Normality

Yes I am posting again, mostly because my parents keep nagging me. You would have thought that travelling to the other side of the world would be an escape from your mothers constant grumbling that i haven't done things and dads helpful, yet very repetitive tips. I love them really, dispite what i might say, or do, or think most of the time.

Malaysia is still as amazing 6 weeks in as it was the first night we arrived, however I have noticed  that we have settled into a routine that is not so different that at home. Ill  wake up at 7, ehhhhh, head over to school around 8, sit around for an hour or teach a class then go for breakfast. While James devours a huge plate of rice with sauce, meat and vegetables (the amount my partner can eat is unbelievable and I thought I ate alot) I will have a doughnut with a Milo (basically hot chocolate but made with condensed milk). My ideal breakfast, and actually approved in Kelantan as it is considered he sweet state of Malaysia. Thats the morning, then lessons until 2 at which time we go over to the dining hall for lunch. Oh we will probably have had a mid morning snack with the office staff. They are fantastic, however whenever we go in they always seem to be doing no work and are sitting around eating food. They always have food. After an afternoon of jamming on the guitars (until my string snapped, upon which I found acquiring guitar strings in Malaysia in impossible. A request for some was sent home very promptly) we will join the boys for an hour of football at 5. these kids are insane, they play on concrete in bare feet (James tried this, and promptly couldn't walk for 3 days). Then its dinner at half 6, maybe an evening class after that and bed at around 10 (the kids think we are boring as they stay up till around 2 in the morning, I personally think they are zombies). James has now decided that sharing a room is uncool, so he wants to be free in another room. I think he has just abandoned me, but this does mean I can sing as loud as I like in my shower now. Also I got to organise stuff, which is of course one of my favourite past times.

We had a rather hectic weekend this week. The original plan was to visit the girls (Helena and Alex) at Kuala Krai for a day trip. They then decided to come to us and go bowling. Well we soon discovered that maintaining our manliness and beating the girls at bowling was harder than it looked. Alex had an interesting technique, bowl at a snails pace but get ridiculous numbers of strikes, we couldn't believe it, even I was stumped for an explanation. Luckily for us boys I maintained a decent while James was useless and Helena attempted to destroy the gutter with every single bowl. Finally the boys emerged victorious and thus our dignity (or what's left of it) remained intact.

Then the boys from Besut phoned 'Can we come stay with you, we are having a spontaneous shopping trip to Kota Bharu and have no way to get home', sigh. Having just been paid the day before (RM874) and feeling like we could buy the world James and I of course went it to join them. Many boy things were bought, including knifes, lighters, an nether region trimmer and even a sword. it was a good day. Getting back to Pasir Tumboh was an interesting experience as we decided to save money and squeeze five people into a Malay cab. Now Malay cabs are built for FOUR Malay people who are on average smaller than Mat Salleh. it was not a comfortable ride home but we did make it. We saved RM3 each, around 60p.

That evening we took to the local  night market. Quite possibly the most disorientating place  I have ever been, even worse that Gold DofE when we were up the top of a Munro, the fog came down and Kirsty Alexander said ' don't worry guys, ill read the map'. Oh dear. The night market however was incredibly beautiful, with people selling ever manner of things imaginable, from shirts to jeans, torches to watches etc. I had my first experience of haggling and quickly discovered I am awful at it.  Ill leave that to James in the future as I accidentally managed to pay more for something that the original stated price. Using our trusted squeeze method of travelling once again we returned home. James and I then dug out some chilli for dinner that we had cooked. Th first comment from the boys was 'this doesn't taste like chilli, there isn't enough chilli in it', never satisfied huh. True it did taste like  cottage pie with no potato but it was home made and slaved over. The option of 'add some more chilli was requested' so what can you do.

The next day we took of trip to Kota Bharu again, this time to sample some of the fantastic museum around the town. after getting very lost and lost some more we found the World War II museum. With an in depth look at the Japanese/American conflict in Malaysia and surrounding area it was very interesting. After Tom and Dale where nearly locked in for not paying attention to the announcement of 'the museum is now closing'  we heading home. The boys then abandoned me, including James and went back to Besut to be dropped off. I then cleaned and begun our favourite weekend activity, boiling 25 litres of water. The mains water is undrinkable, so in reparation for the week we boil and cool all our water at the weekend, it takes many many hours. I also found that for the first time, a visit had been made and nothing in the entire house was broken thus miracles are true.

Next  week there is a mid term break for Hari Raya Raga and marking the end of PMR exams for form 3 (the sort of equivalent to Standard Grade/GCSE) and we are taking a trip to Langkawi, a big duty free island of the coast near Penang. I shall post an entry about that on return, however we are all rather excited, mostly for the opportunity for consuming alcoholic  beverages may present itself. It seemed only fair that as my entire family leaves for my favourite place on earth, Florida and Disneyland I should have a holiday too. See you after a week of sun and beaches.