Times they are a changin’… Oh and it’s Chinese New Year.

I was looking back through my blog at older posts and I have realised that I don’t do half so many posts as I used to. I also realised that I don’t post about a lot of the same stuff that I used to. I’m sorry about that. But if you guys want more variety in my posts please let me know. If you’re happy to have updates about my life in Kuantan let me know. If you want a mix of old and new let me know.

So on Friday this happened:

I also had a great night out with some new friends. Then on Saturday I had another great evening with some other new friends. Gosh I’m being vague. Let’s just say that it made up for the fact that I missed out on Australia Day celebrations due to gastrointestinal upset.

Also:

Middle of my Pau as requested.

 

Jolly Chrismukkah!

It’s the holidays here in my home town. I flew back about a week ago and I’ve been busy trying to cram as much home stuff into my time as possible. Among seeing all the old familiar sights in my fair city I’ve also seen some splendid new sights as well! Among those new things was the new TexMex restaurant that’s opened.

KTran, SewingMaster and I stumbled upon Monties Revenge (don’t talk to me about the punctuation, I’m here to talk about food!) when walking to our local Japanese restaurant. Last minute we changed our plans and decided to eat there. I cannot recommend it more highly. I’ll hopefully be going there again before the holiday is over!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!

Happy Hogmanay!

The Rains ‘Re ‘Ere!

I was a bit worried that Kuantan wouldn’t let me leave. The weather is well into monsoon season. Friday night the storm was so loud it woke me at 4am practically shaking the building. A storm like that would’ve grounded me for sure if it happened when we were to take off.

I do love the rain, it brings a coolness to the air and very large puddles. I love driving through deep puddles and having the water crash up against my window. I’ve been thinking about this ad from years ago every time it rains.

The rains are definitely in Kuantan, thankfully I’m not. For three weeks anyway!

Markets and Merriment.

This weekend I have been very social. The closer my trip home for Christmas draws the keener the desire to shop becomes. Actually, in all honesty, it’s the pre-Christmas panic that’s driving the shopping but it does allow me to spend time with some friends.

Friday night was the International Ladies of Kuantan’s Christmas dinner. The Scot and her husband, The Engineer, invited me to join them and I met a lot of nice and interesting people. Probably my favourite new person was honorary Aussie, Muriel*, she really made me laugh. We had good food and The Scot even showed the crowd a few steps of her national dance. They’re so kind to include me. I also got to meet a new lady in town, Ze Russian, I kept bumping into her around the city, including Sushi King and the supermarket, so when I saw her at the party I waved to her as if we were old friends. It was almost destined that we would meet. I feel very blessed to have made friends with a few people here.

Saturday night, The Mathematician, our friend, Rae, and I went to the night market at Telok Cempedak near my place. I needed to scope out the place to start making some very important purchases. Christmas presents. There’s only 2 weeks left until I arrive back on Australia’s fair shores and I want to be laden with presents for people! We also ate at the night food stalls and had a delightful evening gas-bagging and giggling. It’s so delightful to be shopping and chatting with new friends, as though I’ve known them all my life. Four short months ago, perhaps even four short weeks ago, I wouldn’t have thought it possible or probable.

*So named because we bonded over her love of Muriel’s Wedding and getting Toni Colette mixed up with Minnie Driver.

Lunch out.

Mondays The Mathematician and I go and get lunch from a variety of different places. One of the first places she took me was to Lot 66. Here we had what is now know as the best Chicken Rice in Kuantan. And while the food court is open air and has no air conditioning I am happy to suffer under a fan for this very tasty food. After all I never really remember how hot I was, just that I had good food and good company.

And now for something completely different.

Here in Malaysia Milo is the number 1 drink. Iced milo is popular at most restaurants and cafés, you can even buy it at McDonalds! It comes in so many different forms I’ve been overwhelmed by Australia’s famous beverage. Not that anyone here would believe that Milo is an Australian drink, no matter where it’s manufactured.

Here are just a few of the Milo products available.

Iced Milo.

Chocolate coated Milo.

Milo in a box

Milo in a can!

I’ll keep you abreast of any new products I come across.

Good Food in Kuantan

I’ve been on a food lover’s binge this week. Many people would be jealous of the amazing delicacies I’ve eaten and watched other people eat. Oh alright that’s blatant exaggeration! But actually I’ve had a few good lunches this week with some good people!

First up The Mathematician and I went for lunch on Monday to a great café near Lot 66. She’d heard about it from her sister because it was owned by her sister’s brother-in-law’s cousin or something. Anyway we ate Nasi Lemak (which translates as Fat Rice!) and I drank a new favourite beverage of mine, the Iced Milo. Nasi Lemak comes with chicken and/or a boiled egg! It’s very, very tasty!

On Wednesday, after driving around to get my parcels from the post office and set up cable in my apartment The Scholar and I took a turn past an alluring Japanese restaurant called Hana Mizuki. I begged for him to take me there and we decided that we would go on Friday. We went and had the best meal. I ordered the sushi set and The Scholar ordered tempura, udon noodles and beef that you cook at the table. The sushi set came with sushi, sashimi, miso, salad and chawanmushi. I’m so glad we went.

And today I finally got my fill of Indian curry. There were four dishes and some rice served on a banana leaf and we ordered some prawn and chicken curries as well. The food was delicious but eventually the spice got a little too much for my poor mouth. I can eat any amount of wasabi with no worries but the long lasting sensation that comes with curry really affects me.  I went with The Scot. We had a great time eating and chatting. She’s a lovely lady and she’s been all around the world.

All up a very good week I would say!

The Monsoon

Here in Kuantan monsoon season has started. The sky has been leaking giant raindrops all over the city. Trees have fallen and the sea has been looking very irked. But despite this life goes on although in a much more dramatic way. It seems that with the shift in weather, so too comes the shift in lifestyle.

New bedspread.

At the weekend I went and bought some essentials, like this new quilt cover set and a new upright broom and dust pan for when I break glass. I looked at a lot of things in the same store and finally found a gas lighter gun that I can use to light my stove with. Rice cooker, it’s back to rice for you! But now I need to update my pots and pans. Alas starting all over is a tough job.

Japanese dust pan and broom. It’s almost fun sized!

I couldn’t resist this little dust pan set. It’s so adorable. There are times when I get so caught up in day to day life that I forget that I’m not living in Australia and then I find the above in a regular department store and it’s: “Oh, yeah! I’m in Asia!” Especially when the packaging is in delightful bubble font Japanese characters.

Some things that arrived via International Express.

KTran, awesome friend, sent me a package that contained the above, plus some 30+ Sunscreen. Oh Banana Boat! You are so good! Isn’t KTran great for sending me this? It also forced me into finding the post office/parcel collection place and so now I can send the pile of post cards I have sat on my table.
That’s all for now.

Malaysia Dreaming

Quick photo update for all my friends out there who have been missing me since my big move abroad. Sorry, things have been a bit slow at getting together the last 6 weeks.

 

The beach view from my balcony.

 

The beach near my place.

 

Cheeky Monkey

 

And in my life today…

I lunched today with the awesome knitters that I love to knit with. We dined out at our local Milkbar, a new café that does organic food and makes a great cuppa. They are also quite crafty over there so our knitting group was fine and dandy sitting out the back around the large workshop table.

This was the last time I’ll be seeing the awesome knitters, as I’m moving in a few weeks to Malaysia. I haven’t mentioned the move here yet because I have been really distracted about it and, honestly, it’s a fricken scary thing to do. Anyway, as I won’t be seeing the knitters I thought it only right to take lots of photos. Here are a few:

 

 

Have a Happy Thursday!