Penang

Week 34: 10/12/2012 - 16/12/2012

Dylan and I headed to Penang for the weekend in search of food and beer. Our Air Asia Chief Steward gave a hilarious safety briefing kicking off with:

"At Air Asia we take safety very seriously, we take YOUR safety very seriously. See. Look at the faces of the cabin crew. Soooooooo serious." 

First time I've listened to a safety announcement for a while.  

Beer and Food in CF Food Court

Due to booking late we ended up in a zero star motel. Our tiny room consisted of a double bed and a matress on the floor with a toilet in the corner barely enclosed with saloon doors. At least the air con worked. 

Friday evening we hit CF Food Court for some food and a few beers. It doesn't always pay to ask the locals where to drink, as afterwards we ended up at the weirdness of Bliss.... RM10 for a girl to talk to you... really?! We headed to Slippery Senoritas, which was entertaining. Unfortunately we switched to Whiskey and Coke which did not fit into the beer and food plan!

A dragon

We spent most of Saturday wandering the streets of Georgetown. We had a pretty good lunch at Sky Cafe (Chulia St), popped into Khoo Kongsi, visited the Clan Jetties of Penang, wandered past Fort Cornwallis, and then found a place for a couple of beer during the afternoon rain. My flip-flop broke as I crossed the road and I nearly got run over by a bus rescuing it!

We had dinner at the bustling hawker strip of Gurney Drive. All sorts of awesome food on offer, including Penang Koay Teow. You can definitely see the Chinese influence in the region. We headed up the road to Precinct 10 for our evenings entertainment. 

Some Ginger bloke

Sunday morning we managed to merge breakfast and lunch by moving straight from finishing Dim Sum at midday to ordering food at Restoran Kapitan 12:30! Kapitan was probably the best meal of our trip.

Secret Fong Wah

Week 33: 3/12/2012 - 9/12/2012

Hong Kong again? Why not, eh?

Friday: Isla, Fredel, Chris, Cicada, The Hennessy, Wan Chai.

Things I found out:

Chris Jack writes provocative messages on the Institution of Civil Engineer's message boards even though he's a Geologist.
Chris Jack rates irritating thing using Royal Mail Rubber Bands as a basis. ie... "That's Rubber Band Squared!"
Chris Jack can moan about anything (I already knew this).

Errrr, Fred? This isn't Cheung Chau.......

Saturday: Sneaked into Hong Kong Football Club for buffet lunch with Isla and Fredel.... then spent the evening at a Secret Santa BBQ at The Yacht Club courtesy of Fredel. Its good to have friends in high places.

Argh! Its a Lion riding a bicycle!!

Sunday: Awesome Dim Sum at City Hall, then a trip to Cheung Chau.... which actually turned out to be Peng Chau! We had a lot of fun riding a bicycle around followed up by some well earned sangria.

Christmas Punch

Week 32: 26/11/2012 - 2/12/2012

After a trip to the driving range with Charlie, we ended up in Bangsar police station, which suprisingly had nothing to do with the fact that I'd sliced about 30 balls over the safety net into the adjacent car park. Just a minor taxi accident requiring a statement. 

Charlie in Bangsar Police Station after we got shunted in a taxi

On Thursday I got a invite, quite randomly to the South Africa Ambassador's Cocktail Party, involving free wine and food. I made the most of it, which on a school night was not all that smart. I arrived into work 2 hours late on Friday!

Listening to the SA Ambassador's speech. Funny funny guy.

On Saturday I hosted my annual Mulled Wine event, in a completely different environment to Southville! It was supposed to be a pool party, but due to torrential rain from 3pm until 7pm, most time was spent huddling in the Gazebo (my condo bar).

Soooooo mature!

Good things about the Party:

1. People came, despite the weather
2. Pigs in blankets
3. Cheese and Pinaple on a stick (that's Christmas right?!)
4. Banter
5. Beer
6. Christmas punch (aka Mulled Wine)
7. Mince Pies
8. Bikinis

Bad things about the Party

1. Rain.
2. Tequila shots (Grrrrr..... Choi!!)
3. Mulled Wine (which was bascially wine punch, bits of jelly and ice cubes floating in it)
4. Trying to keep the bar staff from putting ice in the "mulled wine"
5. Being mercilessly mocked for the cheese and pinaple on a stick
6. Left over mince pies
7. Lack of Christmas jumpers
8. Sunday

Kareoke. Is. Fun?!

Week 31: 19/11/2012 - 25/11/2012

Having disrupted my in flight sleep, I ended up feeling a little jet lagged, so I had a quiet week. I did make some time to finally start painting my canvas.... Will it ever be finished... nobody knows.

Time for some whiskey......

On Friday evening I got invited out with the people I was supposed to have gone to Myanmar with (Zainab, Cory and Dylan), including my last minute replacement (Aimee). It was great to see everyone, but I couldn't help but feel a little left out of the holiday banter!! Any evening which ends up hanging out drinking whiskey and listening to rock is a great night in my book. Thanks for the invite Aimee!

Uke by the pool

Saturday the weather was beautiful, and after hanging out in Bangsar for a bit of lunch and a coffee, a bunch of us (spontaneously?!!!) headed back to my condo to hang out by the pool. It was lovely, kicking back and enjoying the sunshine.... until I noticed that I had no idea what anyone was saying..... I was surrounded by 3 Germans and 3 Austrians. I felt invaded!! After a few beers we headed for a bit of ten pin bowling. For a "relaxing" evening it all got a little bit intense. I nearly lost a shoe too!!

In order of appearance: Brunch, Baby Guinness, Jagermeisterbombs, jovial people, Odd Job, Dance floor clearing, photoshop.

Sunday was a champagne buffet brunch at the Intercontinental. Great to catch up with Marcello & Choi, Gavin & Ann-Marie and Becky, and meet Kev and ChrisTina. Civilized lunch rolled into afternoon drinking, shots, beer mat flipping, ball room dancing and then, obviously, Karaoke. A fun filled day, full of random conversations and silliness.

Farewell Blighty

Week 30: 12/11/2012 - 18/11/2012

As a bit of Thanks For Having Me I took my surrogate house mates, Juts, Susie and Dave, out for dinner. The usually family friendly atmosphere at Grounded was slightly disrupted, firstly when the waitress spotted me finishing my gravy with a straw (no spoons available), and then heard me saying "The whole fist Dave, the WHOLE fist!" whilst shaking my fist at Dave. Needless to say it was taken completely out of context.

Tuesday my big sister, Zoe, took me out for dinner at Raymond Blanc, which was great. The food was awesome, and we rounded it off with a couple of glasses of port.... which nearly came to the same price as the food!

Who wants to get the last tube home anyway??

Wednesday evening I was treated to Chris and Gemma's honeymoon photos..... all 1300 of them!!! I tried some of the chocolate that they had made too, very different from the Cadbury's.

Thursday I said my goodbyes in the Bristol Office, and then headed to Big London for the evening. Great to catch up with Briana & Mike, Nige, Howard, Tricky  Dicky and..... [drum roll please] Keke (couldn't avoid me forever!!). We headed to Vapiano, a kind of self service Italian restaurant, which was good fun. Some sensible people went home after dinner.... Three of us headed on to The Market Place (Howard's blog here) for a few more cheeky beers.

My flight back to KL was uneventful. I hardly slept at all as I was up and down so often... gotta keep moving.

50% German speakers...... Maybe I should learn. ACHTUNG!!!

Sunday evening I headed out with Lianne and Elke to the Sky Bar.... its nice to be back.

Dating Dave

Week 29: 5/11/2012 - 11/11/2012

Monday night was Bonfire Night, and Jutto provided some pre-dinner entertainment by setting off some rockets and volcanoes and other assorted things that go bang, whizz and pop in the back garden. I don't think I have ever been that close to fireworks in my life! The post dinner jaunt to the Hen and Chicken with Juts and Susie was great. A brisk walk in the crisp cold air followed by a couple pints of mulled cider. Sweet!

Tuesday was a chance to catch up with Carys in The Old Bookshop, a great venue for food, beer and music. Wednesday night I was back there again, this time catching up with Martin, who never fails to impart his invaluable pearls of wisdom.

Patience Young Grasshopper!

The remainder of the week seemed to be dedicated to Dave. Thursday night, after a trip to the pub with Goss, Lake, Sobers, Mark, RoRo and Nerea, Dave and I made our way home, taking in food and beer in 5 different establishments (6 if you include Lickin' Chicken!). Friday night Dave and I ended up in Thai Garden for a candle lit (chicken) dinner for two, followed by a quiet night in with a film..... and Saturday evening Dave cooked me (chicken) dinner before we settled down for another film. They were both really manly films though.

I had been supposed to be flying from KL to Shanghai on Saturday morning, but instead I met Chris and Gemma, freshly returned  from Honey Moon for brunch on North St.  Not quite the same, but fun none the less.

These people have got a lot to answer for! My lovely family.

On Sunday I said goodbye to mum and dad over lunch. Won't see them again until January. Time will fly! Thanks for everything folks :-)

Bonus Catch Ups

Week 28: 29/10/2012 - 4/11/2012

This week's to do list:

1. Find some work
2. Catch up with as many people as possible

Task one was completed on Monday when a colleague of mine off loaded some report writing on me. Great to feel useful, not so great to be Nerea's Peon!

Task two also fell conveniently into place. Tuesday I headed to Bath to catch up with John, and although his circumstances are considerably different to mine (married, daughter, quiet nights in) I always feel slightly more enlightened with life after talking to him.

Just like I've never been away

Wednesday was a double treat as I had a surprise lunch with my cousin Laura, who I haven't seen for two years. A lot has changed for both of us since then, so there was plenty to discuss! The evening was a cheeky beer with Nick... Hatching plans for Christmas in Bangkok.

My walk to work, enjoying the fresh dry air

Thursday was a little Aztecs gathering, with JonE, and my old house mate Pedro making the effort to get over the Bristol to join Tank and Griff in Grounded. Really great to see the guys and talk football. Pedro even managed to avoid violating me, which is pretty unusual. Absence definitely makes the heart grow fonder.

The weekend was back home for more of mothers home cooking and TLC.

Stanley Street South

Week 27: 22/10/2012 - 28/10/2012

I have stayed with many friends over the years all over the world, in varying degrees of comfort. I never imagined that I would be looking for a place to crash in my home town of Bristol. Luckily enough for me, my old friend Jutto had just evicted a housemate so that he could have a spare room, and he very kindly offered it to me for as long as I needed it.

Home Sweet Home

So I've practically moved in with Jutto, his fiancee Susie and their pet Dave. All of us are former or current colleagues going back a few years, so its great to be able to hang out with them. They have really made me feel at home, and the fact that Susie cooks for me most evenings is great. Even when we went round to the Weeks's house for dinner Susie cooked!!

I spent the week in and out of my office trying sort out my tricky situation, dealing with HR, insurance companies, doctors, and trying to be useful to my company. It was a frustrating few days, culminating in me needing to cancel my forthcoming weekend in Myanmar and my week in China.

My big sis, driving me home

Silver lining to the cloud, more of mothers home cooking and a chilled out weekend at home. I think my mum was pretty please to have me around for a little while longer. I took my dad and sister to see Skyfall too, which was excellent, although I'm not sure its the Best Bond Ever. My sister provided a willing taxi service for the weekend too, with plenty of snacks. Thanks Zoe!!

The Best(ish) Man

Week 26: 15/10/2012 - 21/10/2012

The week provided a chance to catch up with family and friends. It was particularly good to catch up with Al and BC in Oxford. The Bristol crew also provided an entertaining evening out. 

Me and The BC

Preparations for this weeks wedding however were slightly hampered by me getting diagnosed with DVT. The NHS really came through though, from GP consultation through to diagnosis and treatment was about 24 hours…. The only little problem was that I was still in hospital 90 minutes before the wedding! So having abandoned Chris to get ready by himself, I finally arrived at church in Saltford 10 minutes before the service started.

Chris and Gemma

The service was beautiful and I managed to discharge my duties without the gorgeous bride Gemma suspecting a thing. I missed out on canapés and mingling at the reception as I frantically made phone calls round the world to try to deal with the situation.

With that out of the way I was able to enjoy the wedding breakfast. The speeches were all great (36 minutes, £10 winnings). I think it was fitting for Chris and Gemma that tea got mentioned at least 5 times in the 3 speeches. Chris speech was the most emotional wedding speech I’ve ever heard! It was a tough act to follow, but a real privileged to be able to give my little insight into the happy couple's relationship.

Me with Gemma, and rocking the air guitar with Chris

It was a great evening, Rocker Covers were a great band, followed by a disco with enough rock tunes for me to bust out my air guitar. The only drawback to the evening was repeatedly explaining my slightly embarrassing predicament to everyone.

A fantastic wedding, and so great see two people I know so well celebrating the start of their married life.

Anyway, the day following the wedding I was advised by doctors not to fly for 4 weeks, thus cancelling my return to Malaysia the next day, and cancelling my planned trips to Myanmar and China. Gutted….. but alive!

Dinner with uni mates...................................................................Carys and Beth undertaking the Double After 8 Challenge

So it was great to be around friends that evening, with Abi, Dunc and Hannah, Rich and Claire, Beth and Carys showing some compassion.... and Si just laughing at me for having an "old lady's disease"!!! The After 8 game was as fun ever. Great to see you guys!

So, there you are kids….DVT is for real, please take precautions.

 

The Three Best Men

Week 25: 8/10/2012 - 14/10/2012

It didn’t feel like I’d been in KL for long before I was back at the airport to head back to the UK for a pair of weddings. My plans for catching up with friends in London were scuppered after my flight into Dubai was diverted because of fog. I ended up arriving into London 8 hours late. Luckily Howard (pub blog can be found here) and Abhi were still up for a beer. Thanks guys.

On Friday afternoon the wedding party met up to receive final instructions. Nige, The Groom, treated his Best Men and Ushers and his aunts and uncles to a great meal at the Wheatsheaf Inn in North Leech. 

Nige and Lorna under assault from rose petals

Nige was unusually calm on the morning of his wedding, enjoying a full English breakfast at The Fleece, Cirencester. His nerves did begin to show as he paced up and down whilst answering the registrar’s pre-ceremony questions culminating in him singing his date of birth in an operatic style… much to the bemusement of all present. 

Tricky Dicky, Del, Me, Spike and Paul carrying Nige

The Bride, Lorna, looked incredibly elegant upon her arrival and the ceremony went smoothly. The sun continued to shine (just about) for the canapés, blessing and photographs.  The meal was awesome and the speeches came in at 52 minutes (£80 to the sweepstake winner). The evening entertainment of barn dancing followed by an amazing silent disco was a lot of fun. 

Dean Close crew..... 22 years and still going strong.

Sunday morning brunch was a great post wedding gathering, with the sun shining over the Cotswolds. It was such a great weekend, and an absolutely fantastic way for Nige and Lorna to start their married life.  

Cat v Dog

Week 24: 1/10/2012 - 7/10/2012

Highlight of this week was dinner out at Din Tai Fung, a restaurant specialising in Xiao Long Bao (Chinese Steamed Dumplings). I always leave the ordering to someone else, so I have no idea what I’m eating, but it was all lush. I seemed to be still eating long after everyone else had finished!

I managed to get to rugby training twice this week in the lead up to a match against Kuching. I was picked to start again which was great. We dominated the first half, I was quite pleased with my tackling and rucking and I won some lineouts too. I lasted barely 5 minutes into the second half though before my lack of fitness began to tell. The post-match gathering was at the Royal Selangor Club in Merdeka Square, free food, free beer and a great view of the KL High Court.

Royal Selangor Club in Merdeka Square

I spent most of Sunday beavering away on my speeches for the following weekend.

Score!!

Week 23: 24/09/2012 -30/09/2012

Back in Kuala Lumpur from my European stag dos, and it was time to start writing some Best Man speeches.... well, it would have been if there weren't so many distractions around! Even on a quiet night in I found more interesting things to do than put pen to paper.

Wednesday I went on a evening hike with Jags up Ketumbar Hill, Cheras. Armed with a head torch we set off on the short hike which offers a brief, but spectacular view of down town KL. At the summit there is a home made play park which has everything you need for a balanced work out.

Night Hike crew (Thanks to Cory for the lift)

Thursday I played another game of rugby for RSC. We only played for an hour, but it really demonstrated that how unfit I currently am. It was a lot of fun, and I scored a try (the first one in 12 years!), although we ended up losing 25-12. After the match I rushed off to InterNations to drink a few beers.

InterNations. I thought the dark shirt would hide my sweat..... apparently not!

Saturday I had discussed going on a Hash with Cory, but when Dylan told us about a beer festival we had a change of heart. The Better Beer festival at Taps Beer Bar provided a relaxed atmosphere, and a spectacular range of reasonably priced global beers. The afternoon turned to evening, the evening to night, the night to Jalan Alor, then.... Havanas.... obviously....

I had just about recovered by Sunday evening to make my way round to Jags's house to help her celebrate Mid Autumn Festival. All sorts of weird and wonderful food was on offer, particularly mooncake, which has to be one of the strangest foods I have ever tried. Luckily there was plenty of Chinese tea to wash it all down with.

Elke with a lantern at the Mooncake Party

Unfortunately, between bouts of speech writing and beer drinking I missed most of the BASE jumping from KL Tower, but I don't feel like I missed out thanks to Pip's article on the BBC website (read it here).

Able Seaman

Week 22: 17/09/2012 - 23/09/2012

The start of the week was catching up with the family and enjoying some of mothers fine home cooking (thanks mum!!). Thursday and Friday was a chance to catch up with Bristol mates, which was brilliant. I really do miss this lot. Two meals out, two trips to oriental restaurants…. Splendid!! As if I’d not seen enough rice and noodles for the last 5 months!

The weekend was all about my buddy Chris’s Stag Do, and as Best Man I was feeling the pressure of delivering a worthy day out in Bath. I’ve only known Chris for 4 years, but in that short time we’ve shared in the ups and downs of each other lives. He really is as dependable friend as they come.

Thanks to Gareth, Chris was kitted out in a sailor suit (which I think he actually quite liked). First up was clay pigeon shooting, which is pretty satisfying when you get it right. “Don’t look at the sun!!” Harder than it sounds. Chris and Nick had a shoot off to be crowned champs, thankfully Chris came second.

Able Seaman Cox demonstrating his ability to handle a shaft

After lunch we hit Entry Hill Golf Course. There were a variety of skill levels on display, none worse than me. Still, it was a perfect course for what we wanted. I’ve absolutely no idea who won, especially after the chaos that ensued at the 18^th.

Curry at EasternEye was excellent (although some people (Jay!) ignored the over eating warning), topped off with Jonty and Nick winning the Mrs and Mr Cox quiz. We ended the night at some club living it up with champagne and Jagerbombs…. And an elephant hat obviously. 

Team Stag Do enjoying some Champagne.

The mystery of the night was Minty waking up with a wet bed….. Chris’s statement of “I don’t remember anything, but it definitely wasn’t me” would probably not hold up in court……

Massive thanks to the weather for not scuppering our Saturday plans!!!

Ich Bin Ein Hamburger

Week 21: 10/09/2012 - 16/09/2012

I was excited to head be heading home to the UK for a pair of Stag Dos, with the added bonus of catching up with family and friends. 

My mum and sister surprised me by meeting me off the plane at Heathrow, which was lovely. Then it was off meet up for a quick beer with Briana in Exmouth Arms. Particularly amusing was the bum, who literally had his bum hanging out and took a particular liking to Bri!!!

The Bestmen and Stag at the Beatles Sculpture (Tricky Dicky Evans, Nige, Big Hitter Paul Adams and Me)

I’ve have known Nige since I was 8 years old, we’ve grown up together, I love him like a brother, so it was great to be able to head off on his stag do to celebrate him moving on to the next phase of his life, as one of his 3 (Three!) Best Men. We headed off to Hamburg and by Friday afternoon we kayaked round the canals and across Außenalster with a few beers…. Lovely until the final 30 minutes when it poured. The evening was dinner in the excellent Hofbrauhaus, steins, meat and dirdls, I love Germany! Then on to the Reeperbahn…. I’m not sure we saw the best of the place thanks to Del’s recommendation of underage night at Thomas Read!

Photo of Team Stag taken at the Ikea Promotional Stand.

Saturday was an early start for the Beer Bicycle tour, which was soooo much fun. Bizarrely we attended both an Ikea demonstration and an Ikea photo shoot on our tour. Matty was an absolute handful all afternoon. Nige being handcuffed to a shopping trolley provided the afternoons entertainment. In the evening we had an awesome steak, then a warm up at 80s disco in Reeperbahn before hitting the very cool Revolver Club for a fantastic indie night. The evening/morning was rounded off at the Fischmarkt for a few more beers and a raw stem of ginger…. Great end to the night.

Best Man crew in Revolver Club

Sunday we enjoyed the sunshine and a walk around the city. Hamburg really is a lovely place. 

Thanks to Rich for organising a really awesome weekend.