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Mug Shot

2008-09-17 By 5 Comments
Mug Shot 1

Patricia over at Subjective Soup (who attributes a post by Laura at That Grrl) posted an item about showing a pic of your favourite mug or cup, and explaining why it’s your favourite. As you’ll see, it’s too early in the morning for me to come up with a more witty title than Patricia, so I stole hers. Sorry about that.

My mug is from the Night Safari place in Singapore, and I picked it up, surprisingly, when we visited Singapore for one weekend (not the time when I had to leave Malaysia then come back in again to renew my tourist visa).

The mug is big (lots of tea), has an interesting blue-grey-purple colours on it, and has 3 bats on the inside :) As a lot of our stuff is still in storage, I’m quite honest when I say that I drink from this mug every day!

What’s your favourite cup or mug?

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My August

2008-09-05 By Leave a Comment

The following was written as a dev blog post for Battrick:

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I’ve not been able to do any development work for over a month now, due to real life happenings. As such, in the absence of any news to give you about BT, and at the personal request of Micky_Jay, I thought I’d share what’s been happening.

As this has nothing to do with Battrick whatsoever, feel free to ignore and move on!

Read my August adventures

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Social week

2008-07-31 By Leave a Comment

I realised a few days ago that this final week has got just about all of the regular social activities in it that I’ve been doing over the last 8 months or so.

Monday

Squash: I’ve played against the following people during my time here: Tim, Tom, Ian, Paul, Jonathan, Arvin, Dave, and Katie. I used to play squash for a couple of years at school – nothing great, but I did enjoy the running around. I’ve certainly seen my level of squash improve again since I’ve been here, and that’s due to playing those who are better than me, and watching others to see what shots they do! Thoroughly enjoyed my squash once or twice a week, and really helped the fitness level.

Tuesday

Badminton: As well as the regular Friday badminton, over the last two months or so, I’ve been running a free badminton workshop at the Klebang 8 condo, for anyone who wants to join. Not that I’m amazingly brilliant at badminton myself, but I know enough to be able to pass on some tips for those who are just beginning and want a greater understanding so they can enjoy the games more. I’m really happy with how this has gone – everyone has improved greatly, but I’m going to single out Maria has being the person I think has improved the most. Well done to her, and the others who have also been coming regularly and practising: Sarah, Anne, Tina, Alina, Sima, and also Brenda, Miho, Kazumi, Katy, (and some other names I’ve forgotten) who came to a few sessions.

Swimming / playing with M and others: Sarah brings her daughter M (and son, D) to the Ocean Palms pool a couple of times a week. Now I don’t enjoy doing boring lengths (although I did enjoy it more once I’d bought new goggles) in the pool, but I do enjoy throwing the kids around and keeping them entertained. It gets me out in the sun, and it gives the mums a break! Interesting to watch the jealousy of 4 year old girls erupt as M, E and C fight over who gets thrown next! (Initial only for the kids’ names.)

Tandoori: Although there are probably many restaurants doing Indian food in and around Melaka, the one that took our fancy was Pak Putra at Taman Jalan Kota Laksamana Seksyon Satu (which translates, literally, as garden road fort admiral section one, but means, probably, Section 1 of the Admiral Fort Road area). Nice food, cheap, and would probably have gone there more often if it wasn’t quite so far away.

Wednesday

Coffee Morning: A regular fortnightly meeting of the Melaka Ladies. There’s food, drink, chat, and a nice view ;-)

Mahjong: Between 3 and 8 of us turn up each week and invade Christine’s or Margaret’s place for the Mahjong game. Note that while the Mahjong solitaire games you play on the computer use the same tiles, it’s nothing like the proper game (Western or Chinese) of Mahjong. Think of it as a bit like the card game Rummy. You make sets and runs (pungs/kongs and chows) and there’s 80-odd special hands as well. A book is required to remember these!

Spring Corner: Thanks to Harry and Christine, the regular trip to the local Chinese restaurant has been going just about every Wednesday since we got here. It may not look the best, and many would carry on by if they saw it, but I’ve yet to find anything wrong with the food at all, except maybe the portions are too big!

Futsal: Something I didn’t start until a bit later into my time here, but this 5-a-side football game has been really enjoyable, and we’ve even had a tournament or two thrown in as well. Some really friendly guys there, most of who work with Katie. Has really helped with my fitness as well. Thanks to Dave for taking me along to it!

Thursday

Craft Morning: Now I’m not a craft-y person, or even a person who likes crafts. Art was my least favourite subject at school, and I have little patience for creating anything out of bits of paper or material. I have been going to the craft mornings as a social event though – back to the cakes, tea and company again. Loni, Amy, Michelle, Gaby, Janelle, Christine and some others I didn’t know so well.

Berts / Cliff’s'/ Quiz: Bert’s Garden and Sunset Retreat (Cliff’s) are right next door to each other, just down the road, and are owned by brothers (or at least members of the same family). These have been filled with ex-pats since the engineering project Katie is working on began. Sometimes Cliff’s gets popular, other times they’ll head to Bert’s instead. The food is much the same, although Bert’s slightly edges it. Cliff has fought back with some re-decoration and bar improvements, and is also the host of the monthly quiz night that started a couple of months ago. The team I was in won the first quiz, so we got to run the second quiz (well, Harry did the hard work, I just helped on the night). The next quiz is tonight.

Now although it’s obvious I’m not working whilst I’ve been out in Malaysia, is your social week as packed as this?

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Coffee Morning

The Melaka Ladies

Every fortnight, the Melaka Ladies (a group of ex-pats and local females) meet for a coffee morning. As an honorary member of the group, I usually tag along. Though not every guy’s way to spend a morning, you’ll be surprised at the gossip and interesting things you find out about whilst there (shoes and breastfeeding-related things excluded). As there are four of us due to leave soon, we had a coffee morning leaving do. Most of the photos were taken by Maria; you can find these and the rest of the set in her Facebook Album (click to see the full image).
View the gallery

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Oooh, that tickles!

2008-06-30 By Leave a Comment

Kenko Reflexology and Fish Spa (product reviewed by Gary Jones on 2008-06-30)

Feeding the fish

Katie and I recently went up to KL for one last time before we head home in August. We had a few bits of shopping to get for relatives, and we went around the usual huge malls, including Mid Valley Mall. One of the latest fads that seems to be hitting Malaysia is that of fish spas, and the one we found was Kenko Reflexology and Fish Spa.

In short, you put your feet (there are also full body treatments available at certain places) into a pool of fish, and they eat all your dead skin, leaving your feet all smooth and your pores unclogged. The fish are called Garra Rufa or “doctor fish” and come from hot springs near Kangal, Turkey. They are used to treat those suffering from skin conditions like psoriasis. The popularity of the fish spa caught the attention of the Japanese and Koreans who introduced this therapy to their Fish Spa Resorts. The fish, with their tiny teeth, help exfoliate dead skin cells, lighten minor scars and is said to relieve those with psoriasis and minor eczema. The fish are also fed normal fish food at night, and the water is heavily filtered and treated with ultraviolet light to kill viruses and bacteria. The craze spread to Singapore where Kenko has 13 outlets, and at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, the fish spa was brought for the first time into a shopping mall.

As we’d seen and heard about it due to a place in Melaka opening, we’d thought we’d give it a go. The price was RM38 (£5.84) for 30 minutes, and the time doesn’t start until you’ve removed your shoes and socks, washed your legs from the knees down, and touched your card “in”. We were directed to a round pool (with the smallest fish) that has 5 spaces, separated by metal bars that held a table up in the middle above the pool. Two men were already sitting there, and they welcomed us, and asked if this was our first time as we tentatively put our feet into the pool.

Almost immediately, and unlike other fish, they swim straight for your feet and start having a nibble. Now I’ve not got ticklish feet (it’s a mind over matter thing), but even I was struggling for composure as they attacked all sides of my feet; Katie was in fits of giggles, just like many other customers it seems when others came in later. After a while, the feeling became more like pins and needles and I found it easy to ignore and though Katie was trying to read a book, I don’t think she got very far with it!

After 10-15 minutes in the “starter” pool, I decided to try the next pool, which contained medium (relatively) sized fish. With bigger teeth, these fellas caused a more intense feeling, that tickled less, but felt more like an electric shock (not painful). Katie tried it for a few seconds but decided she couldn’t stand it and went back to the other pool.

Finally, a space became available at the pool with the biggest fish, so I took my chance and moved over. There’s a sign saying that pregnant women, anyone with un-recovered bruises or people with a variety of conditions shouldn’t use this pool! The fish in this pool were easily 4 inches long, and when they bit you, you know about it. I have to say that on occasions, the feeling from this pool was one of pain; not enough to make me stop and take my feet out, but enough to think “Ow!”. If you can let your mind wander off to something else, then it’s definitely bearable.

After 30 minutes, our card numbers flashed on the screen and we got out and washed our feet. My feet did perhaps seem smoother, but that might have been due to having had them in water for the last half-hour. Certainly there was still dead skin on the bottom, so I can only conclude that this treatment would need multiple visits, rather than expecting it to be a one-hit result. I wouldn’t say no to having another go, as it is a unique experience, but only due to the novelty factor, rather than expecting any serious health benefits.

My rating: 4.0 stars
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