Sitting in Starbucks - again. Waiting while Sonia has her nails done. Mucking around browsing the Internet. Bored.
Two entries to the blog in one day. Must be very bored. Not sure what to write about this time - as you can see.
This Starbucks is in Borders (bookshop) at the Curve (shopping centre). Ikea is next door (almost) and it's the Ikea sale. Needless to say, most of KL has decided that Sunday afternoon would be a good time to visit Ikea and wander slowly, painfully (as KL-ites do) around the store. Definitely a reason not to take advantage of Ikea's sale.
The travelblogs are usually quite interesting (quality is variable). A good chance to see what other people thought of the places they've visited. Most of them seem to be people who are on backpacking tours - or at least extended trips. There have been some good pictures of Perhentian Islands in Malaysia - and the place is as nice as it looks in the photos. For anyone who has been, it's comparable (maybe better) than the outlying Fiji islands.
I guess that's it for now.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Rant
The NZ Herald has a story showing online at the moment - regarding a likely class-action suit against SkyCity Casinos. Apparently New Zealanders are continuing to go the way of Americans - too stupid to take responsibility for their own actions. Why can we not ask for help if we have a problem? Why is it someone else's fault that we lose money through gambling? Why does it follow that suddenly we should profit from it? I guess it means they really are sick. They are gambling that SkyCity will settle out-of-court? Why can't they get off their back-sides and show a bit of Kiwi spirit instead?
Now that that's off my chest, I'd like to point out that there are four weeks left in KL. It will be good to move on. Incidentally, the papers here are reporting a pepper-spray attack on Dr Mahathir. Except that if you actually read the story, the spray was not even directed at him. What's wrong with getting your facts right first?
Now that that's off my chest, I'd like to point out that there are four weeks left in KL. It will be good to move on. Incidentally, the papers here are reporting a pepper-spray attack on Dr Mahathir. Except that if you actually read the story, the spray was not even directed at him. What's wrong with getting your facts right first?
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Just another Wednesday
Except that this Wednesday is the first day of my last month in the current job. The final countdown has begun. There is still lots to do before I head off, so it's not a month of coasting by any means. Sonia is up in Thailand again, so there is time to focus and get stuff done. Of course there is also the work of planning the trip and closing out things here in KL.
The construction across the road is still going on - it started before we moved in about 12 months ago, and is no-where near finishing. The biggest gripe (of the entire condo block) is the noise that goes late into the night. The crews seem to leave all of the noisy work until 7pm - and often are still going at 12 at night. Amazing that they still have a 24 hour construction license. The condo block had signs up about registering a formal complaint with the local authorities and were collecting signatures. Still it's unlikely that it will make any difference - there is no benefit to them to listen to the residents. Sigh....
Off to Phuket for the weekend soon - a nice break from the city. Should be a good chance to relax and chill out. At that point there will only be two weeks more of work, so that's even better!
Received a semi-legible letter from Dad the other day with news of NZ. It's got to the point that Sonia is better at deciphering the handwriting than I am! The fountain pen provided previously as a present is obviously still in use :-).
Phone call from Canada at 5:45 AM this morning. News of new bike purchase and other activities. Jealousy sets in - a Honda ST1100. Very nice.
The construction across the road is still going on - it started before we moved in about 12 months ago, and is no-where near finishing. The biggest gripe (of the entire condo block) is the noise that goes late into the night. The crews seem to leave all of the noisy work until 7pm - and often are still going at 12 at night. Amazing that they still have a 24 hour construction license. The condo block had signs up about registering a formal complaint with the local authorities and were collecting signatures. Still it's unlikely that it will make any difference - there is no benefit to them to listen to the residents. Sigh....
Off to Phuket for the weekend soon - a nice break from the city. Should be a good chance to relax and chill out. At that point there will only be two weeks more of work, so that's even better!
Received a semi-legible letter from Dad the other day with news of NZ. It's got to the point that Sonia is better at deciphering the handwriting than I am! The fountain pen provided previously as a present is obviously still in use :-).
Phone call from Canada at 5:45 AM this morning. News of new bike purchase and other activities. Jealousy sets in - a Honda ST1100. Very nice.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Another Sunday
Church is a bit of a drag right now - the last pastor left to go back to the US, and each week we "experience" a different speaker. The quality is very variable, but generally lower than we've been used to. The numbers are also low as most expats are back in the home countries for summer holidays (northen hemisphere).
We're now about 5 weeks away from finishing up in KL! Thinking about what needs to be done to close down - bank accounts, phones, power, rent, etc. And we need to get the movers organised to do the quotations - but before that we need to decide what needs to be thrown away! No point in moving junk from place to place.
We found an easy way to plan out the trip around the world - Star Alliance has a nice little program that you download to your PC. It's got all of the routes and airlines in it. We've ended up planning to go:
KL - Singapore - Seoul - Vancouver
Vancouver - Edmonton
Edmonton - Toronto
Toronto - London
Manchester - Prague
Prague - Milan
Milan - Singapore - Kuala Lumpur
And then back to New Zealand.
It should be a good trip and it will be great not to have to keep thinking about work. It always seems to take a few days to slow down when on holiday - how many times do you find yourself thinking about work and then telling yourself "Stop it, you're on holiday".
Found crumpets in the supermarket the other day. This was the first time in three years that the KL supermarket had them! Bagels are easier to find, but they are almost always NOT real bagels. Instead they tend to be bread rolls that are shaped like bagels. Or if they are real bagels, they're frozen. Once they are defrosted it is inevitably a disappointment. Still, I don't remember finding such nice curries and chinese food in New Zealand, so I guess you need to always recognise both the positives and the negatives. Tonight's dinner becomes soup and crumpets with the air-conditioning going to make it feel like a sunday-night dinner in winter! And now it's ready to eat.
We're now about 5 weeks away from finishing up in KL! Thinking about what needs to be done to close down - bank accounts, phones, power, rent, etc. And we need to get the movers organised to do the quotations - but before that we need to decide what needs to be thrown away! No point in moving junk from place to place.
We found an easy way to plan out the trip around the world - Star Alliance has a nice little program that you download to your PC. It's got all of the routes and airlines in it. We've ended up planning to go:
KL - Singapore - Seoul - Vancouver
Vancouver - Edmonton
Edmonton - Toronto
Toronto - London
Manchester - Prague
Prague - Milan
Milan - Singapore - Kuala Lumpur
And then back to New Zealand.
It should be a good trip and it will be great not to have to keep thinking about work. It always seems to take a few days to slow down when on holiday - how many times do you find yourself thinking about work and then telling yourself "Stop it, you're on holiday".
Found crumpets in the supermarket the other day. This was the first time in three years that the KL supermarket had them! Bagels are easier to find, but they are almost always NOT real bagels. Instead they tend to be bread rolls that are shaped like bagels. Or if they are real bagels, they're frozen. Once they are defrosted it is inevitably a disappointment. Still, I don't remember finding such nice curries and chinese food in New Zealand, so I guess you need to always recognise both the positives and the negatives. Tonight's dinner becomes soup and crumpets with the air-conditioning going to make it feel like a sunday-night dinner in winter! And now it's ready to eat.
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