guy who owns the Blue Cow, sent us over two bottles of champagne because he knew Sam was leaving - how nice! Needless to say, breakfast lingered on until lunchtime.

As you can see from the photo, Sam liked her caricature that we had organized. It really is a great gift for someone who is leaving!

After "brunch", we had a walk around the shops as Sam wanted to buy a Korean medicine chest from one of the stores so we all traipsed down to look at the furniture with her. From there we all went our own ways.

It took me about an hour to get home - traffic was nuts! Normally it would take 15 minutes but I forgot it was Friday prayers. Anyway, I finally got home and for some reason I was exhausted. I put my PJs on and got into bed to read my book. Obviously this led to me napping for a couple of hours. I finally woke up about 4.

Ross surprised me by coming home early - about quarter to 5 - and we made chilli con carne for dinner. During dinner we watched Ross' favourite show - Wipeout Australia - and then played a long game of Upwords (which I won) before heading to bed.

New rug

This morning I headed out to pick Julia up for netball. As we were just about to leave her place, we got a text from Sam the captain to say that it was raining and therefore netball was canceled. However, we did meet up with a few of the girls at the Blue Cow for breakfast and coffee.

After dropping Julia home, I arrived at my place about 11 and headed to the gym downstairs. I thought since I was all done up in my netball stuff I might as well go do something active! I did half an hour on the elliptical trainer and then did half an hour of stretching. I thought I would give my arms and shoulders a rest seeing as they were still a little sore after earlier in the week.

I headed back upstairs, showered and then walked over to Pavilion. I got my Thomas Sabo bracelet polished and also got the bracelet that Sonja gave me replaced (I managed to undo it when I tried to make it smaller!). I also wandered around Tangs which was having a great sale. I picked up a cute dress, some knee length dressy shorts and a one shouldered white cotton top. Oh, and a couple of pairs of cheap sunglasses :-)

I wandered around a few more stores and then went to Dome for a late lunch before walking home. I had a bit of a cat nap on my bed before getting up in time to meet Sonja downstairs to walk over to Istana Hotel for the American Association of Malaysia's rug auction night. We walked around looking at the various rugs that were up for auction and then marked down our favourites. We had some food and waited for the auction to start. We ran into Debbie and Dan (Debbie had passed on the invitation) who were also looking at the carpets.

The auction began quite tentatively but soon it was in full swing. I had my eye on 3 rugs. The first one I missed out on but it wasn't my favourite so that was ok. The second one I bid on I almost had it and someone out bid me - I turned around and it was Dan! He gave up so I ended up getting the rug - a gorgeous silk rug from Afghanistan. The last rug on my list was well out of my price range :-( I also won a door prize of a tiny mini rug!

Sonja bought two rugs and did really well with the prices. At the end of the night we caught up with Debbie and Dan again as they were paying for their 4 rugs! They had bought two that I absolutely loved but didn't feel right about bidding that much without Ross being there.

Sonja rang Brian to come and pick us and our rugs up and took us home. As soon as I put the new rug on the bedroom floor - the cats were all over it. A brief fight ensued and as usual, Black staked his claim on the rug (as you can see from the photo!). By this time it was midnight so I headed to bed - happy with our new rug!

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!

What a day

After the drama of yesterday, we woke up feeling pretty shitty but I had put our names on a team for a mixed netball tournament so we headed out to Mont Kiara School about 8.30. Sonja was told yesterday that visiting hours were from 6-7 and 12-1. So we had agreed that if she woke up and wanted to go to the hospital she would call us to take her or take a taxi. I advised her not to drive as she didn't know where the hospital was and it would be too stressful for her.

We didn't hear anything so we continued to play in the tournament winning the first few games. I gave her a ring about 11 to see how she was doing. She was OK but Brian had got worse over night. She had caught a taxi out in the morning to see him. She said that her and the girls would catch a taxi out at midday and visit him again.

We finished playing about 1 after coming 6th and we raced home where I showered and literally threw some clothes in a back for my trip home. I rang Sonja once I was packed to check how things were going. She said he was OK but that they were still concerned about the bleeding and were going to go into surgery again tomorrow morning. She said that she had tried to drive out that and had got lost but eventually found her way to the hospital. We talked through a few of her concerns and Ross and I made some suggestions on things to do. I wished her all the best for her, the kids and Brian and said that I would call when I got into Aus. I felt completely shit for having to leave and that I couldn't be there for her but I knew Ross would be there and would do anything that she needs.

Ross took me out to the train station and I headed to the airport for my flight to Perth. It was an uneventful flight and I landed just before midnight and headed to the Holiday Inn for a few hours sleep before catching my domestic flight to Adeliade tomorrow morning.

Black Eyed Peas in KL!!

Today started like most Friday's with me driving to pick up Julia and then heading to netball. After yesterday's frying in the sun, I wasn't too keen on playing but luckily there was a heavy cover of clouds for the first three quarters. As always, we felt good afterwards although we were super sweaty.

After breakfast at the Blue Cow, I dropped Julia off at Ross' office so she could pick up the car from Phil. I came home and showered and then spent a couple of hours finishing off last night's beading projects before Sonja text to see if I wanted to meet her at KLCC for a cup of tea.

I walked over to Dome and we sat chatting and drinking tea before she drove me home. I was exhausted after netball and I hadn't slept too well last night due to the sunburn so I crawled into bed for a nap. Ross got home about 6 and we got changed and headed out to Sunway Lagoon for the Black Eyed Peas concert.

Out at Sunway we found our way to the enterance of the water park where we picked up our tickets and then whet in search of somewhere to eat. We ended up at Go Sushi and had a great meal with a mojito to get us in the party mood.

About 8, we decided to make our way into Sunway Lagoon Theme Park where the concert was being held. We went down and down escalators for ages before coming to the bottom of the park. They had drained the wave pool for tonight's event - pretty cool! On the way down, we stopped and looked at the various displays about the history of Guinness. Tonight's concert was to celebrate 250 years since Guinness was first brewed - commonly known at Arthur's Day (after Arthur Guinness). Around the world in 5 different cities, various concerts were being held over 36 hours with this one being the culmination of Arthur's Day.

We got down to the concert area and walked around to get our bearings. Not much was happening yet so we managed to find our way to the Tavern and had ourselves a drink (funny how they only served Guinness!). We finished our beers and planned to go and find an area to stand. In the end we decided the view from the bar was just fine and we could lean up against the fence rather than standing amongst a ton of people. So we grabbed another beer and watched a few of the warm-up acts.

Most of the acts were pretty shite but one of the local Malaysian singer/ songwriters, Reshmonu, was actually pretty good. About 10.30, the Black Eyed Peas finally came on. The first couple of songs they did were pretty ordinary as I don't think the sound system or microphones were working properly. It seemed that Fergie couldn't hear herself and so the songs sounded really off key. In an effort to fix this, Will.i.am DJed a set of tunes while the technicians obviously worked on the sound. His set was oone of the highlights of the night as he played everything from the latest club hits to MJ classics, Nirvana, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and other grooving tunes. He really had the crowd pumped!

By the time the Peas came back on, they had fixed the sound and the rest of the concert was awesome. Although we were a fair way away from the stage, we could easily see the huge video screens and the sound was great. Whoever was on the video cameras was obviously pretty shite as the video footage was so terrible you had to laugh. Half the time they weren't even showing any band members and then when they were, they were usually showing the one that wasn't singing!

They finished up their concert with the two tracks off their latest album, "Boom, Boom, Pow" and "Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night". It was awesome and everyone was grooving away. The show finished about midnight and it was followed by a massive fireworks display that lasted about 15 minutes to celebrate the end of Arthur's Day.

We filed out with the masses and managed to find our way to the car and back home pretty easily. We got home about 12.45 and headed to bed after a great night.

It ended up being a really good concert after all the controversy. Initially, the concert was only open to non-Muslims which discriminated against about 50% of the local population. And despite being open only to people over 18 years old, there were rumours that Guinness would not be able to advertise their product let alone sell it at the event. In the end, I guess the government realised that there was no way they could enforce the non-Muslim only policy and it was opened up to everyone with Muslims being warned that they needed to use their best judgment as to whether or not they attended an event sponsored by a beer company. The sign at the front of the Tavern was pretty funny - "This drinking zone is strictly for non-Muslims only" and security guards were checking people's IC cards before they were being allowed in. I assume that they were checking people's race so if you were a Bumaputra you were not allowed into the area however the Chinese and Indian Malays were. The concert really did give an interesting insight into the culture and politics in Malaysia and how much religion influences life here.

A productive and busy day

This morning started by me meeting Julia at her place around 8.15. We went and had a coffee before heading to netball. It was the first time I had played in quite a while and it was great to see the girls again! It was incredibly hot though and so by the time we finished I was exhausted.

We headed back to Julia's place and I jumped in the shower while Julia was kind enough to make scrambled eggs for breakfast. I scarfed them down before heading out the door to make it to my beading class in time.

At beading class, I met Hester and realised I had forgotten my tools so luckily she was kind enough to lend me hers for today. We made two rings today (see photo). They were both very different and quite easy to make. Again, I can imagine making them out of quality beads and they would be great. I really liked the purple and green colours in the woven ring and I can imagine Swarovski crystals for the starburst ring.

I finished the projects about 1pm and drove to Ikano to meet Sonja for lunch at Dome. After lunch we headed to Strip! for our waxing appointments. Afterwards, we popped in for a quick 30min foot massage before each heading our separate ways to go home.

It started to rain as soon as I got in the car and the traffic was so bad it took me 1 hour 15 mins to get home where it would normally take me 20 mins. I was not too happy by the time I got there. Ross was already at home when I arrived and we watched the AFL finals game between Brisbane and the Bulldogs. No real surprise the Bulldogs won.

I was absolutely shattered by 8.30 so I headed to bed.

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!

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!

Oilman's Gala Dinner

This morning started early with Julia picking me up at 7am to head out to netball. We had coffee at Plaza Damas first where we met up with a few other ladies.

Netball was good but hot! By about 9.30am is was too hot and the black clouds were rolling in so we all decided to go to the Blue Cow Cafe for breakfast.

Julia and I headed back to her place for a quick shower before we drove to Great Eastern Mall. One of the shops there was selling ceramic Samurai warriors that stood about two feet high - similar to ones that Julia had seen in Hong Kong and loved. She ended up buying one so we went downstairs and had coffee while they wrapped it up.

Julia dropped me back home and I went straight to bed for a nap as I was exhausted after all the exercise this week :-) I slept for about an hour before I was woken by a text message from Elyse. We chatted on Skype for almost an hour making plans for our summer vacation driving up from Perth to Broome.

By this time, I needed to have a quick shower and head over to Pavillion to have my nails and hair done. After a quick mani/ pedi, I went to the hairdresser and asked him to do something with my hair for tonight. Chris kind of curled my hair and put a lot of volume into it. It actually looked quite good!

Ross was home when I got there and we relaxed for about an hour before having to begin getting ready for the dinner. Brian was nice enough to drive us over to the Mandarin Oriental so we didn't have to get sweaty walking there. The ballroom was decorated in kind of Mediterranean style but the theme was Chinese - it was quite an interesting concept!

We took our seats at the table which was right next to the big wigs and the dancefloor. We met a couple of the customers that had been invited (as the dinner was really a networking opportunity). I sat next to Debbie and Dan who were a couple from the U.S. now working in Malaysia for 8 years. They seemed like nice people and we chatted away pretty easily throughout the night.

In true Malaysian style, the speeches by the vice-president and the secretary of the Malaysian Petroleum Club (the host of the Gala) were quite... weird. Lots of talk about where the roses came from, dirty jokes about CEO's of oil companies and other quite interesting topics.

The speeches were followed by dinner - a traditional 8 course Chinese meal which was served with great fanfare. Not being a big fan of Chinese food, I can't say I really enjoyed it. The whole thought of eating Shark Fin soup kind of grossed me out. Dessert was the hightlight even though I had no idea what it was it tasted really good.

During dinner, the entertainment began. First up was a girl from Indonesia. She was obviously a popular singer but we didn't have a clue who she was. She was only knee high to a grass hopper but was wearing the highest heels I have ever seen! She also had bright red hair - unusual for an Indonesian :-) She sang one song in English and then a few in Bahasa. She dragged the Vice-President up for a song.

After dinner was finished, Freddo and the Flinstones were up. When they first came out, they looked exceedingly dodgy and they were a bit to start off with. The lead singer must have been at least 50 and was incredibly cheesy - wearing a sequined jacket with a tiger on the front. He sang a couple of tunes in Bahasa and funny enough in Thai first but from then on they played pretty good western music. He had two girls who were backup vocals, keyboard and rythym section who also were part of the entertainment as they teased the lead singer. It was suprisingly entertaining and the lead singer did, after much effort, manage to get people up on the dance floor.

Dan, the guy we were sitting next to was so funny when the twist came on. He literally bolted up out of his seat and sprinted to the dance floor where he proceeded to twist like a madman by himself on the dancefloor! I nudged Debbie (his wife) and said 'Looks like you need to get up there Debbie'. She said 'He doesn't need a partner for the twist - he just loves it'. And she was right! He stayed up there for the entire song and twisted better than almost anyone else on the dance floor. I don't think I could get down as low as him and he was old enough to be my dad! We gave him a round of applause when he got back to the table - and passed him a glass of water as he had worked up quite a sweat!

For some reason there was a lot of line dancing throughout the night. I guess the only thing I can put this down to is that it is probably the safest dance to do in a Muslim culture as no-one has to touch and men and women can dance together without being inappropriate. It was quite a sight to see.

One of the guys that Ross worked with requested 'Sweet Child of Mine' for Ross so we got up and did a bit of boogying. At midnight, which came by much faster that I thought it would, they drew the raffle prizes. Unfortunately, no-one at out table won. After the raffle, the ballroom pretty much cleared out. We stayed for a while longer to dance and waited until Dan and Debbie left before we decided to go too. The photo was taken on the way out of the ball.

We jumped in a cab and headed home after a better than expected night.

Finals

It was a bit of a rough start to the morning being hungover and sleep deprived. Sondra and I managed to drag ourselves to breakfast and onto the bus ready for a day of finals. From the day before, we pretty much knew that we wouldn't get much game time today as the A-team girls were just awesome together so we spent the morning being water girls and helping out Agnes where we could.

The girls did really well and won their first game against Abu Dhabi B convincingly. Abu Dhabi A was the next team they played and probably the first time the shooters on our team really faced some stiff defence. Unfortunately the girls lost this semi-final game but not by much. This meant that they went into the play-off between 3rd and 4th place.

They played an awesome game with Bahrain A to come away with 3rd place. The Doha B team came 4th in the plate final and Doha Youth won the Bowl so overall it was an incredibly successful year for Qatar!!!

Elyse and Alisha came back to the rugby club to watch some of the games and catch up so we spent the afternoon together which was nice. Everyone was pretty much exhausted but the post-game adrenalin kept us going for a couple of hours so we enjoyed a few drinks together before heading back on the buses for the airport.

For some reason when I checked in they gave me an airport lounge pass so Agnes and I headed up there for a bit of quiet time before boarding. We got home about 11.30pm - exhausted but happy!!

First day of the comp

After an early start and a quick breakky, we jumped on the bus and headed to the rugby club where the tournament was being held. As usual, the facilities were great and we set up camp in our tent.

Today we were playing 6 games which started with the Bahrain Youth team. After a good warm-up and some ball drills, we headed to the courts for the first match. I sat the first half off and then went on as GK for the second half. It ended up being a pretty easy first match.

The day continued with 5 more games, each of which the team won reasonably easily placing them at the top of their pool. Between games I managed to catch up with Elyse and Alisha and also watch the Doha Youth and Doha B teams play. It was a pretty good day of netball all up although I only played one game.

In the evening, we had the netball dinner. We arrived about 1/2 an hour after it started and couldn't even get a table which was a bit shitty considering we had all paid money to be there. When they finally did find us a table, we were stuck right up the back, there was hardly any food left and we couldn't hear a thing. But we made the most of it by having a couple of drinks and then heading out to the dance floor. It was nice to spend some time getting to know the girls on the team - a great, fun bunch who are awesome at playing netball to boot!

About 10pm Elyse met up with us and Sondra, Phil, Elyse and I left the girls and headed out to JJs for a bit of dancing and a couple more drinks. It was a blast! We headed home about 3am for a quick 3 hours of sleep!!!

Heading to Bahrain

Today, Sondra, Phil and I spent the morning running around doing last minute things for netball including picking up the bibs, going to the tailors, buying a couple of last minute things and stuffing kit bags.

Sondra and I headed off to the airport about 12pm to meet up with the teams at 1pm. It was nice to see some familiar faces again and also meet some new ones. This was the first time I met most of the players on my team. Like last year, Sondra gave a speech and the airport and handed out the badges and other bits and pieces to the teams before we boarded the plane.

As you can see from the photo, the tradition of landing hats continued this year i.e. taking the pillowcase off the pillow and putting it on your head! Agnes, Mel and Sondra are featured in this photo and were all girls I played on a team with in Doha before I left.

Everyone was pretty excited to get to Bahrain and it was nice to get to there early in the afternoon so we could relax, enjoy the champagne welcome drinks and mingle with the other teams. Elyse came to the hotel to meet up with me and we caught up over dinner and a few drinks before I headed to Fiddlers to meet up with the rest of the girls.

It was a reasonably early night and we hit the hay by about 10pm in readiness for the big day tomorrow.

First day in Doha

So 7 and a half hours later and I am back in the land of dust and dishdasha's. Sondra and Phil picked me up from the airport before 6am (how nice is that!) and we headed to Rick's for breakfast. Sondra caught me up on all the netball going's on.

We headed back to their place to drop all my stuff off and then headed out for the day to run some last minute errands for the netball trip to Bahrain.

After dropping of kit bags to Wendy at Doha College, we headed to City Center so Sondra could get some new trainers and some other bits and pieces. The photo to the right is taken looking down at the ice-rink. I thought it was hysterical that some kids were trying to ice skate in a dish-dash!

After finishing there, we tried a few stores for gag items for each of the teams. Doha A are the mafia and hence have guns (albeit water guns!). Doha B are "Little Miss" characters and have hot pink feather boas. Doha Youth are pirates and have eye patches. Now it may sounds pretty easy to find water guns, feather boas and eye patches but this is Doha so it took a visit to seven stores to find it all!

Sondra, Phil and I spent the afternoon making up names for each player's name tag - not that easy! After some creative thinking, we managed to get one for each of the 36 players. We left Jess and Steph the task of printing and cutting out the tags while Phil, Sondra and I headed out to the Irish Harp at the Sheraton Hotel for dinner and a couple of drinks.

Pascal and Caroline met up with us there. Pascal and I spent most of our time catching up on events at work over a couple of glasses of red. Caroline arrived later and it was great to hear news. Sondra and I headed home about 10.30pm and left Phil with his mate who continued drinking until 2am.

I fell into bed and slept like a log.

Catching up with friends in KL

This morning I headed out of the city to pick up my friend Julia for netball. We squeezed in a quick coffee before we went to the courts. It was a pretty good game today with it flowing pretty fast.

As usual we headed out for breakfast at The Blue Cow Cafe (which is really Fogal's) and I met a couple of new girls, Lesley from Sydney and Lovie from Auckland. It's always nice to meet new people. Lesley is new to KL and Lovie has been in Malaysia for 9 years - an old timer!

After leaving the girls, I headed straight into Qatar Airways to sort out the mess that they had made with my tickets. Finally I think I had paid all my taxes and now have my tickets which is a good thing considering I leave Tuesday night!

A quick shower back home and I headed out to the International School of Kuala Lumpur to meet up with Tara. We had a quick look around the student's art exhibition and then headed back to our place. Tara was pretty exhausted from a busy few days at the Fine Arts Festival so we had a gin and tonic and kicked back on the couch to watch some TV.

Ross came home with his mate Jason who is in KL from Aberdeen. He used to work with Ross in Dubai and Jason and his wife Julie were our closest friends while we were there. So Tara, Jason, Ross and I enjoyed another beer for Tara and I headed over to KLCC for dinner and to look at the Galleri Petronas.

It was Tara's first time at a sushi train. We had a quick meal and then headed to some of the homeware shops and then onto the gallery. One of the exhibitions in particular, Human Watching, was really interesting.

Ross and Jason walked over to meet us and bring Tara's bags. We walked to the Concert Hall at the Petronas Towers where Tara was attending the concert of the music students. We dropped her off there and Ross, Jason and I headed across the road to Quattro.

We ended up at the Spring Lounge where they had a great band and really good atmosphere. It true kitchy Malaysian style, the bar has a walkway where it rains every hour on the hour. Ross had to brave the rain to get to the bathrooms but luckily, they provide umbrellas! We had a few jugs of beer and caught up on old times as it had been almost 7 years since we'd seen Jason. It was great catching up with him again - I forgot how funny our conversations are when we all get together!

On his wander back from the bathroom, Ross noticed a promotional sign for an event at the Autumn Nightclub - In Heat - which appears to be an S & M event! We were a bit surprised to find something like this in a mainstream bar in KL!

I remember back in the day when test-tube shooters were all the rage. Apparently now "injections" are the go. Although we didn't try them, it looks like they are over sized syringes full of alcohol with names like Viagra, Vicodin, Opium etc. Classic!

We left the bar about 11pm, dropped Jason off at the Nikko Hotel and Ross and I headed to the Hawker stalls opposite the hotel for some garlic naan and tandoori chicken. It was great catching up with friends again! One of the nice things about being in KL is that there is more chance that people will be dropping through. What fun!

Oscars and High Tea

Today was a pretty quiet day. I stayed in my PJs until 1pm watching the Academy Awards this morning. No big surprises I thought. Loved Hugh Jackman's opening number!

I then attempted to make the best of the two-tone hair-do and got ready to go to High Tea at Carcosa Seri Negara - the ex-residence of the Governor of Kuala Lumpur. It is now a luxury boutique hotel.

The hotel is in a lovely spot perched high on a hill near KL Sentral train station. We sat on the veranda and despite the thunderstorm it was really nice being outside. As you can see from the photo, high tea came in the form of finger sandwiches, small cakes, scones with cream and jam as well as fresh strawberries and cream - all served with your choice of tea (English Breakfast for me).

The high tea was for Janna (in pink) who is getting married the weekend after next back in the UK. All the girls are involved in the KL Jumpers Netball (see their group on Facebook) who I play with on Friday mornings. I don't think I have actually met Janna before but thought I would go along for the experience and to wish her well!

Sam (next to Janna on the left in the photo), super organizer extraordinaire, also provided a couple of glasses of pink champagne for everyone to top off the afternoon. Julia (sitting to the right of me in the photo) and I got a bit lost on the way back to her place but it all ended up ok.

Tonight Ross and I ordered pizza and watched "I, Robot" which was an ok movie that was made better with the great Yamaha home theatre system :-)

Working up a sweat

This morning I started by driving out to Julia's place to pick her up for netball. I haven't played since before Christmas.

It was nice to see so many of the girls show up and despite the heat, we had a good run around for and hour or so.

As usual, we headed out for breakfast afterwards (well, we do start playing at 8.30am!). This time we went to Fogal's Meat Market in Plaza Damas - the first time I had been there. Fogal's is actually a butcher but they have a cafe also. Apparently the livestock (beef and lamb?) are imported from Australia and then reared in Malaysia. They them process them in their own plant (this was all something I read on someone else's blog so who knows!). After a couple of cappuccino's and an omelette, Julia and I walked around a few of the shops before I took her back to her place and headed back into the city.

I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing with Black and Blue. As you can see from the photo, Blue decided that the Peter Alexander bag (look familiar Kate?) was a good place to relax for a while. Black was in his usual spot in his basket for most of the day.

Ross came home early and we headed down to the gym for an hour which felt pretty good despite having flogged myself around the court this morning in the heat. After an early dinner, we spent the rest of the evening watching Sienfeld on DVD thanks to the presents that Ann and Dad gave to Ross for Christmas.