Last day of work for Ross

This morning I woke up, showered and headed out to Ikano for a waxing appointment. I had breakfast at Dome first and wandered around the shops for a bit before going to my appointment. Once that was done, I looked around a little bit more but then decided to head home.

Back at home I had a pretty boring day. I did a few bits and pieces on the computer and tried to start updating my CV but soon lost interest. I rented some movies off iTunes for the plane. I then laid on the bed and read my book until I had finished. It was a great series - all three books were good and I really enjoyed reading them. I had it when you finish a good series or book because you know the next thing you pick up will not live up to your expectations. I plan to read My Sister's Keeper next so then I can watch the movie.

By about 3.30, I was incredible bored so I text Ross to see what he was up to - no response. I sat on the couch and watched crap TV for a couple of hours until he came home. It was so nice to have some company again! We spent the night making portobello burgers, having a glass of red wine and watching Shawshank Redemption on DVD - a great show. It's so nice to have Ross back home.

Since I finished my book this afternoon, I started reading "Malaysia at Random"; a book that was recommended to us by the Millers. Maddie had gotten it as a going away present from one of her friends and it is filled with interesting and unusual facts about Malaysia such as the fine for killing a tiger is 15,000 ringgit and how to artificially inseminate an Asian elephant!

Getting ready for the long weekend

This morning I slept in and then drove out to Ikano to do a couple of things. I went up to Strip to make a booking and had to wait a couple of hours for a slot. So I spent my time walking around the mall. I bought some underwear and socks for Ross at Debenhams and a pair of 3/4 denims for me at Espirit before stopping for some lunch at The Coffee Bean.

I walked across the road and stocked up on cat food and picked up some snack foods for the trip on the weekend. I dropped everything off in the car and then headed back up to Strip for a bit of maintenance.

I drove home and spent the afternoon not doing too much just waiting for Ross to get home. He was pretty late home from work so about 8 we drove over to KLCC and had dinner at the Thai restaurant. It was pretty good.

We drove home and pretty much went to bed.

Back to beading lessons

This morning I had to catch a taxi out to PJ to go to my beading lessons because Ross needed the car to get to Ipoh (3 hours away). He had a meeting with the Dean of the university out there. I got to my lesson ok and caught up on the couple of projects I missed while I was in Aus. I finished the Desert Rose broach and the Gypsy Necklace.

From beading, I walked back to the main road and caught a taxi to Ikano. I made an appointment at Strip and then went and had some lunch at the Apartment. I took a table outside but within a few minutes had to move inside as the heaven's opened and I was getting wet! I enjoyed my lunch and finished just in time to go to my waxing appointment.

After waxing, I walked over the road and had a Starbucks while waiting for the bus to take me to the train station so I could get home. I also picked up some more containers for my beads and a quick bit of shopping before it was time to catch the bus.

A half hour bus ride and a half hour train journey and I was back at KLCC. I rang Ross to see if he could pick me up as I was exhausted. After we got home, we relaxed for about half an hour before I started to make dinner. I thought I would use all the leftovers from yesterday and the roast we had on Sunday to make a quiche. I even made the pastry from scratch! It turned out really well with pumpkin, corn, caramalised onion, goats cheese and camembert.

We ate the quiche (which actually took ages to cook as I had to chill, roll out, chill then blind bake the pastry before even cooking the quiche) and then made the most of the left over scones and cake.

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.

Catching up with Sonja

This morning I woke up with Ross again but stayed in bed until about 11 doing stuff on the laptop and making a few phone calls. Our neighbour Sonja text to see if we could catch up. They arrived home on Wednesday and had taken a couple of days to recover from the jetlag of flying back from the states.

I met Sonja downstairs just before 12 and we drove out to the Curve as I had a bikini wax booked at Strip. So Sonja sat in the foyer reading her book while I went to get maintained. I had a different girl today, Elaine. She was super chatty, which was fine by me as it kept my mind off what was going on. They had a new type of wax they were using this time - chocolate and berry. It really did look like melted chocolate - and smelt like it too! It was the best wax I've ever had!

After I finished, Sonja and I went to the Apartment for lunch before heading to Cupcake Chic for our sweet fix. We shared two cupcakes - Red Velvet and Lavender - yum! They have opened up another branch at Pavilion which is a bit dangerous as it is too easy for us to walk to!

We wandered around the shops for a little while before driving home. The girls were in the apartment cleaning when I got back so I went back downstairs and met Sonja and Emma by the pool for an hour or so. Brian came home from work and the Miller's all headed up to their place. I came back upstairs and met Ross and we relaxed for a little while before heading back over to the Miller's for dinner.

It was nice to see everyone together again and we shared a great meal that Brian and Sonja pulled together from whatever they had left in the fridge. In the end we sat down to a full meal of tapas! It was great. We sat outside and caught up on our holidays.

It was nice to have our friends back again!

Back at home, Ross watched the cricket and the league while I headed off to bed for hopefully my first decent sleep in a week. I keep forgetting to take photos lately - so here are the cats... again!

A busy Saturday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maintenance inside and out

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Strip!

I woke up pretty early this morning with Ross and as he walked to work I drove to Pavillion and headed to the gym. I worked hard on the elliptical trainer and felt my legs turn to jelly when I got off 45 minutes later. I spent some time stretching in an attempt to make sure that my body wasn't sore later, we'll see how that goes!

At home, I showered, did a few quick chores and even did the shopping downstairs at the grocery van. I then drove out to Ikano Power Mall to pick up something I had framed (a secret I can't talk about just yet :-)) and also to go to my waxing appointment.

I had booked in to get some waxing done at a place called 'Strip!'. Before then, I went up to the pet store to see what puppies they had in (very cute little girl beagle pup that I would have adopted if I could) and then went to Dome to have lunch, a coffee, and to catch up on some emails.

I headed to Strip! a little early and they let me in for my appointment. The shop itself is pretty groovy; they do waxing for women and men and I was surprised to see two or three blokes in there waiting for their appointments. The inside of the store was decorated with cardboard boxes - sounds weird but looked pretty cool.

My therapist led me to the room and without going into too many details, let's just say that I got what I came for and it was the best waxing experience I have had here in KL for the whole year that I have been here. As I lay there gritting my teeth, I took a bit of time to read the posters on the wall. There were lots of funny quotes and sayings about waxing. My favourite was 'If you want to sell the house, you've got to mow the lawn". Another promising one - 'From muff to buff in 15 minutes'. Love it!

Today's photo is of one of the posters on the wall in the treatment room.

By this time, I was pretty ready to go home. Ross came home and we ate the leftover potato, corn and ham soup from last night and I also made a little shepherd's pie to use up the leftover mince. Ross needed a haircut so we walked over to KLCC. I browsed through the Kinokiniya bookstore while Ross was in the salon and walked out with a couple of guide books on Hanoi, the new Malaysia GPS road map book and a book on sociology.

After a coffee at Starbucks we headed home.