My god, what have I done?

Today I called my boss and requested to stay in Malaysia for a year. Despite the overly emotional cry of the title of this post, I feel reasonably comfortable about this decision, much good can come from it.

My boss, quite to my surprise, was extremely open to this idea (hopefully not a reflection of my performance back in Sydney) and the conversation was about a tenth the length I had expected it to be.

I feel I have a lot to learn from the team here, and hopefully they also feel the same way towards me. I haven't told my family yet. I guess that is 2moro's pet project. =)

I do feel quite nervous about the prospect, but I know that if I had taken the easy path and gone back to Sydney in a few months, I would be confortably sitting in the same bedroom I left, always wondering "what if".

This way, I get to find out, and while it will definitely have its challenges, and unique concerns, the benefits available will far, far outweigh any negatives.

...Wish me luck.

Mutton and Chicken

Heeey. Greetings again from Malaysia. The title of todays post may seem more obscure than usual, but all will be made clear. The moral of todays tale is 'don't assume anything'.

Firstly, 'Mutton'... I've mentioned before how much I'm enjoying the food here in Malaysia, and the variety of unusual foods is great for those times that you're feeling brave and willing to expand your horizons. But sometimes also, you might just want to sit down with some local cuisine that is just not quite so freaky. (Frog Porridge I'm looking at you.)

Now of course there is no real shortage of curry here, which is fine, as I like curry. One of the curries I've been happily tucking into for lunch is mutton curry. In Australia, mutton is quite common as we have a large sheep population, and the meat of the younger ones is known as lamb, the older ones is mutton. So yeh, been tucking into a mutton curry or three. Except I find out on Thursday that mutton is not sheep here, it's GOAT.
So yeh, that was a bit of a surprise. Goat is not (widely) eaten in Australia. Certainly I don't know anyone who eats it.

Also discovered that it's not good to use the word 'chicken' when play teasing a sweet little chinese girl. I was gently, kindly advised later that it's chinese slang for prostitute. Ack! I could have swallowed my tongue. It's been a long time since I've felt THAT sorry. 'Duck' is slang for gigolo, in case you were wondering...

Anyways, so yes, a tale of two meats. Everything is going great guns over here... You may laugh, but when sometimes things get too chaotic over here, i do miss the relative calm of Sydney.

Till next time...

Howdy pilgrims.

One week ago today I arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia again. This time, it's not for a couple of weeks, it's for a couple of months. I didn't blog about this earlier as I wanted it to be a surprise for the team here in KL, which i'm pretty sure it was.

One thing that was a surprise for me was the smoke that had engulfed the city in the time i was back in Australia. It's been blowing across from Indonesias controlled land clearing and turned a view that normally looks like this:

into this:

Even worse is that it is a yearly occurence.

It's a great city, with much to offer. I'm really enjoying my time here. All your senses are heightened by a new country, and malaysia is quite the country of contrasts.

Life is good. Friday my new notebook computer arrived, a Dell Latitude D620. I was going a bit spare without some form of entertainment besides Malaysian television when i come home.

here is my new toy:

Centrino duo 2gHz
2GB ram
120 GB Hdd
dvd +/- 8x burner
Wifi and Bluetooth

Today I went up to BB Plaza (which I got completely lost in) and bought an laser mouse, a webcam and microphone and a new pair of sandals (my previous pair lasted almost 3 years). I have quite the setup in my apartment now ;). I got mildly drenched on the way up Bukit Bintang, the rain here is watching your every move.

One thing to be prepared for over here is that not all toilets have toilet paper. The have a hose, and I have to say overall the experience was quite traumatic. Quite traumatic. Coupled with the fact that there is a fair to middling chance that you've just paid 1 Ringgit for the experience, lesser folks would be brought to tears. ;)

So anyway where was I? I have no idea.
We're apparently heading into the wet season, it may be my imagination, but i think perhaps it is a degree or 3 cooler than it was the last time i was here. Maybe I'm simply getting used to the heat and humidity? Who knows.

Anyways, that's about all that I have to report.
till next time, be well.

Hello.
Ok, got home from Malaysia yesterday morning. It's quite strange to be home. All the little differences that you notice. The huge lack of motorbikes on Sydneys streets for instance.
When i got home i went for a drink of water and had to stop myself from boiling it first. How quickly you can get acclimatised to a place. ~(:^D)

Currently a chinese couple are arguing loudly in their car outside. The woman is really screeching. Clearly, he has done her wrong.

Hi there. Selamat Tengah Hari! Good afternoon, welcome to Malaysia.Currently I'm sitting in an internet cafe (costing 4RM an hour [about $1.50]) just off Bukit Bintang.

This photo is from a few days ago, when my Malaysian workmates and I went out for lunch. There is no one picture that sums up life here though... there are just too many cultures and variety.

Everyone has the latest mobile phones, and there are shopping centres, like Low Yat, which are almost entirely dedicated to electronics.

These people certainly like their food though, and why not, it's amazing over here. I'm not sure how I'm going to cope when I get back to the relatively bland food in Australia.
I'm sure somehow I will find a way. ;)

Visiting places like this certainly open up your palette though. I've tried most things, haven't tried to frog yet though. I hear it tastes like chicken.

Anyway, having an amazing time. Today I'm just about to get something to eat, then hoping to visit the Batu caves, which are about 14km north of Kuala Lumpur.

I bought that amazing camera (Panasonic Lumix dmc fz-50) I was hoping to get, so expect many more (and higher rez!) photos on my flickr site.

One thing that I've really noticed here is the surprising blend of old, new and jungle. The above picture is of a dilapidated building which is on my walk to work. The jungle is clearly in the background, yet all around it are highrise office buildings.

The weather is warm, but not unbearable, I have yet to have a day that is like one of those searing hot days in Australia, where the sun just belts down on you. It's the humidity here, but after a few days, you do kinda get used to it.

Of course, I have to include a photo of the famous Petronas towers, as seen from my apartment building.

Alrighty, times up, off to lunch.
...more soon.