Dim Prospect of Success

Week 43: 11/02/2013-17/02/2013

I caught up with Z twice this week, firstly for a cheeky beer in Backyard (live music every night) and secondly for a Valentine's Day dinner in a mamak somewhere in Sri Hartamas. Dinner total RM33.50, paid for by Z!! Cheapest Valentine's outing ever!

Yee Sang - tossing raw fish and vegetables with chopsticks whilst making wishes about the future "Prosperity! World Peace!" Thanks Wajih. 

On Tuesday I experienced my first Yee Sang (salad tossing) for Chinese New Year. A bunch of us made the trip to Cheras and Jags showed us how to celebrate in style. After food, we congregated on a street corner to send some lanterns, laden with our hopes and dreams for 2013, into the night sky. After a few abortive launches and some excess flames, we finally launched our fleet (although one did end up in someone's front garden!!)

"Prosperity! World Peace!" Thanks Wajih.

At Tom's belated pancake day celebrations on Friday evening I had this gem of a conversation.
- Hot Girl: "I used to date a guy who looked like me"
- Me: "Wow. That must have been really weird."
- Hot Girl: [pulls disgusted face] "Ugh! No way! He was beaut-i-ful!!"

Slave Driver Jags after making me get up at 5am. Grrrrrr.

Saturday was an early start, as Jags forced me to join her on a hike up Bukit Kutu. Not being a morning person I spent the hour's drive north cursing her over my (Chicken) Sausage & Egg McMuffin. The hike itself was good, a nice group of people and rewarding views from the summit. It was great too to meet a fellow (really) white man, Ginger Seth. After some "gweilo" banter with a restauranteur, we had a hilarious innuendo fueled drive home. I wrapped up Saturday with a trip to Jalan Alor with Dylan.

Oh, Happy Hokkien New Year to you too. Not only is this fortune less than inspiring, the late night fireworks were also a distraction.

Still in the new year spirit of CNY Gemma, Becky and myself took a mini road trip, in Sunny D, to Thean Hou Temple, decked out in all its lantern glory. I had the misfortune to get my fortune for the year of the snake.... Luckily I don't believe in that mumbojumbo.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Week 42: 04/02/2013-10/02/2013

The week got off to a bad start when I had to abandon my Monday morning (Super Bowl Sunday!!) to attend a meeting instead…. talk about inappropriate work life balance! I managed to avoid the score all day, and after dinner with Pip and Charlie watched the full game on GamePass. Go Ravens! Great game.

Zeat Bar with Jags, Carol, Nasch and Rahul.

During the week I caught up with Elke (nice pool), hit Taps and Jalan Alor with Dylan and Cory and ended the week having a quiet dinner with Lianne at Hakka Republic (“Sorry, no desert, we’re cleaning the kitchen”). My early Friday night got waylaid by a trip to the Zeta Bar with Rahul, Jags, Carol, Nasch and Elke.  Great to see some live music, not so great to over indulge in vodka though. My slow Saturday was punctuated by a great catch up on Skype with Nige.

The worst interviewer ever (TV), me and a lion, Wajih interviewed (paper)

On Sunday, in the search for an authentic Chinese New Year experience I join Jags and a few others to attend a CNY Open House. After a horrendously early start, under clear blue skies, we ended up at a government sponsored event which was closer to a political rally than a CNY celebration. Most in attendance were only there for the free food though. 

High Pole Lion Dancing in KLCC

Being some of the few foreigners in attendance we ended up getting interview for tv and newspapers and photographed by professionals and amateurs alike. 

In the afternoon we caught some High Pole Lion Dancing at KLCC. I’m not quite sure how authentic my CNY experience was, but I received plenty of free oranges and even got my first ang pau. 

 

The Visit

Week 40: 21/01/2013-27/01/2013

My visiting family kindly pointed out the following things about my adopted home city, which I hadn’t actually noticed in the 10 months I’ve lived in Kuala Lumpur:

1. It’s too hot
2. The traffic is awful
3. It’s too humid
4. The service is awful
5. It’s too hot
6. The tea is awful
7. It’s too rainy
8. The driving is awful
9. It’s too hot
10. The toilets are awful
11. It’s too hot

Oh, and something else they mentioned was that it is too hot. That aside I think they quite liked it. I left them to their own devices on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday we headed up to Penang to stay in Georgetown. We had a tour of Suffolk House, a trip up the funicular railway to Penang Hill, a bit of a stroll around town and a visit to Cornwallis Fort. My birthday dinner in the Eastern Oriental Hotel, however, was incredibly disappointing. Despite the grand surroundings the food was average and the service poor.

Zoe with a cannon on Penang Hill

Thursday evening Zoe and I went out for a drink with Choi and her friends at Havanas.

Saturday we took a trip to the Royal Selangor Factory (after I'd been rescued from an addicental lie in (awoken from a nightmare about karaoke)). We had a go at making stuff out of pewter, which was great fun. Saturday evening we saw a bit of high pole Lion Dancing in the run up to Chinese New Year, which was incredible.

Birthday in Penang.

Sunday we headed to the National Monument which was quite impressive, followed by a quick tour of Central Market and Chinatown on a last minute souvenir run (thanks to Gemma for the tips on where to take mums!!).

The Westwoods in front of the Petronas Towers

A hectic, and at times stressful week, but great to see my lovely family and show them some of the places I frequent in Kuala Lumpur. 

Trippple Trouble!

Week 39: 14/01/2013-20/01/2013

So, KL village is alive and kicking!! The longer you spend somewhere I guess it is inevitable that personal politics start playing a larger part in life. The happy and harmonious social community I entered into back in May does not look quite the same these days.

It was good to start the week with Dylan watching more NFL Playoffs and eating KFC, sometimes its the simplest things which make me happy. Wednesday was a spicy trip to Internations (great venue at Twenty One Tables and Terrace). Thursday night was Elke's birthday celebrations at Lianne's pool. Lovely evening for beers by the pool..... although not everyone seemed to quite get the Roxanne drinking game!

Birthday Girl Little Elke

I managed to find time to say goodbye to Steffie, with a little help from our friend The Captain. A slightly unexpected, but fun night out. Good luck Steffie.

Another German leaves town :-( Jags, me, Steffie, Carol..... The Captain just out of shot.

The BIGGEST news of the week though was the arrival of my family in Kuala Lumpur!! My mum, dad and sister Zoe arrived on Friday morning. By the time I caught up with them in the evening, they were slightly tired from the travel and certainly worn out from the heat. We took a stroll to nearby Souled Out and encountered all of the best that KL has to offer..... blocked footways, dangerous road crossing maneuvers, tripped over a tram lying in the shadows, bumped into a dangerously placed advertising flag and, of course it was raining. Family less than impressed!

Wing Commander MP Westwood OBE re-united with Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer

On Saturday we had a stroll round KL. Sunday we ventured out to Sungei Besi to the Royal Malaysian Air Force Museum. Well worth a visit if you have any interest in planes as its free to get in. My dad was particularly pleased to see the Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer, which he had seen in a different museum last time he was in KL in 1976!!

Sunday evening I finally took a trip up the Petronas Towers. We were hoping to see a glorious sunset, but it was a bit too overcast for that. Great views across the city though.

Work. Life. Balance.

Week 38: 7/01/2013-13/01/2013

I had my annual review with my boss, which in general was pretty positive. One question remains... where do I want my career to go? It's no longer acceptable to just deliver work put in front of you, time to take some direction! As an aside my boss suggested I might like to make some lifestyle changes........

Must. Work. Harder

In other news, headed to the Sky Bar for some beers with Becky and her her visiting friends, hit Jalan Alor with Dylan, Aimee and Zainab before meeting up with Mita on her birthday.

Sky Bar

Sunday was a day of sport, popping round to Dylan's in the morning to watch the NFL playoffs, with endless coffee and some of Dylan's home cooked banana pancakes... lush. In the evening I watched the snorefest of Man U v Liverpool with Lianne at Arther's Bar and Grill, possibly the poshest sports bar I've ever been in.

Championship New Year

Week 37: 31/12/2012 - 6/01/2013

My year ended in the best way possible.... I was crowned Champion of the Aztecs Fantasy Football League, as Dom-int0rs Deathmen scored a hard fought, but ultimately comfortable victory over Ickey Shuffle.

For New Years Eve I joined Marcello and Choi in G Tower's View Bar. It was a vibrant party, and although we couldn't see the KLCC fireworks, the View Bar had their own display which was pretty good. The only concerning thing was at 23:55 two fully kitted out firemen arrived to observe the display... I didn't know whether to feel reassured or scared. I identified the nearest fire exit anyway....

Smash Up! Marcello, Colin and me, making up for Jack's absence by loosening a button or two.

I had a chilled out New Years Day, rounded off with great dinner at Rahul's place, with Steffie, Jags and Carolina. Some lush homemade curry accompanied by an eclectic selection of wines (I'm still convinced that "Rose"was sherry!).

Standard dinner........

I kicked off the weekend of much food and drink with a trip to Ciccio with Nick and Tom. Saturday afternoon was spent baby sitting Lianne, obviously jet lagged from her 36 hour flight back from Barbados: Her ear ring randomly pinged off her ear, she "accidentally" threw an empty bottle at an adjacent diner, and then managed empty the content of her hand bag over the floor of a shop. It was all I could do to prevent her opening the lid of a vat of soup with her umbrella handle... that would surely have ended in disaster!

Caution: May not always appear this smart and sophisticated

Saturday evening I helped Paul celebrate his Best Dressed Man in KL Status, by drinking loads of free beer. Met some new faces, saw some old faces, and had some incredibly random conversations ("I'm going to act out my name....", "Did you say 'arse first, ask second', or vice versa?"), and a whole lot of fun.

Sunday I went from lunch with Elke and her friends straight to the outer depth of society with a trip to ..... erm..... somewhere a long long way away for some dinner with Gemma and her friends. If anyone needs an encyclopedic knowledge of the best toilets in KL..... Gemma is your gal!!

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.

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.

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).

Houston Connection

Week 20: 03/09/2012 - 09/09/2012

Two more departures this week. Probably temporary, but 6 months temporary! Liliana, a Columbian, heading home to Houston and Abhi, an Indian (but living in Houston) now heading off to work in Woking!

Abhi and ALLLLL his wives, Elke, Jags, Steffie and HollyOng!

I managed to have a few evenings out with Abhi before he headed off. Dinner at Passage Thru India was delicious, and made more spectacular by the effort that some of the girls made dressing up in their sarees. The final send off was a pool party with some more great food at Abhi's condo.

Abhi's leaving do

After that I headed out to Havanas to say goodbye to party animal Liliana. A fitting send off!

Both will be missed, both will be back I'm sure!

Liliana in her natural habitat

Hong Kong Isla(nd)

Week 19: 27/08/2012 - 02/09/2012

The best way to see a new place is with the locals, so it was great to be able to go and visit a few old friends in HK. It was absolutely fantastic to see Fredel (old colleague), who very kindly put me up at Chateaux Gibson (Mid Levels), in a 54^th Floor room with incredible views over the Harbour. A good catch up on Thursday evening was the calm before the Storm of a hectic weekend.

My view from Chateaux Gibson

Friday:

• Hike up Victoria Peak - predictably sweaty mess, great view of a rain storm sweeping through the harbour, Peak Tram down
• Walked the length of Hollywood Road to meet Chris (old colleague) for lunch
• StarFerry to Kowloon, chuckling at the amusing names(Li Tit?!) in the Avenue of Stars
• Dinner at The Globe (AMAZING beer selection, great pie), with Fredel, Eva, Jamie, Chris….and the whirlwind of energy and chat that is Isla. Beers flowed, banter ensured. Good to hear that Chris has lost non of his cynical ranting…. Amusing to find out his son had only got a silver medal in teeth cleaning.
• On to Carnegies (Isla forced me to dance on the bar), then Beer Pong at Scratch, and finishing the night at the aptly named Dusk Till Dawn.
• In true RAF style, I used a “Please take me Home” card printed in Chinese to get the taxi driver to take me home!

Sunset from the Yacht Club

Saturday:

• Lazy morning, no Junk ride (Chris and Isla called me a gweilo for wanting to do that!!)
• Alternative Breakfast Debrief over Dim Sum with Isla and Fredel, somewhere in Causeway Bay.
• Fredel showed me round a bit including the Tram and an infrastructure exhibition!!
• Watch the sunset from The Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club with a refreshing Gunner,
• Lost Fredel in the metro amongst a sea of chinamen….
• Headed to the night market on Temple Street, met up with Nick (ex-Aztec)
• Fredel took us to a local café for dinner and got super excited with custard for desert. I couldn’t keep a straight face listening to Fredel barking out Cantonese.
• On to Wan Chai, for a quiet beer at Mes Ami, Isla joined us “I’m not drinking tonight”
• 30 minutes later, Isla: “Lets do Jagerbombs at Carnegies”.…. off to Carnegies.
• Trafalgar for beer tower, darts (everyone had a several shots at winning, Isla really wasn't taking it seriously, but ultra competitive Nick won the day), then doubles pool…. Victorious Dom & Isla!
• Finished the night at Solas in Central, the true damage only came to light a few weeks later reviewing my bank statement!
• Again I wafted around a bit of paper with some hieroglyphics on and magically the taxi driver took me home.

Clockwise from top left: Fredel, Nick and Me, Chris and me both dressed by his wife apparently, and Isla and me dancing on a bar.

Sunday:

• Brunch at Brunch Club was just what I needed, the revelation that Fredel was a proper g33k was an added bonus (LAN Parties?! Seeeriously?!)
• Took the ferry to Lantau, beautiful day.
• Bus to see the Big Buddha, lunch at the monastery
• Cable Car back to the airport (fantastic views, camera battery dead, argh!)

PHEW! Epic weekend.  Thanks to Chris and Nick making the time for some beers, Isla for providing so much entertainment (some intended, some not), and especially to Fredel for putting me up. 

Watch out Hong Kong….. I’ll be back.

Lang-Hari Rya

Week 17: 13/08/2012 - 19/08/2012

The week included more over indulgence. I’m not sure I’m ever going to manage to control myself when faced with Free Flow! Anyway, Friday evening I was back at KLIA for a trip to the romantic island of Langkawi with my friend Christine.                  

With it being a holiday weekend, lots of people were getting away, and during the trip we bumped into Gavin and Ann-Marie, Jags and Rick and Helen. Jags very kindly let Christine and me join her on the outings she planned.                   

Christine taking a photo of a monkey

First up was a ferry ride to Pulau Payar followed by some snorkeling. Although it wasn’t a patch on the snorkeling I did in Western Australia, it was quite fun, especially with all the little baby sharks about.                         

Saturday evening the whole group of us met up for dinner at Orkid Ria. Not only did we get to marvel at Gavin’s incredible sunburn but we also shared some amazing seafood. I, of course, was complete pig, still eating long after everyone else had finished. Afterwards we retired to a bar on the beech.          

Team Hiking

Sunday was Hari Rya, the end of Ramadan and the start of a month of Malaysian feasting! We started the day with a great breakfast, before heading off to hike up some leech infested mountain. It was a nice climb, except for when 'Wrong Way' Rick led us up the wrong path! Thank goodness for 100 Plus. The weather started to close in, so we didn’t get great views from the top.         

Sunday evening Christine and I had more fantastic food at Cliff Restaurant just managing to catch the last of the sunset, before heading off to the airport. 

Shooting Star

Week 16: 06/08/2012 - 12/08/2012

Now fully back to strength after my week of fasting I managed to fit in a game of squash with Jon and a trip to the driving range with Charlie.       

The weekend featured a trip to the countryside for hiking and camping and watching the Perseids meteor shower. I turned up woefully under-prepared. Luckily I was travelling with Jags, Steffie and Abhi, and between them they ensured I didn’t starve or get eaten by racoons.

Abhi and his two Wives Steffie and Jags, one for cooking and cleaning, one for fun stuff.... apparently.

The weekend was not quite as we expected, as after setting up camp we only had a short hike to see some waterfalls. And that was it for the hiking. The Jarankang Waterfalls were stunning though and it was quite therapeutic to sit beneath them. Abhi taught me a lot about using my new camera too.    

Steffie, Abhi, Jags and me under a waterfall

The evening was perfect for star gazing and it was great to be away from the light pollution of KL. We laid ourselves out on a rock under the star lit sky and waited for the meteor shower. And waited. And waited. And chatted. And slept. I think I may have seen one shooting star. But I may not have. I couldn’t tell.      

So I can now cross sleeping under the stars off my list of things to do in life…… being dazzled by meteors is still on there for the time being. 

Not a shooting star in sight