Health and safety

Yes it has been awhile since the last blog. I think it is the equivalent of winter over here. Lots of rain which interrupts our plans. Its been getting down to a chilly 23 degrees Celsius.

I was sick previous week with a cold. Come share in my misery I said to the girls but it was to late as Glynis and Seren had escaped to Bangkok for a few days. Hope fully she is going to blog about it soon.

 Without taking to much of her story there was an issue with taking plastic snakes on a plane. Maybe they saw the movie. Anyway, on the day they arrived back we were walking to our local eatery. Seren was holding her new best friend, a rather cheap and fake looking plastic toy snake. Myself and Glynis were discussing how much the airline over reacted.  Just then a women came out of a shop and saw seren with the snake. She screamed and started cowering in the doorway.  Maybe we have under estimated the snake thing.

 One thing for sure, if I ever have any issues over here I am going to bring a plastic snake to the party, Apparently they are better than nunchakus and knives.

Serenity's school do not teach her to swim. It is not part of the syllabus over here. I suppose because there is much nasty jellyfish (the round ones ok, box shaped not so good) and pollution so swimming is not big . Her school does have a swimming pool but for unknown reasons she does not get to use it. We have booked seren to have lesson once a week at the Chinese swimming school . They have flood lights over the pool and I was watching a guy change the bulb. His ladder only reached 1/2 way up the pole but he just shimmied up the rest of it like it was a coconut tree and changed the bulb. H & S officials (OSH) in NZ would have had a fit.

After the swimming we had a nice meal at one off the large malls. I could not help but notice the waitress had her thumb in my soup and covering her entire fingernail. Maybe this is a safety feature to check the soup is not to hot. The soup tasted of chicken which was nice because that it what I ordered. I did detect a slight hint of thumb and parsley.

Our short cut road was out of service. I assume the guy was asking me why I tipped the truck up. We politley made our excuses and left.

The plinth that our air conditioning unit sits on was blocked with water. The only way to get to it was squeeze out of a small window opening 12 stories high. The apartment management press ganged the cleaner into service because he was the smallest. He is very brave. Free climbing was not in his job description.













We have a few things in the diary going forward. German beer feast was last night, (I dont feel great) , Halloween next week, Glynis Little India tour (in Penang) and we have booked Vietnam in December.

Just had a knock at the door. Two officials wanted to inspect our toilets. Was it some thing I did. No, they are fogging the whole complex. (Spray for mosquitoes).

cheers for now

Gecko

I like geckos in the house. Fascinating little creatures and they keep the insect population down. I could live with them. Unfortunately for the geckos, Glynis does not see it that way. Screams from the kitchen alerted me to fact there was an unwelcome visitor.

He was hanging on the kitchen ceiling with not a care in the world. I don't jump so the plan was to scare him with a broom (no touching) so that he moved to the walls and into my waiting Tupperware.

I stood below him , looking forward to watching him scurry upside down and across the ceiling. They have spider man skills. The gecko didn't read the script. He just let go. Freefalled, terminal velocity.

Well Serenity thought it was hilarious. She has never seen her Dad do the i have a unexpected reptile on my shoulder dance. A quick faststep around the kitchen floor and my partner then left me to hide under the fridge. Very similar to my experience in the school disco.

We did manage to corner him a few hours later. He had made his way to the kitchen bench where I maneuvered him into the sink.  Once in the slightly wet stainless steel sink his powers evaporated. The little feet were moving but he wasn't going anywhere apart from my plastic box and outside.

Festorama

A demon about to be let loose on the world. Also a guy with paint on his face.

Dr Dre would be impressed. Check out the video from previous post

Can I name it fluffy and keep it

The moon cake eating race. I know what you are thinking but I had just had lunch. I may start training for next year. Moon cakes are very similar to a pie but with a sweet filling. This should be a doddle for me. I resisted the urge to say it would be a piece of cake or a picnic

Some sweet older women dancing with murderous looking fans. They knew how to use them. The air would crack whenever they flicked the fans open

A lot of the show had everyone kung fu fighting. Those cats were fast as lightning. In fact it was a little bit frightening But they fought with expert timing.

Drum

Pump up the volume

 

Village

 How about we visit a traditional fishing village. The drive here took forever, which is how you find anything traditional. Of course with any long drive and young people in the car there is always that annoying voice going on "Are we there yet". This went on for an hour or two until I got bored and stopped saying it.

It was the first place where communication has been difficult. Lets put the fault where it lies. We only speak english and don't even do that very well. A  girl at a nearby table helped translate our order and we had lunch.

Glynis perusing the dried fish while Seren is on lookout duty.

Do not park your car here. It leaves tire marks on the shrimps.

Foam

 Seren enjoying the foam party. To be honest it was hard to tell as we did not see much of her.

 

The suds were really hard on the eyes. One thing for sure, all the kids were squeaky clean.

 Nothing like a big toothy grin to show you survived

 

0 to Hero

Seren bouncing down the treetop platform

Do the treetop canopy walk they said. It will be fun they said.. This why I cant do fear factor. It was terrifying. The last time I was this scared was with Jamie at the gold coast amusement parks. How did I get in this position again?

I saw no vegetation or landscape. Just focused my tunnel vision on the platform and not the long fall to the rocks in the stream below. Taking baby steps. Somewhere in the distance I heard Glynis laughing.  "Look how white your face is, I am going to take a video". I was beyond caring.

We survived the treetop episode and were making our way back down the jungle path that meandered around the coast. Seren got her shoe stuck in a tree root and glynis helpfully gave her leg a heave. Suddenly the shoe is dislodged and goes sailing through the air in slow motion. There was so many places it could have landed but no, it tumbles over the side of the cliff  and into the sea.

Seren suddenly started loudly sobbing. Maybe it was thought of having to hop 1000m thought the jungle path on one foot.

I had more serious concerns. Do you know the cost of children's footwear. I had to save this shoe. Quickly as a flash I scrambled down the bank and into the sea. Not that heroic, it was only a little above my knees. I found the shoe floating like a little boat, and being washed in and out of a little cave. Managed to grab it with a big stick. The tension was palpable. I was redeemed.

Fruit

I have no bananas. Glynis was making me store my bunch out on the deck ( She saw an ant on one banana). I was cool with this. Nothing like sitting out on the deck and kicking back a banana or two after a hard day at the office. Of course I was careful to time my consumption. I wanted to enjoy them all week but not have them get to mushy.
Then disaster struck on day 3.  During the night a pack of marauding geckos furiously attacked my bunch. Writing this is helping me come to terms with what happened and I now feel I can finally  let go....also look what is in our fridge.

The red fruit is a dragon fruit. Stains like you would not believe and very juicy. Great favourite with seren as she thinks she is drinking dragon blood.

The big bunch of brown fruit are longan. They are similar to a lychee. I crack the outer with my teeth then peel them open. They have a black stone inside which you do not eat.

Saved the best for last. The mangosteen are the two dark purple fruit. There is quite a bit of husk to them but inside is this great white fruit. I did wonder why at the fruit stalls the vendors seemed to be always eating mangosteen. They just didn't look very nice so I never bothered. But then , without going to Monty Python, just out of curiosity I tried a bit. What a flavour. Things will never be the same.

Gym

 Great view from the gym. The gym is massive and the photos do it no justice. Rows and rows of cardio gear. It also has a purpose built functional training area. This does not show the weights or Studio rooms. The gym has just started so got a years membership for $330 NZD

 

  

Bird

Seren holding a Hornbill. It was heavy ,so she was dropping her arm and the bird was clawing deeper so not to fall off the perch.

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There is a vending machine that gives out little plastic capsules. Open them up and what joy. They are full of live wriggling maggots that you can then feed to the birds.

This little fella was so cute. He sat patiently on a branch making little beep noises.

Odds and Sods

Did you know when we booked our flights it was $150 NZD cheaper for us to fly to KL , have a stop over , then fly to Penang rather than just go to only KL. This still confuses me.

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We did not realise it but when our phone was installed it did not allow international calls. I reported the fault but was told we had not applied for the international calling package. Here we go.

 How much is the international calling package I asked?     It is free.

 So how do I apply for it ?      You ask me now as I am recording this phone call.

 So I clicked my heels 3 times, asked the question and we should be able to make international calls in a few days. Maybe.

 

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 I had a bad case of man flu last week (there is no good case). Yep, that sucker took me low.  The chemists over here are great. They give great advice and can prescribe medicine. I visited one who gave me a   prescription which was cheaper than Glynis's coffee hit. Within two hours I had rebooted and was humming smurf songs.

Now why do we have to go to the Doctor in New Zealand when we too have highly educated pharmacists? Why are we wasting the Docs time with our snivelling runny noses? The Malaysian way seems better. 

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One of the major differences in Penang is the driving. It is just so far from anything you would ever experience in New Zealand. It seems to be an endless procession of close calls. It has taken time but I have now re-calibrated what is considered a close call. I now have a very tiny ruler.

The driving is out of necessity. You have to pull out in front of on coming vehicles if you want to move, you have to just stop and park on the road if you want to pick up a snack as there is little parking, you have to go three abreast on the two lanes to keep the traffic flowing.

The only way to survive the driving is to join in... which I do with a vengeance. Honestly, some days I am so bad I really feel I should turn myself in. Of course I cannot because there does not seem to be any higher authority to enforce road rules. I suppose like New Zealand the police cannot be everywhere. 

But here is the massive difference. Any slight deviation from the road code in NZ would be meet with a barrage of horn honking and arm waving from your fellow motorists. They would be yelling quite horrible remarks and calling you nasty names like " Mr smelly pants". Some would even go so far as to insinuate you got your license from a box of Hubbards lightly toasted apricot and papaya muesli. People can be cruel.

Now,what happens in Penang. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero. You can do what ever you like and no-one is going to be offended, beep a horn or raise a voice. Its almost like the fellow motorists in Penang do not see my driving as a personal insult directed towards them. It is very liberating and I am going to follow their lead.