Australia, the lucky country

I know I know, once again I'm behind on my blog posts - so much for my resolution to post more regularly and not let WEEKS go by in between.

Today's post is not actually about life in KL but about my home country. Yesterday I was down in the little convenience store below our condo and as I was paying, the shop owner asked where I am from. When I said Australia, he let out a little sigh and with a smile, said,

"Ah, Australia. The good country."

I'm writing about this because it's not the first time it's happened since I've been here. Taxi drivers, people sitting next to me in cafes, hotel valet staff - pretty much every Malaysian person I have encountered has had this same positive reaction to Australia - it's good, lucky, happy, great. 

Australia has it all in their view, it's safe, people have good jobs, locals are friendly, there's a real sense of freedom and it's all packaged up in a nice climate that is seasonal but still mostly warm and sunny.

And yet, reading the Australian news every day, you'd think people had real problems back home. Not a day goes by when the media (and the general public) is not lamenting how hard life is, how they don't have enough money, how groceries are too expensive, how the streets of Sydney are too dangerous, how kids are not educated enough, how Cityrail sucks...etc. 

Sure, it's all a matter of perception and relativity and grass is always greener and all that, but let's stop for a moment for a reality check. Australia is really a lucky country in so many ways, not least because most days you see real blue sky, not the polluted haze that's been hanging over KL of late.

I've been as guilty as the next person when it comes to whingeing about the price of coffee in Sydney or its public transport woes. But I hope that having lived abroad now and heard how positively Australia and Australians are spoken of, that when we eventually return I will be a bit more appreciative of just how good we have it. 

Happy birthday Malaysia!

To celebrate, The Boy and I are off to the Perhentian Islands for a long weekend with our Scottish couple friends and our South African scuba diving instructor friend.

Busy busy busy

It's been a while since my last post and that is a good thing in a way. It means I have been busy, and I love being busy. Since a young age I have filled my hours with activities - whilst I was at school and university I was also learning musical instruments, learning languages, reading and reading more, and as I grew older, part-time work and travel entered the mix. Even after graduating and entering the full-time workforce, I had a yearning to study again and enrolled in a part-time Masters degree. And of course one can't forget the socialising with friends and family that has been a constant in my life.

All in all, it's made me an inordinately organised person. I can find time for everything. But these past weeks, even as I thought that yes I must write another blog post, I somehow didn't get around to it. Is the relaxed Malaysian lifestyle finally having an effect on me? Perhaps. And seeing as how KL is our home for the foreseeable future, sensing that I am adjusting and 'settling in' is satisfying. I still crave my home comforts - the people and places in Sydney that I love and feel bound to - but I think I am at that stage now where I can say that I have 'a life' in KL too. And since most expat experiences are transient, I doubt that this chapter in our lives will last forever but I do hope that the lessons learned and experiences shared will stay with us in our lifetimes.

Home and back again

It's been a while since I've written a post - April flew by with a glorious couple of weeks back home in Sydney surrounding myself with the familiar people and places that I love and miss. 

Good coffee, even better wine, proper chocolate and all the meat (including pork) you could want without any 'spare parts' as my friend Jana would say. After living in a high-rise apartment building in the middle of the city, it was so nice to get back to the sense of space, fresh air and quiet in the Sydney suburbs where I grew up. I whiled away a couple of delicious breakfasts with my best girlfriends and enjoyed a few glasses of wine on leisurely evenings at home with my parents and our dogs. 

It was hard to come back to the jungle, it really was. But being with The Boy and being there for him keeps me here. And really, it's not all bad. In fact, in many ways it's good. It's almost 6 months since I moved to KL and I think I'm slowly finding my feet. Sometimes I find myself smiling to myself and that can only be a good thing.
 

 

My first POS Malaysia experience

Today I paid my first visit to POS Malaysia aka the post office. Until now I've managed to avoid the place and my only experience with mail has been waiting (a frustratingly long time) for things to get delivered from Australia.

True story: My best friend sent me a beautiful parcel of Christmas presents 2 weeks before Christmas. When did I receive it? The 31st January. I rest my case.

Back to the post office. Now I've stood in my fair share of queues and dealt with several unfriendly, unhelpful or slower-than-a-snail members of staff at the post office back in Sydney. But today was a brand new experience.

When I arrived I noticed the entire place was full of people sitting or standing, but all of them waiting and only a handful getting served as half the counters were unattended and even those that were, occasionally the staff member would casually get up and share a joke with a colleague or seemingly do nothing. There were at least half a dozen or more people standing outside in the mall as well. Clearly things could take a while.

My next problem was that I had no idea what I was meant to do. All I wanted was some stamps to mail a card. Looking around, I saw an electronic ticket display calling numbers in turn with a designated counter next to it. A-ha. I looked around for about 5 minutes and eventually found the ticket dispenser tucked away behind a crowd of people in the corner of the post office with no sign.

Not needing to pay a bill, that ruled out pressing B so I pressed A. Armed with my ticket I happily went to stand outside and wait. Another electronic display read: "stamps, parcels. Please press button A"

Note the punctuation, it's important for the story. I read it and thought, yes I pressed A, I'm all good.

Another 10 minutes went past and the ticket numbers being called out slowly went up towards 1425 which I was holding. An automated female voice announced each ticket and counter as they were called on the machine, although it was all in Bahasa Malaysia. Was it my imagination or did she sound cranky too?

After I had been standing outside the post office for what seemed like forever, I observed a European man who had just been called up to one of the 'multi-service' counters getting rather fired up at the guy behind the counter. Why? He wanted to buy stamps and after waiting half an hour, had just been told that stamps were only being sold at counter 5 which you didn't need a ticket for, you simply had to join the queue.

Aha. I looked back at the electronic sign and saw it actually read:

"Please queue at counter 5 for the following: POS express, registered post," -display changes- "stamps, parcels. Please press button A" 

Aha.

I threw away my useless ticket and hurried to join the queue at counter 5 in front of the cranky European gentleman. 45 minutes later, I was finally out of there with my card stamped and sent off to Japan (I really hope it gets there). 

POS Malaysia, you need to invest in bigger and better signs that don't show half a sentence at a time, and have more staff working so people aren't spilling out into the streets while they are waiting. That was way too much work for a card, imagine if I ever had to send a parcel!

3 months in...

It's been three months since I arrived in KL so I thought I'd take this opportunity to list a few top 3's...

Food
Char kway teow
Chicken satay
Nasi lemak

Drink
Soya bean
Teh tarik
Milk tea with pearls (not strictly Malaysian but it's everywhere and I love it)


Shopping malls
Pavilion (one-stop-shop for high street fashion without the crowded feeling)
Central Market (souvenirs and pretty artifacts)
Sungei Wang (cheap clothes and shoes)

Sightseeing
KLCC Park/Petronas Towers
Lake Gardens
Chow Kit market

Food courts
Lot 10
Pavilion
Suria KLCC Level 4


Bars and restaurants
The Apartment Downtown/Malones, Suria KLCC
Madam Kwan's
Havana, Changkat Bukit Bintang

I hope to add to these lists and maybe even change some of them as time goes on and I get to know KL more. Cheers!

Follow your heart

On my last day in the office before I left Sydney, a good friend and colleague said to me,
"Sometimes you just have to follow your heart."

And that really is why I'm here. While others might move overseas to seek adventure and new experiences and challenge themselves, I will admit I was perfectly happy with my life in Sydney just the way it was. So when my boyfriend of 3 years was given the opportunity to move to Kuala Lumpur and set up a new office for his company, I definitely had mixed feelings. On the one hand I wanted to be supportive of something he's wanted to do for a long time; on the other hand...I didn't want to leave home! I didn't want to quit my job! And what would KL do to our relationship?

While KL plans had been on the table for quite some time, things were only finalised at the very last minute giving The Boy literally about a week to sort out his life in Sydney and move. He left in such a whirl that in between cleaning the apartment to put on the rental market and sorting out his travel insurance, there was barely time to be sad about our impending separation. I moved back in with my parents and younger siblings while I planned my own departure, thankful that email, Skype and Viber make long-distance romance slightly easier to maintain.

4 months and one brief visit to KL later, it was me checking in the world's biggest suitcase at Sydney International Airport and hugging my dad goodbye. And here I am. No friends, no car, no office - I'm starting from scratch with The Boy the only familiar thing left from my old life.  

To be honest, until The Boy's job opportunity came up, KL wasn't even really on my radar as a travel destination. The only memory I had of the place was of a late-night stop over at KL airport way back in 1998 en route to London. And it wasn't a particular good memory either - I had managed to lose my camera and was desperately trying to ask airport staff for help finding it. I never did get it back and spent the next 3 weeks in Europe buying a disposable camera in every city.

This time around I'm hoping for better memories. I've followed my heart to KL and I know this will be the biggest test of our love but also the greatest opportunity. We could have stayed in Sydney and stuck to our comfortable routine, knowing exactly what each day, week and month would bring. 

But instead we're here, out of our comfort zones and for the first time really having to depend on the other person to get through. I miss my family and friends in Sydney and KL is full of frustrations, but I know there's nowhere else I'd rather be right now. 

I just don't know what to do with myself...

Only a week in to my new life in KL and I'm already feeling stuck. After a weekend of settling in (bought new pillows!) and getting to know my way around the local area (i.e. the nearest shopping mall), The Boy is back to his long work hours - the perils of starting your own business - and I find myself with every afternoon completely empty.

There is only so much time I can spend by our glorious pool having grown up in a country all too aware of the risks of sun exposure, and as much as I love to shop, after walking past the same stores every morning and night even the mall starts to lose a little of its lustre. Not to mention I am trying to remain faithful to our extremely conservative budget, which translates to about $15AU a day!

So in an attempt to find something to do that lets me
a) stay inside
b) not spend money
c) feel like I've accomplished something

...I've decided to start a blog.

This isn't going to be the sort of thing where I whinge and pour out my emotions and philosophies on life to an invisible online audience. There will probably be a bit of that. But I want to use it more to tell stories about the places I go, the dishes I eat, the shops I like...all the things about my new and different life in Malaysia that might be interesting, or useful for people to read.

That is my hope anyway. Wish me luck.