Move It Go On

Come on People it's time to move over.

Check out my website, It has a combined version of this blog (Sofia's and My Travel Blog Combined) called A Big Adventure.
It Has Information for People Who Are Travelers and Adventurers called amazingly enough Travels and Adventures and it also has a resource for those Scuba Divers amongst you.
So please stop messing about over here and please Check it out:

SO CLICK THE LINK BELOW

This is where you will find the much more exciting new site

The Journey Has Ended, Let The Journey Begin

I have not written anything for a few days, well OK a few weeks.
Here’s the deal.
We have settled into our new apartment in Johor Bahru.
Sabastian is settled into his new school.
We have managed to open a bank account thanks to some very helpful people and no thanks to the rude uncaring people at our local branch of Maybank who simply did not want our business so they did not get it. We have gotten into a sort of routine which sees us all head down for a swim almost every day in our very nice swimming pool.
We have finally had the furniture we did not want in the apartment removed.
Sofia has been giving us much missed and much appreciated home cooking.
The biggest event that has happened is the earthquake in Indonesia which had a scary effect on us as one evening as we were all sitting together Sofia told Sabastian to stop bouncing about on the seat, he protested his innocence so she turned to blame me. When I said it’s not me she said well what’s happening then. As I stood up she said look the light fitting is moving and it was it was swinging. She said it’s an earthquake, I opened the door and stood on the balcony and the railings were shaking and I could really feel the floor moving now. We were all either in towels or swimming costumes as we had not long returned from our swim.
The building must have been really moving, we did not know what to do, there was no way we would be going down in the lift and Sofia would not manage to make it down seventeen floors with her bad knee. So we decided to just sit it out, down below we could see our fellow neighbors all gathering by the guard house. I thought this was just as pointless as our decision to stay in the apartment because if the building did fall it would be most likely to fall on them!
Of course later we heard the news of what had happened in Indonesia and the suffering they had gone through and we then realised how lucky we were to be in Malaysia rather than just across the water with those poor souls.
The fact is the little shake we experienced was very scary I can not imagine what they went through.
Our Oldest Son, Stefan has joined us after spending time with my Sister in New York.
And we have been lucky enough to meet and make friends with some very nice people.

And that is pretty much it for our journey which started back in October 08 and saw us travel around the world before settling in our new home.
I may occasionally post here, certainly I have an exciting story of our recent Trip to Cambodia to tell you all about, however to really stay in touch you really should join me over at http://www.pnlinewithme.net It's a travels, adventures and scuba website but also it will feature a combined and re-edited version of this blog and Sofia's blog. Go on check it out. http://www.onlinewithme.net/Scuba/A_Big_Adventure/A_Big_Adventure.html

Have you had a look at http://www.onlinewithme.net - No! Well get on over there now it’s awesome

Football, Shopping and Computers

Saturday 19th Sepember, 2009

And again it’s back out to the shopping malls although not for Basty who has planted himself in front of the new computer and wont be moved, so Sofia and I head out first to Jusco and once our arms are full with household goods it’s back to the apartment to drop them off and then out again to Pelengi Plaza for a more stuff both for the apartment and to eat.
Back at the apartment I settled in front of the TV, one thing about this area is they are mad for English football and that means I can sit and watch three live games today one after the other if I so wish right through to the early hours of the morning,
I watched the first game Burnley against Sunderland which Burnley won 3-1 and after that we all watched Van Helsing on TV, during that I was also starting the process of copying all of our photos over from my Macbook to Sofias (and Basyty’s) computer, because they have a windows box I cannot just connect my external hard drive and copy things across in one easy move, so it’s bit by bit on a USB stick.
Sofia went off to bed afterwards and Basty stayed up reading his computer games magazines and I watched more football, this time Liverpool taking on West Ham.
At about 2:30am Basty was hungry and decided to try a nifty little plastic white egg shaped affair that was for cooking boiled eggs in the microwave.
The instructions said 3-5 minutes depending upon microwave power, Basty apparently set it for 5 minutes and returned to the computer, a few minutes later a very loud bang sounded in the kitchen, not knowing what happened we rushed in there and Basty opened the microwave door as we stood there surveying the damage an exploding egg makes in a microwave the other egg he was cooking also exploded Basty dived for cover and we both got splattered with egg, it was in reflection bloody funny, however, I did make sure Basty knew it was his job to clean up the mess. At around 3:00am we headed to bed.
Good Times

Have you had a look at http://www.onlinewithme.net - No! Well get on over there now it’s awesome

Sorting Out Our Home

Friday 18th September, 2009

Well our realtor who was also sorting out our Satellite, telephone and broadband has some good points and some bad, the telephone got sorted this morning, but our chosen satellite packages are not the ones she ordered, this means we have three expensive movie channels which don’t even show much English language stuff, but we don’t have things we do want.
We have to hang around the apartment today waiting for the rest of the furniture to arrive and also the lounge seating which is supposed to come today as well.
We started the morning trying to contact one of the furniture companies to confirm they would be delivering today.
Now we had telephone and I guess broadband I need to get a router so that I can set up our home network.
So, I caught a taxi to Landmark IT Mall and bought a combined Printer, Scanner, Copier and also the Router.
I then spent many hours trying to make the network, work but to no avail, I could not even get my computer to connect.
All the furniture arrived and we soon had it in place.
The cleaning has continued again today.
After all our deliveries were complete it was back out to the Pelangi Plaza, we have many things still to get for the apartment and also it’s time to start filling the fridges and cupboards with all the usual stuff.

You can follow Sofia’s version of our adventures at http://travelsofia.blogspot.com

Finally We Move In To Our New Home

Thursday 17th September, 2009

OK today is the big day, today we finally get to move into our apartment.
Our bags are packed and we have said our goodbyes to the staff at the Tropical Inn, they have been very good with us and very friendly and the Manageress, Linda has been super helpful, without her help things could have been much less easy here.
We have arranged for Mr Kasim to be our driver for a few hours.
We turned up at the apartment complex at 12:00 as agreed but our realtor was not there and our phone calls were not being returned, hell this could be bad.
Finally 20 minutes late she turned up.
We went up to the apartment to find all the furniture that we had asked to be removed still in place and the supposed professionally cleaned apartment to still be in a fairly rough state, still we signed the paperwork and were ready to start moving our stuff from the hotel, there was a slight problem with the money as I miscalculated the amount of cash I needed but we were only 300 rm short having paid 5000 plus the 2000 deposit already paid.
For the next few hours we were moving backwards and forwards from the Tropical Inn until finally we were done.
Our furniture that we had bought last week was also being delivered although there were a few problems as they had made a few mistakes so they would have to return tomorrow with the right items.
We headed out to Pelangi Plaza to get some more stuff for the house including some cleaning materials.
We stopped in at Nandos for some food, our waitress Houziatun gave great service and was very entertaining, she would do superbly in a service and tip orientated place like the USA and the food was very good as well, we will be back.
We filled up a shopping trolley with yet more stuff and headed back to our new home.
Although most of the evening was spent cleaning up and moving the old furniture out of the way.
We did at least get to sleep in our own home in our own bed for the first time in a year.

You can follow Sofia’s version of our adventures at http://travelsofia.blogspot.com
stuff at my website: http://www.onlinewithme.net/BT&A/Travels_and_Adventures.html

Basty Goes To School and the World Does Not End

Monday 14th September, 2009

Well today was to be Sabastian’s first day at school in Malaysia.
We got him out of bed at 7:00am and at 7:40am I took him by Taxi to school, after dropping him off I returned to the hotel.
I have also arranged for our taxi driver Nor, to pick him up again tomorrow.
I picked up our laundry from the chinese laundrette and then called to organise a Malay massage at the Thistle. I was told to come down at 10:30am.
When I got to the massage place the lady asked me if I would mind waiting for ten minutes and then ten minutes later she told me had nobody available, I was livid as I had been told to come down. I got a taxi to Pelangi Plaza and went for a walk around the area, I like to do this as I can discover interesting (or not) places.
Getting back I picked up Sofia and we went to Pelangi together, we needed to pick up some food and also some black silk pajamas to slope around our new pad in.
And a few other odds and sods.
Then it was time to pick up Basty from school and then we headed back to the hotel.
We got Basty straight into doing his homework and after he was finished we headed out to City Square to get some food.

Tuesday 15th September, 2009

I saw Basty into his taxi and off to school.
I then went back to bed and did not wake up until midday.
Once up and dressed Sofia and I went our separate ways, I headed out to check out motor bikes and also have a further walk around, while Sofia had some tasks she wanted to accomplish, she would pick Basty up from School at 4:30pm after his Tae Kwon Do lesson and we would meet at Pelangi Plaza.
So off I went, I had a look at a few motorbike places and then started enquiring as to prices it was at that stage that I was told that I would not be able to buy a motorbike without a Visa, major bummer.
So I set off in the heat of the afternoon to walk around and see what i could find.
By 3:30pm I was absolutely melting so decided to call it a day and head for the Pelangi Plaza early where I could grab a coffee and cool down a bit.
On the way there I bought a bottle of water and set about replenishing my bodies liquids.
At Pelangi I bought a cappuccino and sat down in The Coffee Bean watching the world go by, the coffee was average but the cake was poor.
Sofia and Basty turned up around 5:00pm after Basty finished school.

Wednesday 16th September, 2009

Saw Basty off to school, it's his last day before a holiday today, yes Basty’s last day of school, amazingly he now has just over a week off. It’s Hari Raya, a massive Muslim celebration to mark the end of Ramadan.
City Square, Gifts for the staff at the Tropical Inn.

On Going Life In Malaysia, Johor Bahru

Sunday 13th September, 2009

Sofia and I left Basty in bed and headed out to Courts mammoth to have another look at the three piece suites, we did not see anything we wanted but judging from all the Sold stickers stuck everywhere there sale had been successful.
We had to walk quite a way to find a place to catch a taxi as on Sunday taxi’s seem thin on the ground or are all full of families going out and about.
We finally caught a taxi back to the Convention Centre so that we could look at the furniture there as well.
We picked out a nice leather number and a matching reclining seat, all for delivery (fingers crossed) on Friday.
We then walked back and picked up Basty and tried for dinner in an Indian place, Sofia was happy but Basty and I not so, sadly.
We then walked on down to City Square mall and got tickets for the film ‘Gamer’ after an hour or so of walking around it was time to take our seats.
The film was a non stop action film, certainly no District 9 but certainly worth watching. It’s sad that the idea of censorship in Malaysia is to get a blunt knife and at random points hack out a few seconds of film.
I remember when the Punisher came out here back in February and I think it may have been a good film but I really don’t know as every scene seemed to have been hacked.
Basty has his first day of school tomorrow so it’s meant to be an early night tonight.

You can follow Sofia’s version of our adventures at http://travelsofia.blogspot.com
or my website at http://onlinewithme.net