Wow - Michaelmas term is finally over...

I can't believe we have been here just over four months. This first term seems to have simultaneously lasted a lifetime while flying by.

We now have no school till the 4th January 2015 (OMG it's been a whole year since I accepted the job!), and potentially three weeks off to explore the area. Although we are all so tired, I'm not too sure how much sightseeing we will get done. At least we all have time to relax, settle into our accommodation and get to know our house guest this holiday: Meet Toby.


It seems an age ago, in October, that we visited Kuala Lumpur for a long weekend and Langkawi during the half term holiday. Both places come highly recommended.

Exeat Weekend:

We stayed at the, centrally located, Pacific Regency Hotel (5*) along with a gang of friends. The rooms were lovely - our Premier deluxe suite was huge. And the hotel is right next door to the KL Tower (home to the 360 revolving restoran).

Throughout the weekend, we ate out in style. Night one, to celebrate Sue's birthday, at Havana Bar & Grill - lovely steak and cocktails - highly recommended.

We returned to the Pacific for a synchronized swimming session with Mrs C as team captain. Another great place to spend the evening: the roof top bar - Luna Chill Out Bar KL.

Day two, all day shopping at Suria KLCC and to break up the shopping, the boys popped to KLCC Aquaria to see the fishes, while the girls had a bit of Chinese massage and reflexology.

That evening we visited Healy Mac's Irish Bar for Sunday Roast - yum! The owner was on hand to give us lots of advice on living in KL and local places to visit. We watched the match and drank the black stuff - another quality night out in KL!

Next morning we visited Pavilion and had breakfast at La Bodega Tapas Bar. The best scrambled eggs in KL; although, they did need some coaxing to bring out more toast!

 

Exeat was soon over but before we knew it October Half term arrived.



First, we visited the Batu Caves with a visitor from the UK. One off the bucket list done.

We were robbed by the monkeys within seconds of purchasing a cold 100plus.  I'm sure the stall holder gives them the nod and the wink.  How else do they know which one, out of the hundreds of tourists, is the one with the goods?   Or they are just really good at reading body language?  











This one took this banana out of the son's hand and was eating it without pausing for breath.

Langkawi is one of the best beach holidays resorts in the world - or so I'm told. I still think Malaysia need to rethink their fly tipping penalties (bring back public flogging maybe?) and then the landscape will be a pleasure to view.

We stayed at the 5* Rebak Island Resort and wow it was the best, most perfect, most idyllic, most relaxing holiday we have ever had.

The moon deck

The pool - we didn't move far from here all week

A breathtaking beach

Sea Eagles

Transport around the resort is by golf buggy

Access to Rebak Island is by boat shuttle.

The son is getting taller than the daughter!

We only left the island to go snorkeling at Pulua Payar. Part of the Pulau Payar Marine Park, which comprises of four uninhabited islands of Payar, Lembu, Kaca and Segantang, and makes up Malaysia’s oldest Marine Park sanctuary.    We shared the water with rays, Clown fish, baby sharks, Barracuda and an abundance of other fishes.

http://www.crazybuy.my/pulau-payar-marine-park-snorkelling-package.html

We had the best few days of our time in Asia so far.  We will be back in town to visit the fishes, beaches and the Duty Free Zones - best buy of the holiday was only 40RM for 1 litre.  

  

Langkawi is a must do, if visiting south east Asia.  Don't just take it from me: The SundayTimes Travel

But, now it's back to this holiday.   We have already had 5 of our 23 days off. We will, no doubt, spend most of this holiday in shopping malls again.   

This week we visited IOI City Mall in Putrajaya.  Ate at a rib and steak joint - Morganfield's and experienced designing your own Magnum Ice cream at the Magnum Cafe.   For 30RM or 6GBP we chose the dip, sprinkle and dribble coating to three delicious Walls ice cream.  My choice was dark choc dip, raspberry, almonds and chilli sprinkle and milk choc dribble.  It was a chore to share it with Superman.

Well, just to pass the holiday away, I am planning a trip to another shopping mall tomorrow, followed by a long weekend in KL.  This time we are staying at the E&O Residences suites in central town.  All that is left now is to plan where we will eat this visit.

Port Dickson and ayam curry for breakfast

September 2014

Following our stint in cyberspace, we moved into the house staff accommodation in time for the new school year.  Being a new build, there is a snagging list as long as your arm.  As long as two arms, if I'm honest.

Furniture arrived in drips and drabs.  As did the water in the shower.  Small things made such a difference.  The arrival of a coffee table was an achievement.  The arrival of a couple of wardrobes was amazing.

Being on site has as many advantages as disadvantages.  It is clean and new - bye bye Bangkok headboard - and you have your own space to begin to make your home.  Also you can rock out of bed at 8am and be teaching at 830am, if you so desired. Or, like me, if you leave your laptop charger in your classroom, no need to fret as it's a less than five minute stroll from your house.

But there are disadvantages too.  We are in a small and new township called Bandar Enstek, with little shops near by, in the middle of nowhere.  Without a car it is difficult.  We need to rely on public transport and the local bus stop is miles away, so it's down to the use of a Teksi. But there aren't that many here.

In Malaysia they have this great system of booking a cab through your smart phone.  myteksi allows you to put in your location by GPS and your desired destination and cabs in your vicinity bid for your fare.  You then get an offer and you accept the price up front.  It's amazing.... but only in the big towns and cities... not in Bandar Enstek!

Luckily a local man, Mr Richard, came to our rescue.  The friend of a friend of a friend of a colleague, he has become our life line to nip to KLIA2 Jaya Grocer or Nilai for shopping at Tesco.

As typical of  the massive supermarket Tesco, they cover a range of basics we can buy in the UK so that keeps us all happy.  From HP Sauce or Marmite to Tesco Finest granola or Weetabix, most needs are covered.   Most importantly, they have a non-halal section selling bacon, wine and beer. A slab of 24 x 330ml cans of Guinness is 202RM (£50.50) or Tiger Beer at 175RM (£35) if we are feeling flushed.   Wine ranges from 50RM to 200RM (divide it by 5) a bottle - my favourite at 54.99RM (£11) is the Yaldara Estates Shiraz.  Although, with the festive season coming around soon, I've currently got my eye on a bottle of Baileys for Christmas at 130RM for 70cl - yes £26!

Apart from Tesco, it's not as if we have many places to go.  We eat in the Dining Hall with the boarders and are on duty every other evening, so it's not like we can just swan off for a meal with family and friends at Shaftsbury Square at will, as we did when living in Cyberspace.  We also work until 3-5pm Saturday and on a Sunday rota.  At best we might get a Saturday 5pm till Sunday 9pm 24 hours off.

24 hours off site - we tried that once.  Back at the end of September, when I was fit to throw the towel in, we decided with 48 hours notice that we needed an overnight away.   Little did we know it would be more stressful than staying here.

The local beach and coastal town of Port Dickson seemed the best place away for 24hrs. It is only 30 mins away (just not on a Saturday evening as our journey took 90mins in the weekend traffic).

We booked into a hotel on the outskirts of town. The Paradise Spa Hotel.  Typical of here the hotel was not paradise nor did it have a spa.   Before you ask, yes, I did read Trip Advisor.  Yes, I did know all of this before I booked.... but I wanted to escape and all the better hotels were booked at short notice.

The hotel was lovely and clean and a family room was a two-bedroomed suite with TVs, ensuite each, a small fridge (unclean and not cold) and very limited wi-fi connection.  The roof top swimming pool was lovely and the view was as good as it gets for this area.

We asked the reception staff to book us a taxi into the main town area as we wanted to eat at the El-Cactus Mexican restaurant which had been recommended to us.  The receptionist had other ideas.  She refused.  Yes - point blank refused.  She told us the chef was very good and would cook our meal.  Talk about being press-ganged into it.  We were tired, and didn't have the energy to argue.  We were pleasantly surprised.  We had four steak and chips - cooked beautifully - with a lovely black peppercorn sauce.  Well done chef!

However, our favourite was breakfast.  It was a buffet with something for everyone.   I had the noodles, rice and ayam (chicken) curry.  It was delicious!

Before we knew it, it was time for home and school.  24 hours had flown by and we were no further relaxed but had tried curry for breakfast - magic!

Leaving the UK

Wow... where have the last two months gone?  I can't believe that we have had parties, packed up our home, moved continent, enrolled in a new school and have already had a short school holiday break. It's been amazing yet exhausting.

August 2014

To add to the whirlwind of emotions, the daughter also dyed her hair: just to stress me out further.  It looked amazing when it was bright pink, but I kept thinking about the uniform policy and would begin to breakout into a cold sweat.

The journey to Manchester Airport was less stress thanks to our very good friend, Caroline.  She drove us to the airport, to make sure we got on the plane... maybe she thought the only way they would ever win at the pub quiz again was to ensure I couldn't join them!

The family also turned up to see us off.  Again, I think this was to ensure we didn't change our mind.



We arrived at Departures with plenty of time to spare - or so we thought - but then we had to tackle airport security.


I never realised that lipstick and a small tub of lip gloss are classified as a liquid... how inept of me to not read the paperwork properly.  We were too concerned with weighing the baggage to ensure that we each only had 30kg of luggage - wow all of our needed possessions in 120kg - that I failed to realise the lipstick rule.



As we had swapped and changed around possession from one bag to another, we had the odd rogue lipstick or lipgloss in three of the four hand luggage. Along with the normal queue, this delayed us in security for over fifty minutes.  Its so embarrassing for your bag to go through the machine again and again and again.  I was beginning to panic that I wouldn't have time to buy my duty free.

Travelling to a dry-ish country (or very very expensive booze) would not be pleasant without a bottle of gin from duty free.   Eventually, we were through, in duty free (gin, make-up and Marc Jacob's Daisy) and walking to the gate... not long now and we would be arriving in our new home.   

With a brief stop in Dubai - wow the heat sure hits you as you leave the plane - we had soon travelled 6,600 miles from the UK to MY and had arrived in KL.

After a good night's sleep we were soon put to work:

Reception

Yes - we have an actual office here.  We have our own desks (no hot seating), a photocopier / printer and a terrific view.

Epsom College in Malaysia

And before we knew it the next few weeks, of living in Cyberview Apartments, surrounded by friends and colleagues, and setting up the school, flew by.  

Cyberview Hotel

Ben and Jack

The lovely Miss Katie x

The offending headboard: would have been more suited to a Bangkok whore house.

Wake me up when July ends

Wow, what a month.  So much has happened.

Following the wedding in Wales, we came home to non-stop, back-to-back events at work and play.  It was beginning to feel like there wasn't enough hours in the day to fit everything in.  A few that stick in my mind are:

The London Trip: 

The London Eye Selfie

Taking 98 excited kids and 6 amazing colleagues to London shouldn't be a problem for a trip veteran like me.  They all turned up, dressed as requested, with food, water, and resources to keep them entertained on the bus.  They were, as expected, impeccably behaved, and ready for a great day out.  We took selfies at 745am at school, on the bus, at the Eye, on the Clipper, with the river and Shard in the background, at the Tower, eating lunch, in the queues for the exhibits, and on the bus again.  I think they finally lost the selfie bug on arrival back home.

And when the last one had been collected from front reception about 9pm, I could finally breathe and reflect that, yes, it was a great day.  My final trip at my current school, and it was a great memory to take with me.

The handbag:    Never, never, NEVER leave your handbag (containing your house (£70) and car key (£170), your notebook with all your lists for the move, your wallet, payslip, driving licence and counterpart (£34), 3/4 bottle of Marc Jacobs Honey (£50), make-up (£50?), glasses (£85), Spies by Michael Frayn (£8), etc etc) in the foot well of a car....  

One very expensive and important lesson was learnt, but also one organisation was introduced to me.  If you ever find yourself in my shoes, contact CIFAS Fraud Protection Service (£20) without delay.

The last day and night out weekend:   So the day finally arrive, albeit cut shorter than anticipated, with lots of big blobby tears, and the final walk out of work, box in hand, was quite uneventful.

Not so for the night out, which finally ended about 10pm on Saturday night.   Starting at 7pm Friday at the KPH, the Dirty Dancing started early on.  Tewy was in his element with 20 ladies to lift and jive around the dance floor with, bruising their toes and damaging his back in the process.

Typical of a few rogue elements (the Ks), the escape to town began about 1145pm.  They were the advanced party to suss out the best place to socialise until the early hours and locate somewhere that wasn't going to continue to swindle each of us out of £27.50 for a bottle of bog standard Prosecco.  Little did we know, as we followed along behind them, that we were in for an interesting insight to the No1 Disco Venue in Kettering - Decades!  Actually, it couldn't have been that bad, as it took us from 1230am to 2am until we finally threw in the towel and called Superman to rescue us.  

Following a good ten hours lull in proceedings, we commenced again at 2pm with coffee and cakes and a 50th birthday tea party.  Moving into the garden, we feasted on toast, tea and biscuits for the afternoon, then rounding off the evening, with Himalayan Chicken, at the award winning Royal Tandoori.

It took a few days to get over the handbag and leaving do, and finally after spending what seemed like hours, even days, on the phone, on Wednesday I surfaced and faced the world again.
 
The lazy couple of hours at Foxton Locks:  Having nipped around the bookshops of Market Harborough trying to locate a replacement copy of Michael Frayn's Spies, I decided that a couple of hours on a park bench was needed. Just outside MH is the beauty spot Foxton Locks. An elaborate array of locks stepping down (or up, depending on your direction) the Grand Union Canal. There is a shop selling essentials to the boating holiday makers, a small quaint pub (favoured by Superman) named Bridge 61, and, following a refit a few years ago, a trendy watering-hole serving food and drinks, aptly entitled The Foxton Locks.   The latter gets very busy on a fair weather day, although there is a constant flow of traffic so you never have to wait too long for a table in the sunshine. 

The daughter's leaving do:   Before I knew it, it was time to pack my new book into my new bag and rush to meet son, and get the food and drink ready for the before and after party revellers. 

The main event, at The Loft, was a fab night.  Attended by nearly 200 under 18s, the staff managed the music, dry-bar and door professionally and without too many hiccups.  In fact, less contraband was confiscated from them then from the Friday Dirty Dancing event...  

Before we knew it, the party was over and we were on our way home, via a refreshment break for a sneaky McCafe Frappe Mocha - 500 cals of loveliness, and the gaggle of sleep-over teens could begin to work their way through my fridge (to include my 'On the Beach' pre-mixed cocktail) like a plague of locusts.

The next day, The son's leaving do, was soon upon us, and I had to start again, this time with Paint balling and pizza for 17 teens.  Again the venue, Alpha Bravo, was amazing in organising a gang of boys in no time at all.  They all had a great time, some with more bruises than others.

The daughter, the only female of the species in the group, is definitely the most deadly.  She was labelled as the most vicious and a crack shoot; obviously taking after the female side of our family, as her cousin, Pip, has just returned from the European Youth Cup in Russia with a silver medal shooting for Archery GB Recurve Junior Women Team.    

To round off a busy week, today saw a visit from our tenants.  I love them.  A young family to whom we will entrust our Northants home, hopefully, for a good long period of time, without hesitation.  They will clearly fit into the neighbourhood as they are friendly, chatty and like people.  Our neighbours are important to us, and to have found a family who will embrace life in the cul-de-sac makes that element of our move simply run smooth.

Now, with only one week left till the 31st July, and a million and one things still to do, I just wish that I could go to bed tonight and wake up when July ends...