Airports and Football

Sitting in Singapore's Changi airport, waiting for a flight back home to KL. The TVs in the gate lounge are playing Germany versus Sweden, and Germany has just scored.

Football seems to be everywhere - you can run but you cannot hide... Not following it sometimes appears to be a crime of almost capital proportions. But it seems like such a pointless boring game. The most interesting part is trying (unsuccessfully) to understand the words the crowd "sing" (maybe "bellow" is more appropriate) while the ball is kicked backwards and forwards. Often more backwards rather than forwards. At least with rugby the ball is generally going in the correct direction?

Watching out the window of the lounge, seeing the planes small and large taking off as the light fades. Some guy sitting a couple of seats along is yelling into his cellphone in a mixture of English and some European language.

Singapore airport is redeveloping it's gate lounges - probably in preparation for the future arrival of their new Airbus planes. New larger gates, more of the bridges out to the airplanes, and so on. Right now the lounge smells of paint and new carpet. Not entirely unpleasant since it means the place is cleaner than usual.

Friends were staying with us last week - good to catch up after 6 months. Their kids are growing fast, reminding us that it's over a year since we saw the nephews and nieces who live in Auckland. I guess they are much larger as well.

Enough rambling. Time to get back to my game of Sudoku. But wait - Germany scores again (yawn). Till next time...

The King's birthday

By interesting coincidence (interesting to some, anyway) yesterday was the King's birthday - a public holiday in KL (for those of you who don't understand, Saturday is normally a working day in Malaysia). This weekend also celebrates the Queen's birthday in New Zealand. Anyway, trivia to start this entry...

Sitting in La Bodega in Bangsar Shopping Centre, having just finished Eggs Benedict. I have to say it wasn't as good as it has been - the Hollandaise sauce was a bit thin this time.

Next to where we are sitting is a big display by Jaguar - the new Jaguar XK is quite nice. Particularly the convertible model. There is a good looking burgundy coloured example, with tan leather seats and roof. Then you look at the price. The normal model is RM 900,000, and the convertible price is even higher. Sigh.

The papers here can be very tedious. Today's edition of the Star is full of two things - football (soccer) and the King's birthday. And many small articles where one or other politician said something that the reporters found interesting. It's funny that the world news is more than two thirds of the way through the paper each time.

Time to go...

Another Sunday

Another Sunday afternoon - text chatting with family in NZ, catching up on news of the extended family spread around the world.

A couple of weeks ago we spent a couple of days at Japamala - a small hotel on Tioman island. The setting was great (see the photo), but the hotel felt a little like a 3-star trying to be a 5-star. Certainly charged 5-star prices. I think I would prefer The Andaman on Langkawi instead. It's that much more mature, albeit bigger and therefore more people around.

Spent some time this afternoon buying a backpack for the trip. Trying to find something that fits comfortably... If you are carrying 60 litres of "stuff" around, I guess it needs to fit properly. Although how much walking we're going to do is uncertain....

Now faced with the boring side of things - expense claims for work, next year's budget (due on Monday), laundry, or washing yesterday's dishes. Which reminds me of a nice bottle of wine we had last night - Wither Hills Pinot Noir. Not a bad drop if you can find it. Another bottle I have sitting waiting to be consumed is Kumeu River Pinot Noir. It's always nice to know the area, and it's true in this case. Driving past the winery, it does look like the picture.

The Challenges of Programming

An interesting article on slashdot about whether kids still learn to program computers.

I remember starting with an Acorn Electron that mum and dad bought. Spent lots of time typing in programs, including "Frogger" which covered multiple pages of code printed in a magazine. Of course at that time I had no idea what I was typing. The commands were primarily in assembly language, but it was still fun seeing (and playing) the end result.

The article on slashdot asks whether kids still learn to program. One response makes a valid comment about the high barriers to entry. These days if you want to achieve something useful on the web you need to download lots of software (say Apache, PHP, mySQL, Java SDK, an editor like Eclipse) and then figure out the architecture and how to make it work. For sure there are tutorials available, but it can be a long road to travel before you complete the old "Hello World" starter example.

Long Weekend

Ahhhhhhhhh......

The start of a long weekend. It's actually one of three weeks that will be four-day-weeks - in a row! This Monday coming is a national holiday in Malaysia. Friday of the following week is also a holiday, plus we're taking the following Monday off.

On the four-day weekend we're heading to Tioman island to a place called Japamala. It looks good on paper, we'll have to see what it's like in reality. It should be a good time - driving from KL.

Another missive from Dad today - spend 15 minutes struggling to decipher his infamous handwriting. Good to see what's happening back in NZ.

Friends from NZ (living in India) are coming to visit in June. It will be good to see them, but we've got to work out how to fit the kids into the bedrooms in the best way. They should enjoy the pool, and there are a few things to do that are close. I expect the best part will be the food choices available in KL when compared to Ooty in India. Of course it will be much more focussed on Chinese, and generally much spicier. We'll see what happens.

Sunday

Another week gone. Time moves so quickly sometimes - it's not long since the start of April, and suddenly the end of the month is within sight.

Sitting in the Coffee Bean (again), looking at stuff on the notebook, generally passing the time. Not a bad way to start the day.

We're planning the trip around the world (in somewhat less than 80 days). Today's task was to find the cheapest way for 5 adults and 1 kid (4 yr-old) to get from Toronto to Niagra for the day. Turns out it's as you would expect - rent a car. VIA rail is more expensive (approx C$ 28 per adult) and the bus can be even more so.

The other interesting task is working out what clothes to pack for a two-month trip. Coming from KL (day-to-day temperature is 32 degrees centigrade) and visiting Europe (UK and Scandinavia), then Canada and finally Los Angeles. The cooler temperatures are going to present some challenges. And all to be packed in one bag each. Interestingly there are lots of websites that offer advice on packing for trips around europe. One site purports to show how to travel with one carry-on sized bag. Good if you can swing it, I guess.

Travels and other stuff

The last three weeks have been filled with trips - a trip to Bangkok to meet Wendy (friend of the family living in India), a trip to Penang, and in the week just gone, a trip to Hong Kong. It's been good to be home this weekend.

Bangkok was fun - found a great seafood place, (excellent lobster, and a spicy chilli fish dish). Got a couple of suits made at a place recommended by some people from work. Sam at Gulati's did a great job of minimising my round stomach. The shirts look good as well...

Penang was a bit of a whitewash. A day off turned into a day of working from a hotel room. Still, a good meal at an Italian cafe, and a good Thai place the following night salvaged some of the weekend.

Hong Kong was all about work- two days of work surrounded by a good day-and-a-half of travel. However, HK is a great city and very much alive. Cuisine-Cuisine is an excellent restaurant in the IFC Mall.

KL Conference Centre is hosting an PC Fair, and part of today was spent fighting through the crush of the crowds to see what is happening. Ended up buying a laptop (Sony Vaio), and then of course we needed to buy a wireless router to connect up to the broadband connection. It's amazing how the money just keeps going into the same black hole... The laptop will be great for keeping in touch on the trip around Europe and North America.

Now watching the DVD of "Mrs Henderson Presents". It's a great movie, in the same style as "The Calendar Girls". Well worth watching.

The Long Way Around & UK Scenery

I have been sorting photos from the past years and came across this one. It was taken north of Manchester on the way back home from Edinburgh, Scotland. Believe it or not, we'd stopped at one of the motorway services for a rest and looked out through the window. A wonderful lake, and with the snow making things look even better. I remember it was amazingly quiet - the snow seems to dramatically dampen the sound of the traffic. Wish we were there again...

I received a DVD for Christmas (thanks mum and dad) called "The Long Way Around" and have just finished watching all of it (two DVDs). Ewan Macgregor and Charlie Boorman riding BMW 1150 bikes from London to New York heading east. A really good series to watch - worth looking for. Originally shown on TV (in UK, I guess) as a seven-part series.

Another day at the office. Letter from Evan & Kirsten when we got home after fighting the KL traffic at rush hour. Funny how it doesn't matter how much effort it invested in the KL roading network, the jams just keep getting bigger and bigger...

Looking for holiday destinations for the coming year - somewhere warm, a little quiet, and not too expensive. There are lots of places advertising around Phuket (etc.), but they all seem to be very expensive, or look like there will be a million German/French tourists lying around the pool (after they get up at 6:00am to use their towels to reserve a sun lounger until they're ready to use it around lunch time). Still, when you find a place that works out, the search is worth it.

Back to the letter - Evan's 40th birthday this year. Will mean another trip to Canada - late summer this time, which will bea nice time to visit. Looking forward to that.

First day back

Today was the first day back at work after the long break. Most of my teams are still away on holiday for the rest of this week, so it was a pretty slow day. Still, got a chance to complete a lot of tasks that had been outstanding for a while.

We're going through BS15000 certification (you may know it as ITIL) at the moment, so today's tasks included writing the Service Management Plan, Service Improvement Plan, and Account Management Plans.

Tomorrow promises to be another day in a similar vein, although it is Friday so leading up to the weekend is good. Nothing like a two-day week to ease back into things.

Chinese New Year

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

For us, this Chinese New Year was spent relaxing by the pool at Bon Ton in Langkawi. A great small hotel with only seven rooms and therefore somewhere that we could get away from the bustle of KL. We were lucky enough to catch a couple of great sunsets while sipping cool drinks on the deck next to the pool. The picture is from the second night - I did not have the camera with me on the first night, however the sunset on the first night was even better. We really didn't move from the hotel all weekend, and have now managed to catchup on sleep and generally relax.

It's been hard trying to get organised to log entries here as you can tell. I looked at the date and it's a month since the first (and only) post. Promise to try harder.

The past month was gone reasonably quickly with (business) trips to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou. My first trip to Guangzhou, and it put paid to some preconceptions. Isn't that always the way? Much more developed than I'd expected.

Introduction

We have been living in KL for three years now, following on from a stint in Manchester, UK. We've found that our friends from New Zealand are slowly distributing themselves around the globe, and it becomes more difficult to stay in touch. We've just returned from 10 days in Ootacamund (see here) in the Nilgiri hills of Tamil Nadu (India) where we spent Christmas with two families of friends from NZ.

This picture was taken on the train from Ooty to Conoor. A slow train for sure, but worth the trip. Watch out for the Vadai available at the stations on the way.

This blog seems like a good idea to start staying in contact, publishing news, and generally staying up to date with goings-on. We'll see what happens over time.