Riding the Cable Car
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Daisy's Birthday
This evening we celebrated Daisy's birthday. We are very lucky to have such a great amah taking care of our family. We went to Susie's Corner for a delicious steak dinner. Daisy opened her gift from us (a DVD player for her room) and since the DVD-guy was there with his pirated movies, she was able to pick out some new releases to go with her present. At home we ate birthday cake and sang happy birthday!Sunday, December 7, 2008
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Landslide in Bukit Antarabangsa
Last night a massive landslide occurred in Bukit Antarabangsa. Bukit Antarabangsa is hillside community about 5 km from where we live currently. Many of the families from ISKL live in the area including our friends, the Woodwards. They live above where the landslide occurred and were stranded. The landslide totally wiped out the only road that leads to the upper part of the hill along with electricity and utilities. Everyone has been evacuated. The Woodwards had to evacuate their home with their three small children and hike around the landslide on a footpath through the jungle (you can read more on their blog here). Luckily, the grandparents live nearby and the family can stay there until they are able to gain access to their home.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Thanksgiving Saturday at the Woodward's
Click here to visit the Woodward Family Adventures Blog.Fabulous food and friends were aplenty at the Woodward's Thanksgiving gathering on Saturday.
Our hostess, Nancy Woodward, with Reeve and Gaby engage in a friendly game of post-Thanksgiving-dinner Sorry with Rex and ISKL's headmaster, Paul Chmelik.
Click here to visit the Woodward Family Adventures Blog.
Reviving a Dead XBox
Here's how I spent my Saturday
afternoon...I had to hotswap my bricked xbox and reload files on it to get it working again. Here's the mess I created in the office:
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Swimming with the Woodwards
Click here to visit the Woodward Family Adventures Blog.
Today we had the Woodward family out for a swim. I pulled out Tom's surfboard, and the kids took turns going for a ride.
Rex and Reeve played pirates and spent time "raiding treasures, and overcoming enemies hidden on the edges of the rocky shores". We had great fun and enjoyed our time with the Woodwards!Click here to visit the Woodward Family Adventures Blog.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Check - I got you!
We started playing chess by using Skype, but now I am making moves and emailing them.
It is fun!!!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Welcome Back Daisy!
After two full months without a permanent replacement amah, Daisy has returned. It has been an extreme challenge for our family so much so that it is difficult to even start to explain. We had no idea how hard it would be to replace her. We couldn't. When you have someone living with you and taking care of your family and your home, you want a person that understands and sees what is needed without being told. It is part of the culture here to have a helper that lives with you and that you employ. We are getting used to the idea and we are so grateful to have Daisy living with us again. Now we in the processes of getting her work permit...
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Getting Tucked in by Grandma
Here I am in my crib with my puppy Curly. Tonight my Grandma Robin tucked me in. I love seeing my family on Skype!Monday, November 3, 2008
A Sleepover
Click here to visit the Woodward Family Adventures Blog.
Rex had his very first sleepover at his friend Reeve's house. This is a picture of Reeve, Rex, Gaby, and Rex's class bear - Val.
Click here to visit the Woodward Family Adventures Blog.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Trick or Treat - KL Style
Click here to visit the Woodward Family Adventures Blog.The Mooreheads had us out to their neighborhood in Taman Tar for Halloween. We had a lot of fun trick or treating in one neighborhood. Since
Halloween isn't so big in Malaysia, the expats have one area where you can trick or treat if you sign up and bring candy.(excerpt from the Woodward blog)
As you go up to houses there might be seven or eight pots of candies from those freeloaders (like us!) who don't live in the neighborhood.
Some just pull up their cars and pass out candy from the trunk of the car.
Click here to visit the Woodward Family Adventures Blog.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Halloween Party!
Click here to visit the Woodward Family Adventures Blog.
Our friends, the Eisens, had a huge Halloween party. They had top-notch decorations, creative games, super cool spooky treats, and load of kids. We had a great time. There was even a big toilet paper fight after the mummy wrapping contest.
Click here for a video of the games at the Eisen's Halloween party on the Woodward Family Adventures Blog.
Click here to visit the Woodward Family Adventures Blog.
Our friends, the Eisens, had a huge Halloween party. They had top-notch decorations, creative games, super cool spooky treats, and load of kids. We had a great time. There was even a big toilet paper fight after the mummy wrapping contest.
Click here for a video of the games at the Eisen's Halloween party on the Woodward Family Adventures Blog.
Click here to visit the Woodward Family Adventures Blog.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Entertaining at Our New Pad
Click here to visit the Woodward Family Adventures Blog.
Over our extended holiday for Hari Raya (the end of Ramadan), we spent the holiday moving to a new condo.
To celebrate our move, we had our friends, the Woodwards, over for a swim. They described our pool as: "it makes it seem like [we] are living at a resort".Click here to visit the Woodward Family Adventures Blog.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Dinner at the Equatorial
Our good friends Doug and Tracy invited us to a multi-course Chinese diner at the Equatorial Hotel.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Monkey Invasion
When things actually feel like they are could be settling down here, we get surprised by something crazy. For instance, last weekend while we were at a TGIF party, and our downstairs neighbor, Jamie calls us. On the phone he is making hooting and barking noises and proceeds to tell us that there are monkeys in our kitchen! At first I thought he was kidding (since, after all he was making hooting and barking noises in between sentences) but he quickly convinced us to come home. Evidently the hoots and barks were aimed at scaring off the monkeys. We rushed back and armed ourselves with a pair of plastic baseball bats and met Jamie in the hallway carrying a cricket mallet in one hand and a squirt gun in the other.
We busted through the door to the apartment banging on the walls with our bats… we frighten the monkeys out of the apartment and walked in
on the huge mess in the kitchen. The moneys broke in through an unlatched window in the pantry then opened the sliding door to the kitchen. They upended our trashcans and ate all our food (which we had just purchased the other day). Outside the window to the kitchen we could see literally FAMILIES of monkeys that had gathered… they obviously passed the work that there was a party at the Inskeep’s. The monkeys also happened open up a bottle of bleach in the pantry and dumped it out on the floor. At least we had something to disinfect the place with when we cleaned
We busted through the door to the apartment banging on the walls with our bats… we frighten the monkeys out of the apartment and walked in
on the huge mess in the kitchen. The moneys broke in through an unlatched window in the pantry then opened the sliding door to the kitchen. They upended our trashcans and ate all our food (which we had just purchased the other day). Outside the window to the kitchen we could see literally FAMILIES of monkeys that had gathered… they obviously passed the work that there was a party at the Inskeep’s. The monkeys also happened open up a bottle of bleach in the pantry and dumped it out on the floor. At least we had something to disinfect the place with when we cleaned
Sunday, September 7, 2008
It is an adjustment...
We have been totally engrossed in our transition in Kuala Lumpur and haven’t had much time to update family and friends on what is going on for us.
We are doing great. Adjusting to life here with two kids has presented its fair share of challenges, but the kids are much more resilient than the two of us. We have a great apartment currently with a beautiful view of the Petronas Towers.
It hasn’t been the best choice for the kids though as there are limited playmates. We have a small pool to splash around in which is nice. We are considering moving and have been looking at other places to settle in. We wake most work mornings to a quiet Muslim call to prayer http://balaams-ass.com/alhaj/calltoprayer.htm. It isn’t too loud. There are loud speakers on top of the mosque and depending on which way they are pointed really affects your real estate value and we are careful to choose the next home. Did I mention the monkeys in our neighborhood? They are good fun to watch in the trees outside through the windows of the condo. They are very smart. The day we were moving in, they came through one of the windows in the master bathroom and bit into nearly 5 bottles of much needed supplies like mosquito repellant, sunscreen, baby Tylonol, and hair conditioner. They like to get into the trash as well. Brian had a little confrontation with a few of them at the rubbish bins. I’ll tell more detailed stories of them on the next blog.
We have a live in helper called an amah. Her name is Daisy and she watches Phoenix while we are out, cooks most meals, cleans, and does the laundry. It is wonderful. She has just left today for a required trip to the Philippines. She needed to sort out her passport, her recent marriage, and then she will return again. We have a temporary helper that started today. It is a bit awkward, but it hasn’t ever felt awkward with Daisy. We really lucked out with the personality match. We thought that she was leaving for good and have spent the last month interviewing 13 potential amahs. Only one was a match. It is difficult to find a good live in helper. Hopefully, if all goes well for her then she will return in a few weeks.
Our days at work are an adjustment as well... new country, American school standards, new curriculum, new to teaching in the elementary school and high school, new teaching math (it’s been 15 years since I last taught math), new to the MAC platform, sketchy internet connections and network at school. It has been an adjustment. I laughed inside while I was trying to memorize all of the students’ names on the first day of school. Names, like Kim, Chung Su, Kim, Woo Sub John, Kim, Sang Woo, and Min Hyo, who are Korean boys who hardly speak any English. Then there is Diksha, Shiv, Gita, JiNa, Rhea, Juanita… it goes on and on. I have students from every continent except Antarctica! The kids and staff are incredible and I love, as does Brian, the people we work with. That makes it worthwhile. Everyone is very dedicated to kids.
Rex started the equivalent of Kindergarten called Prep Senior in our school. He was definitely ready for the grade despite his late birthday. He turned 5 on August 5th, the day before school started. He is good friends with Luke from Holland, a little girl named Jenin from India, and Ali from Malaysia. Rex secretly loves Lilia who is from Europe somewhere. As a matter of fact, today he said that we should move to Hampstead Rise Apartments because Lilia lives there. His teacher is from Florida and she is great. She says that he is truly a leader. It made me smile when she said that. He comes home singing new songs and counting by 2’s to 100 and all kinds of new things. Last week was Merdeka, Malaysia’s 51st Independence Day, and he came home with a Malaysian flag and told me all about the holiday. He takes swimming lessons twice a week at the elementary school. Yes, we have a great pool at both the elementary and middle/high school campuses. He is really growing up quickly and I love that he is already becoming so globally aware.
Phoenix is smiling all the time despite his constant battle with mosquitoes. They eat him up and do not even come near to any of the rest of us. He enjoys a few play dates here and there. We would like more for him and that is another big reason to cut our losses with our current condo and move. We have lots of new friends with kids, but none of the stay at home moms have cars yet. We are at the mercy of our amah to walk him places and we live on a big hill up sixty stairs, away from most people with kids. Did I mention the view? Anyway, he is still happy. He is always happy. I love that about him. He almost has all of his teeth and he loves to brush them. He says what’s this?, hot, oh, no, up, mom, ba (bottle), dad, Rex, thank you (here and there), and today I think that he said scary and your welcome. Don’t be fooled by all of the smiles… he is very demanding and gets what he wants when he wants it. He is growing and thriving at 17 ½ months.
Ramadan has just begun and we are witnessing the fasting ritual. I have a student who is Muslim and goes to the library with other Muslim children during lunch and break. Once sunset comes around 7:20 or so, then the feasting begins. We witnessed it tonight. There are restaurants near our home in an area called Naan (like Indian bread) Corner. The place was empty when we arrived and started to fill up quickly for the buffet. Many families sat with food on their plates and waited. Then in the distance, I heard the call to prayer (it is 5 times a day) and then on the television there was a caller too. We didn’t know that this was on TV too as we don’t have any cable at our home. Once it was over the feast began. Only 28 more days to go! By the way, our dinner cost a meager $7.50 US for the entire family. We think that it is less expensive to eat out than to eat at home. However, it really depends on where you eat. Tonight in Naan Corner there was a box by the counter which housed a stray cat and her kittens and another cat that was trying to eat Phoenix’s chicken satay without much success. He likes his food.
We’ve taken the kids to beach twice and I’m happy to be able to do that here...
We are doing great. Adjusting to life here with two kids has presented its fair share of challenges, but the kids are much more resilient than the two of us. We have a great apartment currently with a beautiful view of the Petronas Towers.
It hasn’t been the best choice for the kids though as there are limited playmates. We have a small pool to splash around in which is nice. We are considering moving and have been looking at other places to settle in. We wake most work mornings to a quiet Muslim call to prayer http://balaams-ass.com/alhaj/calltoprayer.htm. It isn’t too loud. There are loud speakers on top of the mosque and depending on which way they are pointed really affects your real estate value and we are careful to choose the next home. Did I mention the monkeys in our neighborhood? They are good fun to watch in the trees outside through the windows of the condo. They are very smart. The day we were moving in, they came through one of the windows in the master bathroom and bit into nearly 5 bottles of much needed supplies like mosquito repellant, sunscreen, baby Tylonol, and hair conditioner. They like to get into the trash as well. Brian had a little confrontation with a few of them at the rubbish bins. I’ll tell more detailed stories of them on the next blog.We have a live in helper called an amah. Her name is Daisy and she watches Phoenix while we are out, cooks most meals, cleans, and does the laundry. It is wonderful. She has just left today for a required trip to the Philippines. She needed to sort out her passport, her recent marriage, and then she will return again. We have a temporary helper that started today. It is a bit awkward, but it hasn’t ever felt awkward with Daisy. We really lucked out with the personality match. We thought that she was leaving for good and have spent the last month interviewing 13 potential amahs. Only one was a match. It is difficult to find a good live in helper. Hopefully, if all goes well for her then she will return in a few weeks.
Our days at work are an adjustment as well... new country, American school standards, new curriculum, new to teaching in the elementary school and high school, new teaching math (it’s been 15 years since I last taught math), new to the MAC platform, sketchy internet connections and network at school. It has been an adjustment. I laughed inside while I was trying to memorize all of the students’ names on the first day of school. Names, like Kim, Chung Su, Kim, Woo Sub John, Kim, Sang Woo, and Min Hyo, who are Korean boys who hardly speak any English. Then there is Diksha, Shiv, Gita, JiNa, Rhea, Juanita… it goes on and on. I have students from every continent except Antarctica! The kids and staff are incredible and I love, as does Brian, the people we work with. That makes it worthwhile. Everyone is very dedicated to kids.
Rex started the equivalent of Kindergarten called Prep Senior in our school. He was definitely ready for the grade despite his late birthday. He turned 5 on August 5th, the day before school started. He is good friends with Luke from Holland, a little girl named Jenin from India, and Ali from Malaysia. Rex secretly loves Lilia who is from Europe somewhere. As a matter of fact, today he said that we should move to Hampstead Rise Apartments because Lilia lives there. His teacher is from Florida and she is great. She says that he is truly a leader. It made me smile when she said that. He comes home singing new songs and counting by 2’s to 100 and all kinds of new things. Last week was Merdeka, Malaysia’s 51st Independence Day, and he came home with a Malaysian flag and told me all about the holiday. He takes swimming lessons twice a week at the elementary school. Yes, we have a great pool at both the elementary and middle/high school campuses. He is really growing up quickly and I love that he is already becoming so globally aware.
Phoenix is smiling all the time despite his constant battle with mosquitoes. They eat him up and do not even come near to any of the rest of us. He enjoys a few play dates here and there. We would like more for him and that is another big reason to cut our losses with our current condo and move. We have lots of new friends with kids, but none of the stay at home moms have cars yet. We are at the mercy of our amah to walk him places and we live on a big hill up sixty stairs, away from most people with kids. Did I mention the view? Anyway, he is still happy. He is always happy. I love that about him. He almost has all of his teeth and he loves to brush them. He says what’s this?, hot, oh, no, up, mom, ba (bottle), dad, Rex, thank you (here and there), and today I think that he said scary and your welcome. Don’t be fooled by all of the smiles… he is very demanding and gets what he wants when he wants it. He is growing and thriving at 17 ½ months.
Ramadan has just begun and we are witnessing the fasting ritual. I have a student who is Muslim and goes to the library with other Muslim children during lunch and break. Once sunset comes around 7:20 or so, then the feasting begins. We witnessed it tonight. There are restaurants near our home in an area called Naan (like Indian bread) Corner. The place was empty when we arrived and started to fill up quickly for the buffet. Many families sat with food on their plates and waited. Then in the distance, I heard the call to prayer (it is 5 times a day) and then on the television there was a caller too. We didn’t know that this was on TV too as we don’t have any cable at our home. Once it was over the feast began. Only 28 more days to go! By the way, our dinner cost a meager $7.50 US for the entire family. We think that it is less expensive to eat out than to eat at home. However, it really depends on where you eat. Tonight in Naan Corner there was a box by the counter which housed a stray cat and her kittens and another cat that was trying to eat Phoenix’s chicken satay without much success. He likes his food.
We’ve taken the kids to beach twice and I’m happy to be able to do that here...
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Merdeka in Langkawi
Hari Merdeka (Independence Day) is a national day of Malaysia commemorating the independence of the Federation of Malaya from British colonial rule, celebrated on August 31. Some dude 
swam back and forth the length of the beach a dozen times flying the Malaysian flags while we enjoyed gigantic Frangipani burgers from our beach villa patio.We had an incredible mini-vacation... returning to KL totally exhausted. While in duty-free-Langkawi we made sure we picked up lots of spirits. Malaysia taxes alcohol and other sinful treats quite heavily, so it is practically a requirement to return with a good supply of beverages.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
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