Normalization?

Not sure what to write.. life is almost becoming normal around here.
Went on a bit of a road trip yesterday… through the banana and coconut oil plantations. The highway here is a dual carriageway.. but as I take an exit to Ipoh, it narrows considerably. And they are always working on it. Highways here seem to be built not unlike the ones in northern Oz.. bitumen poured on the earth without much thought given to compaction. Bridges (yes.. at least they have those.. unlike Oz where the water just flows over the road) end up with bumps and gullies at either end.. pipes under the roads turn into speed bumps.. so the drive is a bit like a roller coast ride, with a side of bumper cars. You need to zip around the big old wooden tray-back trucks, spewing fumes and floating along the road.. over loaded and losing bits as motor cycles, scooters and bikes fly by on either side.

The bikes vary: anything goes, from a dilapidated bicycle loaded with packages and attached to a bit of side car or wagon, to Harley Davidsons. A rock flew up and hit my wind shield yesterday.. I have a big rock chip on the passenger side now and when it hit, I thought of all those guys on bikes with no helmets.. a rock in the face would sure hurt! Bikes of any sort are often loaded down with kids coming home from school with mom.. a little one in front, a couple behind. Not really a safe way to travel, and yet travel they do: even on the two lane highway you are constantly veering around to miss them.

We were stopped at a police check-stop.. I think they just wanted to talk: but their English was used up rather quickly. They asked "where you go?" and that was about it. But maybe they really wanted to know.. there is some sort of political rally in KL today.. they are locking down the city.  We are a long way from the capital though.. so the polis are not overly concerned.. sitting there in the middle of the road, under a red and white stipped umbrella alongside the rice paddies and coconut trees.

There are big lillies on the canals that follow along the road.. and, I think my camera may be working again. I changed the battery and the memory card.. it has been three or so years. I will check the pictures and try to upload a few, if it works... the flowers are at least a foot across!?

It’s green alright: really, really lush. However, yesterday the smoke from Indonesia (you need to blame someone right?!) was unbearable. I felt like I was in the Okanogan during fire season. The limestone hills surrounding Ipoh were covered in a thick haze, but they were still beautiful. I could have been in China.. or just completing the Inca trail and gazing upon that wonderful mound of a foothill springing up from behind at Machu Pichu, Peru.

The smoke doesn't help my cough though.. it isn't getting worse, but neither is it getting any better.

Ya.. it is a pretty country, but could sure use a bit of cleaning up.  People dump their trash anywhere.  Piles of it are everywhere.. often spilling out of the large black rubbish bag in which they had been placed.  My rubbish gets picked up twice a week.. wonder where it goes.

However, the water in Silka’s swimming pool in Ipoh was clean and cool! I stayed in until I was as wrinkled as the old woman I am becoming.

Judy didn’t come on the road trip. She had to head south to meet our team leader. I think she had a bit of an adventure too.. which apparently required a stop at McDonalds to get back on track. Taking a right turn after the bridge and meeting at the Maybank is a little bit like trying to meet up at the Tim Hortons by London Drugs in Grande Prairie... But those golden arches in 'outback' Malaysia stood out well enough as a landmark.

Things are about as normal as you can expect them to be in a foreign, humid, mostly Muslim, tropical country.. far from so many friends and family members. 

Vas has gone ‘downtown’ Sabak Bernam to pick some things up at the market. He will stop and read the paper at one of the little outdoor noodle shops. He will have to chase away a pregnant cat and chat with people that don't understand him.. or his 'English".  Judy is settling in at her new place: she is expecting a furniture delivery this morning.  Four bedrooms to fill.. or at least something to sit on in the living room.  I am hanging out at home drinking Starbucks coffee and listening to my new IPod Docking Station.. much better sound than the computer.

Travis 'loaded' the Ipod up years ago, and I am still hearing songs I haven't heard before. 

Ya.. all good. Feeling pretty ‘normal’… and settled.

For now.