From The Tally Book - My Wife the Trooper

Been a while since I have last written... well over due.... Cambodia... F1.. future... next week... cause right now it is all about my woman!.

Volunteers full time at Alice Smith... plus studies... plus looks after me and follows me around Asia....

To appreciate her commitment here are a couple of pictures...

First to set the scene - we are in Cambodia... brand new country... up at 3am... explored Phnom Penh all morning...

Yet my wife sits down and hammers out a big assignment...

But what is really the cherry on top is that she does all off this with an army of construction workers hammering away outside (for some strange reason they chose to exclude this from the hotel website - go figure)...

So that is my wife - a really trooper!

Ok that's it... see you-lah!

The Low Cost Carrier Terminal

it's early. real early. I'm pretty sure the dairy farmers weren't even up when our alarm when off this morning. It's back to the LCCT for us as we are heading to Cambodia, more specifically Phnom Penh.

we live opposite a train station called KL Sentral. It's ideal really. It's the station which the LRT stops (the one Nate takes to work), the KTM Komuter (the one I have never taken), the KLIA Express (an express train directly to the international airport) and then a train which takes you to a bus stop where you board a bus to take you to the LCCT. A station where, if you flying from KLIA (the fancy airport) you can check in right there. So KL Sentral is ideal, and so close!

it is the LCCT journey that we have done many, many times. and I don't think I'll ever get used to it!

it begins with a 15min walk to the station from our house. not bad. chuck in almost 100% humidity, three sets of stairs and a life threatening mad dash across a 6 lane highway... it's a little bit of a mish to say the least. you will arrive at the station to board the train sweating and a bit frazzled!

no complaints about the 30min train to the bus stop. it's a good opportunity to gather whats left of your nerves and to prepare you for the next leg of the journey - the bus and the actual process of getting out of this country.

As we arrive at the transfer dock, its starts to rain. go figure.

When you look at the bus, it really looks rather modern. fuschia pink with a big bold LCCT on the side. but inside the seats are tattered and you quickly figure out that the shocks are pretty much, well, shot. the kicker of it all is that there always seems to be a Malaysian version of Celine Dion blearing through a distorted radio. Normally it's ok but I was not loving it at 5.12am!

Right next to the fancy KL International Airport is the Low Cost Terminal. low cost is an understatement. it's the home of air Asia an it provides what can only be describe as a crappy, first and last impression for visitors. it's budget all the way.

as you step off the bus, a ribbon of battered taxi's greet you, with drivers trying to hassle a few more RM out of their victims, some on the horn, some double parked. it's no relaxing, serene experience that's for sure! once you are in the brightly lit shed it's chaos. people sleeping on the hard concrete floor, no seats to be found, long lines, people coughing without covering their mouths, sniffing back great clumps of lord knows what... and a consistent stream of annoucements, again over a distorted system!

Once you go through passport control, there is not a loo in sight... not that you would dare use the ones in the terminal. yuck does not even begin to describe what they are, the squat loo's the Muslims use are enough to make you start gagging. duty free consists of about 7 bottles of very fake looking Cior perfume (yes with a C not a D) randomly placed on a trestle table!

The whole experience makes me wonder if Air Asia is really worth it. With only midnight and super early flights on offer, and then the whole LCCT experience... it makes me wonder! For AU$75, yes?

Turn it up and have a groove

This kid is just the cutest little creation. I think its the smile at 1m14 mark that does it, oh and his outfit, afro and of course the moves... I love his moves and how much fun he is having. Will put a smile on your face whatever type of day you are having. He comes in at the 50 second mark, so hang tight, its worth it! Aloe Blacc's moves are smooth too, and his song will have you bobbing in no time.

We are off to Cambodia tomorrow morning - have to be at the airport at sparrow fart (5.30am) so need to leave home at 4.30. But it will be awesome - have a great weekend and enjoy this tune.

The Mitch + Bree Visit

The Friday finally arrived when it was time for Nate to head to the airport to collect our dear friends Mitch and Bree from the Low Cost Carrier Terminal. The Malaysian F1 Grand Prix was the focus of the trip -Mitch is a bit of a petrol head! I love that Bree got on board and came over for the weekend too. Nothing like a spot of shopping and solid girl time chucked in for good measure!

I thought I could shop. I mean come on, its a family trait. No-one can shop like the Bird girls (I use our maiden names, as since we have been married, that addiction seems to have been curbed by the men we are married to!) or the Rougier, Orton, Dowse (basically the women on my mothers side).

This weekend, I was totally schooled by Bree. That girl can solider on! We spent hours and hours in 10 storey shopping plazas. Just when I thought she was done, her magpie eyes laid onto another store, followed by another and another and another! Cheryl, you have raise one hardcore shopper!

and she has not even got close to anywhere near finished!

It was great to hang out and spend time together, I saw sights of KL I never knew were there. Bree is a local, and knows all the cheaper shopping malls. She was paying $15 for shoes and $10 for tops - incredible. I will admit I am a little bit of a snob and thought the malls were the only place for me, but I have been converted to shopping in big warehouse type malls, under white bright fluorescent lights, where you cant try anything on and one size fits all - you have to literally dig to find anything worthwhile! But when you do - gosh it is so worth it!

Getting a pedicure to break up the shopping

All in all, it was great to have them both here. Although it was a whirlwind of a trip with a very hairy airport run to finish it off!

USQ - Week 4

Looking in the rear view mirror at the highlights of Week 4 (according to the USQ timetable!)

Monday
Sleep in
Lilebeth cleaned the house
My Uni books arrived. Finally.

Tuesday
Found out my smallest brother was going to visit
Knocked off a huge chunk of one of my assignments
Had my first stare off with a student
Found out my smallest brother was not going to visit

Wednesday
Found out my smallest brother was going to visit. again.
Knocked off another huge chunk of a different assignment
Got chucked in the deep end and told I needed to teacher my first lesson for a teacher who had gone off ill. 5 mins before it started. eeek.
Stayed up till 1am building ikea furniture.

Thursday
Finished off building ikea furniture
Fetched my smallest brother from the airport
Hang times with the smallest brother

Friday
Brekky with the smallest brother
Submitted Assignment 1
Mitch and Bree arrive.

Its going to be a packed weekend of showing our most beloved friends and my brother KL. Mitch and Nate are off to the F1 while Bree shops up a storm and Steve and I cruise around.

Its been fun watching Steve cope with Asia. I love the dude, dont get me wrong. But this is his first time in Asia. He is used to Europe, its clean streets and its hygienic resurants and manicured parks. Watching him and his facial expressions is a hoot. Asia is chaos and filled with the most amazing culture groups, sights, smells {not the good ones!] and sounds.

When I think back to when I first arrived, I did turn my nose up at street food, I would not show my legs (?), would not shop at the markets, would only go to the tried and tested "whitey" places for meals, would not eat any meat, anywhere. Being the minority group was hectic and something I was not used to!

Now I will happily go to our local hawker joint, sit on metal chairs, eat off plastic plates with their cutlery, casually order chicken off the bone and not bat an eye lid at a cockroach running around. I am pretty proud of how Nate and I have embraced this place! I was reading an article in the Association of British Woman's monthly mag, and it was 10 ways expats can settle in. We have nailed all 10! Nate has lead the way, if he was not here I would back in Perth pronto! We have totally immersed ourselves in the Malaysian way of life. I think its the only way to do it.

Having Steve here has reminded me of my journey over the last few months. Its hard to gauge whether he is loving it, or kinda yet to make up his mind about this place! Nothing beats having family here though and I am so so glad he is here! Love you bro :-)

Chilled...

... is not how I am feeling at the moment! We have Mitch and Bree coming on Friday which I am totally excited for. Steve (my recently Olympic qualified brother) may be coming to stay from Thursday to Tuesday, which I really hope happens because that would just be awesome. I have my nose in my books, madly trying to get my assignment done BEFORE they come so, come Monday when they are due, I am not running around like a madwoman!

If only I could concentrate! Once at University, I can remember leaving a heap of work for the last minute (true Ruth style) so I bought a couple ADHD pills off a friend, hoping I would be like a hamster on steroids on that wheel thing they run on. I sort of kind of wish I had them now so I could just zone in, a skill I do not seem to possess! So I have found another way, to just access some freaking self control and keep my butt cheeks on this seat and apply myself.

Its going well so far. I think. Written a blogpost, caught up on FB news, found this rad song (James Vincent McMorrow - We Don't Eat)

No no, I have done some work. Its going swell. :-/

Wise Wednesday + An update

This is exactly how I am feeling today!

I started my three days a week at Alice Smith School and CRAP-A-DACTAL, this working/studying full time is going to be a little more effort than I thought. The reason why I am only doing 3 days and not 5 is because initially I thought 2 full days at home working on uni work, and then the 2 free periods I have asked for during my school day, should be enough. 

EEEEEEER, I couldn't be more wrong! I find that those two periods a day blitz by and I can hardly sit down to do some Uni work before the bell goes. Did you know that after prison, the school environment is the most monitored and structured? Heck. No wonder I hated the place! 

But its so fantastic! I love it. I love the subject of Geography, it is so relevant! I am slowly being intergrated into the lessons, so am observing for now, and doing some assistant jobs like handing out white boards, in group work I walk around making sure everyone understands. I find myself wanting to do the task. Today the year 7's were looking at Pros and Cons of Tourism in Maasai Mara... I found myself putting up my hand to contribute... um, thats awkward! Also I am getting annoyed when children do not take my brilliant input, like for example, the Year 9s are doing adaptations, one kid was struggling to choose an animal to do a poster on, I suggested a camel (you know, long eye lashes, fat humps... perfect animal to do in terms of how its adapted), do you think the kid wanted to do it... NO. He did a wolf. LAME. So I need to work on a few things, that is clear. 

All in all its been a good few days at school, but now I am super behind with Uni work. Lets hope I find my groove sooner rather than later, otherwise I'll be doing this over 2 years or my husband is going to be hauled in to do my assignments. At least I know I'll get HD's for those! Actually, not a bad plan...

Monday's and Thursday's

One of the many perks of living here is this amazing lady.

Lilebeth the Lovely

She is here twice a week to clean our house. And my goodness she does an awesome job. The whole maid/cleaner thing over here is a topic of much conversation amongst the expat wives club. I am always so interested to hear the different perspectives from "I am not used to having someone in my house cleaning" to "I clean before she gets there so she doesn't judge me" to "she comes on holiday with us".

Being South African, I have grown up with maids, the first load of washing I ever did was when I was 23 years old! I can remember when I arrived in Perth in 2008 and my mum handed me a bucket full of cleaning products which I was like "um, so do you want me to leave this somewhere for the cleaner?" - which got the response of "my darling, YOU are the cleaner, this is Australia". Talk about a shock to the system! And my goodness I detest it! I am very happy to be back in a country where it is seen as the right thing to do - I mean come on, we are helping the unemployment rate out!

It is a bit of an 'abusive' occupation, most of the cleaners are educated and from the Philippines, Cambodia and Indonesia. They cant get work here or in their home countries so they end up being cleaners, most of them are illegal. Which totally opens the door for crappy stuff to happen. They sign up with cleaning companies who end up keeping most of the money leaving the cleaner which not much for themselves.  The amount of stories I have heard of employees taking the cleaners passport off them, not paying them because they threaten to hand them over to immigration... its really not very nice.

So I am really glad we have Beth. I am not 100% what her visa status is, but thats okay I do not need to know! She worked for a few families in the condo area for a while before they moved back to their home towns. She originally asked for RM10-15 per hour. Thats a huge $3-$5 per hour. Freak, I felt like I was breaking some labour law so didn't really think that was fair compensation. She is more than just a cleaner, she is a friend,  person I sort of pay to be my friend. Which is kinda weird! We have the best chats - well that is before I had my nose in my studies - and I really have got a huge respect for her and her story. She makes my life a breeze!

High five to you Beth x

Around the World

I am getting pretty excited :-) We have so much travel in store, and we are only 2 full months into the year! 

A wedding in the UK - June 2012 {cousin Blake and Juliet}

A potential jaunt to the Olympics - August 2012 {praying for you Stepha}

A wedding in South Africa - August 2012 {cousin Lauren and Garett}

A white Christmas in Norway - December 2012/2013 {best mate Tom Roach here we come!}

Another wedding in South Africa - April 2013 {best friend Sarah and Jonty}

What's even more exciting is peppered around those trips are weekend's away to places near by, like Cambodia for example, in 3 weekends time! 

AND just as I thought it couldn't get any better, we have visitors! Mitch and Bree (soon!!), Timo and Steph {Easter}, The Crouch's {TBC}, The Sale Buma's {TBC}, the Geraldton Buma's {September/October}, Number 5 {July}... *sigh* 

I sit back in my chair and give thanks to my God for his abundant blessings.  I am totally overwhelmed by His provision in our lives. He is so good. 

The Balloon Party

Mollie and Annabelle had their birthday party on the Sunday that has just been. After spending most of Saturday evening helping Liz and Dougal with the prep, I have a new found respect for the amount of effort that goes into party planning! You would think that because the little ones are more than likely to never remember all the details of their 4th and 2nd birthday parties it would be a relaxed affair! Oh how wrong I was!

There are invites to make and send out, last minute rsvp's/arrivals, cakes to bake, party food to buy, rooms to decorate, party bags to assemble, adults to entertain and feed, kids to entertain and feed, the cleanup, the noise you have to tolerate, the sugar-overload melt downs to manage... all on minimal sleep because you were up until 3am icing cakes and your kids decided to wake up at 5am due to excitement of the day ahead and the worst of it - no pause button in sight. 

Just makes me treasure these moments of just Nate and I. 

All in all, the morning when smoothly and the girls loved it. I did start secretly writing lists of ideas for when its my turn. Lets hope we still live in Asia where labour is cheap and the maids can do all the unpleasantries! 

Warriors

It seems as though my our lazy Saturday mornings have been highjacked by footy fixtures! Nate has joined a footy team - The Malaysian Warriors. He has only made two practises so far, both I think were on about 4 hours sleep, but he seems to be in the starting line up and plays for most of the game!

On Saturday we headed down to Nexus International School where The Warriors took on the Irish in some WEIRDO version of AFL. There were soccer nets and round balls being used - wow, they sure do know how to ruin a game (in my opinion). It was a family affair for sure, loads of kids and even some dedicated wives behind the barbie cooking a few snags for the spectators.

It's very very serious business this footy thing - each quarter there is a pep talk and the boys really do get nice and pumped up. I had a great time watching my love in action. Need to work on kicking those points though, hey honey? :-) He is working on a blogpost so I wont say much more.

Pep talk

Run, honey, run!

Life saving fans

What's a day in KL without a bit of rain? 

And thats a wrap

Sunday Morning

they are my favourite mornings of the week after Saturday mornings. We normally head to church, but this morning, at 11am, we have Mollie (4) and Annabelle's (2) joint ballon birthday party.


I love the weekends. Mostly because Nate and I get to lazy in bed till 8.30/9.00 and there is no rush, which is a nice change to the weekdays where he is out the bed at 5.30am. It's my bliss. On Saturdays we usually head out for a brunch to Antipod Cafe, where their all day brekky and creamy coffees never disappoint.

When it comes to food, I am not one for trying anything new, once we have found a winner, why move? When Zach was here he mentioned we should try Plan B for brekky. I was hesitant, it belongs to a chain of other eateries - - - not really something I usually go for. But I got a rather nice surprise. They do poached eggs - winning. And their coffee is actually good.

Here we are at Plan B this morning enjoying a delicious coffee waiting for our poached eggs to arrive.

I love weekends with my husbo :-)

Um?

really?