June!

Welcome to June everyone!   An interesting phenomenon living so close to the equator (about 3 degrees north) is that every month is pretty much like every other month.  So as I sit here thinking about home, the subtle differences in the months seem to take on an added importance to me.   June is one of my favorites.  Summer is all leafed out and growing.  The days are long and warm and full of life.

Yesterday we had the Elders over for dinner.  A couple of weeks ago we had the sisters over and served tacos.  This time we invited the Elders and a couple of friends from the branch, Miow Linn Yap and Graham Doxey and we served roast beef with potatoes, carrots, onions; a zuchini dish and green salad.  Brownies and ice cream for dessert.  We like to serve something that the American missionaries might miss from home and they were not disappointed.  During dinner one of the Elders told us that he has finished his mission and is actually leaving for home today (Monday).   He lived in Draper during High School and went to Alta HS, but his family has now moved to Heber City.   I told him that when he is at his mom's table next Sunday he needn't tell her that he just had roast beef and mashed potatoes last week at the Sanders.  He said he would keep that to himself.

Our sea shipment finally arrived on Friday and that day and Saturday our place looked a little chaotic.  But we (mostly Tobi) whipped it into shape in short order and now it feels a lot more like our home.  She has it fixed up very nicely with lots of family pictures and familiar artifacts on the shelves, etc.  (I tried to do a walking tour of the apartment on Skype with Robyn, Craig and my Dad, but every time I got more than 25 feet from our internet router I would lose the connection.)

I will be going to Youth Conference a week from today.  We are going to some resort area a couple of hours away and I have been put in charge of a service project involving building and installing a couple of soccer goals at a school out in the country for an Orang Asli community school.  (Orang means people and Asli means native or aboriginal.)  So getting that all ready to go and the materials purchased and delivered etc, will be my main project for this week.

I'm still not working.  I don't exactly know what the holdup is.  Something about my nefarious background apparently.  I am looking forward very much to starting work.  I love my workouts and swimming and reading by the pool, but I need more to keep busy with and to bring in some vacation money.

Tobi is loving her job more and more all the time.  She was very stressed at first and thought she may have made a big mistake but as she has gotten accustomed to her job and has done them a few times, she has become more comfortable.  Her boss, the new Legal Attache (LEGAT) arrived a week ago.  We had lunch with him the the Assistant Legal Attache (ALAT) last week.  They are both very nice guys and I think Tobi will enjoy working with them.

One of our favorite things to do in the evenings is to read blogs.  They have become very important to us.  Keep posting!  We find ourselves reading blogs of people we don't even know simply because they are on your friends lists.  

Please know that we love you all and miss you like crazy.  We can't wait until October when we get to see our kids and dads and many others.  Looks like we are going to be taking a cruise to the Greek Islands and then come home for 2 full weeks.  We will be home in Utah from the 17th or 18th of October until the 30th.  Let's plan some get-togethers.

Scott

Life is Good in KL

Life is good in KL.  I am settling into work well.  Not stressed as much as I was at first. 

I downloaded the pictures from my little camera finally.  I had forgotten to pack the computer connection cables so had to wait until they came in our air shipment and then it has just taken some time to finally get around to posting them.  I already told you all about those wonderful breakfasts at the Ritz-Carlton and now you can see what I meant.  One of my favorite things was to have the watermelon, sweet and juicy, with the blue cheese.  Oh that was the best.  Oh how I miss those breakfasts.

Monday is the Memorial Holiday and I have been trying to figure out how to go golfing.  It seems as if you have to be a member to golf.  So very confusing.

My new boss, Greg Gilmartin, just arrived this week and I met him for the first time yesterday.  He is very nice and I think he will be great to work for.  His wife, Caryn, will come with their 21 year old daughter who will only stay for a while since she is in college.  Caryn is an FBI employee and will take a leave of absence to accompany her husband.  They both golf so hopefully between the four of us we can figure out how to get a golf foursome going.

I actually told Scott I was NOT going to go to work this Saturday.  I am actually starting to be able to keep up with my work and that feels good.

We are going to have a pool day today and then go to an afternoon movie.  Doesn't that sound great.

We should be hearing about Scott's job any day now.  It will be his money that we will use on our trips.

We had the missionaries (Sisters) over for dinner last Sunday.  It was so much fun to visit with them.  They are awesome.  Because we don't have very many dishes we only had the four Sister missionaries.  We felt bad when the Sisters had talked to the Elders and found out they hadn't been invited.  We are going to have them next Sunday if they will forgive us and come.  We will have to dream up something really good.

Boy they have some terrific Thunder and lightening storms here.  The other night I was sure a bomb had gone off.  Then at work in my little cave the lights flickered and then there was a huge boom, and I even screamed because it caught me so off guard.  On Thursday, it rained so hard that the Embassy had water streaming in from everywhere.  Just amazing.  I had forgotten to pack my crocs that day and had Scott walk all the way to the Embassy to bring them so I didn't get my nice shoes soaked.  Isn't he just the nicest man.

I get up every morning and fix and curl my hair.  When I walk out my front door I look like Shirley Temple with really curly hair, but by the time I get to the Embassy I look like Greta Garbo (her later years) with practically straight hair.  I keep trying though.  I had to file down all my fingernails because they are getting so long it was bothering me when I typed.

I am a member of the Housing Board and I get to go to check out new apartments.  It is really fun and I had a chance to go see my boss's new apartment.  They look over the KLCC Park and also have the Petronas Towers for a view.  It is spectacular.  They are a little further away from the Embassy, but I would love to live so close to the park and the KLCC Mall for shopping.

We are in full swing in practicing for our Musical Presentation.  I was given a new solo part and started to practice that.  I don't like it as much as the other one I had been working on, but the range is a lot better for me.

With work getting better, life is wonderful for me, but for Scott it is a marvel.  He has been swimming almost every day and it shows.  He has a great tan and has lost a lot of weight.  He doesn't fit into his jeans anymore, but for guys that is great because the baggier the better.  

So life is good in KL.

Breakfast at the Ritz

Fire-Fly Tour

Excursion to Bukit Malawati and Kuala Selangor

On Saturday (5/9/09), we joined a group of about 30 Embassy employees and took a bus about an hour and a half up the west coast of  peninsular Malaysia to  Kuala Selangor to visit a firefly habitat.  We boarded the bus at about 4pm and drove first west and then north along the coast.  At dinner time we stopped at a little fishing village and got on this "tram" to ride up the Bukit Malawati hill.  Bukit means hill in Bahasa.  At the top there was a beautiful vista overlooking the Straits of Malacca which are located between the Malay peninsula and the island of Sumatra.  We were greeted by a large number of Silverleaf Monkeys.  I don't think the monkeys were really friendly, they just appeared to be so in order to get their hands on the green beans we had to feed them.  I learned from watching others that if you don't hold the beans up high, they'll steal them from your hands while you're not looking.  One extra "friendly" monkey climbed up me and took a seat on my camera and waited patiently while I gave him a nice green bean.

The tram is really just an old tractor pulling a couple of wagons with seats.  About half way up the hill he pulled off the road into a parking area and made two full circles around the lot while building up speed, then it was back onto the road with added impetus and up to the top of the hill.

We had a great seafood dinner of about 6 courses.  Clams, fish, shrimp, squid, crab, all done in a delectable manner.  Here in Malaysia it seems they don't believe in shelling anything.  The shrimp, clams, and crabs were all still in their shells and cooked in a delicious sauce so it was quite a messy endeavor, especially the crabs.  You had to place a crab (fist sized and very hard shells) between some napkins, hit it with the supplied mallet, then remove the shells and then you can enjoy a bite or two.

At about 7pm we arrived at Kuala Selangor and boarded boats to go up the river to see the firefly habitat.  The boats had small electric motors to keep the sound down.  By this time it was quite dark and we were asked not to use flash cameras so we didn't get any pictures.  We crossed the river and floated along the opposite side which was covered with bushes and trees.  What we saw was quite a spectacular display.  Thousands and thousands of little tiny fireflies were sitting on the branches and leaves of each bush and emitting flashes of light from their abdominal light bulbs.

Those of you who have spent any time in Kansas City or other humid climes will remember the fireflies (lightning bugs) we used to have there.  They were much bigger and their lights would remain on for 1-2 seconds at a time and then go off for a few seconds more.  These were small and emitted very quick flashes of light in rapid succession.  The effect, along a mile or so of riverbank, was such a display of  lights as you might expect on a residential drive at Christmas time.  It was a black night, lit by a full moon, and millions of tiny flickering lights.  It was a remarkable sight!  What a memorable night it was!

A little Malaysian history is called for here.  Early in the 20th century an entrepreneurial spirit brought 9 seeds of the rubber tree from Brazil to Malaysia and planted them.  Within 50 years, Malaysia became the leading exporter of rubber in the world.  Under the governance of the British Empire, Malaysia became very important economically, particularly when war broke out.  Malaya, as it was called then, became a pawn in the game of world dominance, as Japan occupied the peninsula and exploited the rubber for use in the war.   The exigencies of war and the enormous demand for rubber brought about the development of synthetic rubber.  Very good for the allied effort in the war, very bad for post-war Malaya.

The bottom dropped out of the natural rubber industry.  Over the years, palm-oil has supplanted rubber as the #1 industry of Malaysia.  On our trip we drove past hundreds and hundreds of square miles of oil palms.  Malaysia also has a large petroleum industry and is an exporter of oil and natural gas.

I guess I took that little history lesson a little too far.  Tobi will be exasperated with me.

The more time we spend here, the more we come to love this country and its people.

Home Sweet Home in KL

Beautiful Kuala Lumpur