Your Big Day!!

Happy Birthday Marmite

You are officially 13 years old today and for a big dog that is a great age - 91 in human years. Because you were a street dog with no history - just a long list of fears - black plastic dustbin liners - long sticks (broom handles) - loud noises (motorbikes backfiring), I gave you my father's birth date, 9th December. It sort of fitted with the size you were when you came to us. He lived to 78 and died the same day as the Queen Mother back in 2002. You have lived far beyond that - Congratulations.

After drinking a coffee - and spending time thinking of you, I will be getting on the ferry to Langkawi and slowing edging further north. Tickets are sorted and so is accommodation so I don't think there will be any issues for today.

Yesterday, however, turned itself upside down. I planned to do the Hop on -Hop off bus and the man at the front desk of the hotel told me it arrived at 9am. So from 9 am til 10:40 I waited at the bus stop with a number of other people who were all told different things and we waited and waited. Nothing...

So I walked through the shopping centre and caught a bus for 1.40MYR and went into town and walked to my planned places - The Clan fishing area, The Longest Cafe - I found somewhere close to that but I reckon the Longest Cafe in Penang couldn't have been as good. Then I pottered off up to the Botanic Gardens. In my my mind, I had Botanic Gardens, Singapore. In reality, there were a lot of trees, unkempt paths and borders and an Orchid House that was opened in 1952 but by the looks of it, it was closed in 1953 - locked and bolted, through the bars was rubble and weeds. On the upside I did  see the dusky langurs - lots of them and all outside the entrance to the gardens.

By the time I got back to the hotel, I'd seen one Hop on-Hop off bus and there were just two people on it. With a bit more planning and advertising, the bus could have done a roaring trade. I spent far less than I planned to because the bus never arrived in a timely fashion and there were five others who would have added to the tourist revenue but didn't.

My hotel in Penang is the Dubin Art House. Very clean, well positioned with surprisingly good plumbing for Malaysia. Wish you were here to experience it with me.

Have a wonderful birthday.

Love U loads. XXX

Wats and Whatnots

Dear Marmite

I am in Penang so I am away from mainland Malaysia - just. I arrived very, very early on a very efficient overnight bus to Butterworth and then caught the ferry over. I say efficient as I must have have been fast asleep when the driver said Butterworth - I really didn't expect to sleep so well, if at all.

There was a gap of time between arriving and the first ferry and no seats in the bus station - really - there were no seats at all. I sat in the cafe pondering all the things I daren't have - chrysanthemum tea, Kopi, bandung - all of them come laced with preseratives. A local couple who had just arrived from Klang came and struck up a conversation and they turned out to be my guiding angels. Not only did they treat me to a 100+, they put me on the ferry and sorted out a taxi at the other end.

The first taxi driver had no idea where Gurney Drive was, he dithered and blustered to boot. In my mind this is not a trait that will lead to fortune but then he was nearing 90. While he was still huffing and puffing my guiding angels found a grab and came along for the ride before going to their hotel. The driver was so nice as well... Would I have come across such lovely people if Ihad not been travelling alone? Food for thought.

So having dumped everything in my hotel which incidentally is on a main thoroughfare - I made for the central area which was still asleep. Over 20,000 steps later - you wouldn't have liked that bit, Marms - I got back to my hotel to clean up, sort myself out and rest.. Penang seems particularly hot - even by Singapore standards.

Since my last visit, which was yonks ago, Penang has changed so much. While it is incredibly pretty in the central area with trees, well-painted shop houses and colonial office buildings, just a street or two away, it is pretty run down. Like Singapore, there is construction of highrise and land reclaimation everywhere you look- at least it is more pleasing to the eye than the stuff being built in other parts of Malaysia which is a big plus.

Penang and Singapore share a very similar colonial past, the British, assimilated immigration areas and its Malay history but they are different in so far as Penang looks in many parts like a curly old sandwich - once loved - but now no one wants to have it anything to do with it.

Today is another day so it is the hop-on-hop-off for me.. for starters.. BTW I take loads of pictures with my trusty old D90 so these will be uploaded much later.. I am an old fashioned photographer.

More later.. love you..

Regrets, I've had a few

My Dearest Marmite,

The distance between us grows and I am now with yet another canine - Marble. More of him later. I travelled up to TBS in KL on a reasonably good bus which took less than 5 hours despite doing an enexpected detour to Seremban - why should this surprise me? Nothing is ever what it should be at face value in this country.

I had to go to the Post Office in Cyberjaya this morning to buy a couple of stamps - 35 minutes it took and there wasn't even much of a queue to speak of.  You can imagine my excitment when number 1051 popped up and mine was 1055. I could see an end to the interminable wait and it filled me with such joy. Such joy that I bounced up and down in my seat. There really is a malaise that engulfs this place. How apt is that word for this country?

My time in Malaysia is definitely not a regret. It has meant a last farewell to friends on my journey. The regret I will actually mention firstly is that I have too much stuff. I am travelling with clothes for four seasons, medications, real coffee - yes, I must have my fix - camera, phone and laptop - and toiletries. Oh why wasn't I stricter and with myself. At least I am jettisoning stuff on the way.

The next regret is not using the pool at Dairy Farm more often. I made the excuse to myself that I never had time. The reality is that I never made time. Below me in Melanie's downstairs toilet is Andrea the Rat. She arrived around 2009, I think. We never really got to bond though. A regret to be sure.  At least I did get to say goodbye but I do expect to see her turn up in the UK in the foreseeable future. Andrea the Rat is tough and bronze...  she will survive anything! I am touched to have a rat named after me - really I am.

Now to Marble, he is a delightful dog with a liking for English fingers and thumbs - mine in particular. When I am around he has a very restricted existence  - poor thing. He must associate me with punishment. I wish I was more than a potential snack to him. It won't be long til he gets the run of the house again as I will be off on the road again.

I am going on an overnight trip to Penang, arriving on the morning of the 7th. Even though it will be dark as I travel north on one of Malaysia's E numbers roads, I know that I will be passing through endless kilometres of Palm Oil Plantations. They look lush and verdant but their existence has killed off habitat for the natural flora nad fauna. If only the world knew the harm that palm oil production has done to this planet, they would consume more wisely and stop buying stuff that contains it. We eat it, wash in it, clean stuff with it.. IT is in so much stuff...errrrrr.

Sorry Marms... I didn't mean to end on a gruff note. I love you. XXX and Louai sends his love too.

It's all rather Touch n Go

Dear Marms,

I have made it. I am with Jeff in JB. I know you have never been there even though it is just a short hop over the causeway to a different country. You do know Jeff because he ocassionally came with us on those long walks - even in the rain. To you Jeff meant long walkies YAY!

As I look out of Jeff's window 24 storeys up in the air, Singapore looks dark and gloomy. Bukit Timah hill stands above the rest of the Singapore and now morning has broken it stands there a mere molehill above its surroundings. Through the gloom it is still visible - just. Bukit Timah Hill is an important landmark to me - it is right next door to my home and it is where my journey started.

So why is Malaysia "Touch n Go", you may ask. Well, this is the aptly named semi-automated road payment system that gets cars through the toll gates and lets you in and out of carparks. Idiomatically, the phrases means there is a small chance of success or survival so is this a metaphor for Malaysia - truly Asia? I wonder.

For once, when I came through customs on the Malaysia side there were sufficient customs officers on duty and the queuing was bearable. Often, I'd choose the shortest line and wait the longest as every other queue around me shrank. Clearly the Gods were on my side this time as I stepped into the first country of my trip home.

Having been pickpocketed in JB I have firsthand experience of how much different it is from Singapore. My first step is also a step back in time to a far less sophisticated country with odd processes. A trip with Jeff to the top floor of Double Tree Hilton for a cocktail or two was nicely on par with Singapore though and despite the construction, the pool area where we had the cocktails was very pleasant indeed. In fact it seemed to get more pleasant with each sip.

So now to this morning... Larkin awaits and the next leg of my trip begins..

The distance between us will get bigger each and every day..

Byeeee

One small step.. etc

Dear Marmite

THIS is it!! This is my giant leap. I am about to walk out of Dairy Farm Estate after living here since June 2005 and get on a 170 and head for the causeway. I have checked no more than half a dozen times to make sure my passport is in my bag and I have already put roaming on my phone so there is nothing more for me to sort before I make that step out of Melanie and Mark's home and set off into the unknown.

It isn't really unknown. I have done it countless times before and when the children were younger we used to go ten-pin bowling at Pelangi in JB. Back then the buses weren't aircon and they rattled. Now the trip is smoother but the waiting times are longer to get through the two lots of customs because so many more people now cross back anf forth.

This time it will be different though. I am now on a visitors' pass and the trip is one way as well as being the first step on my trip to the UK. So there can't be any second thoughts and certainly no looking back.

I said goodbye to the swimming pool this morning... breakfast in the sunshine at the beginning of December. I bet those in the UK would be jealous of something that I have got very passé about.

What I have come to realise is that after you say goodbye to someone and you know it is the last time, for me there is an awkward pause. Do I turn and walk or do I stand and wait for them to go? How many times is it necessary or acceptable to say, "Goodbye"? Perhaps should I step backwards to show it is over. You would think with all the times I have said goodbye over the last month, I would be pro at this. Not true. I seem  to have got more uncomfortable with each farewell.

My friends joke that I have had more leaving dos than the years I have lived in Singapore. I doubt this. There have been lots and I genuinely will miss all my friends, and especially you, Marmite. The advert for Marmite  - the spread - in the UK is "Love it or hate it!" As a Rotweiller X you certainly were well named - people have been either scared of you or drape themselves over you.

I love Marmite the spread and I love you. If only I got a dollar for the times people around here said hello to you when I was attached to your lead and never acknowledged my presence. That is a true sign of your popularity  - I loved that about you, my placid friend, farewell...

So now this is it.. I am gone.. the world awaits...

x

The Day the Wheels Came Off

Dear Marms

You probably haven't heard this expression. It is a metaphor for everything going wrong. Actually nothing did go wrong. The suitcase that is going to the UK courtesy of Mark (Thank you, Mark) was been in my neighbour's house for a few weeks now and when I moved it, the rubber tyres on the wheels just dropped off.

I hope this is not a foreboding for future travels. I have less than a day left in Singapore now and the clock is ticking very fast indeed. I promise to still write to you even though I will be on my travels.

Do you know my journey actually started way back in March this year? As with most things in my life, it started with a cup of coffee. Moe, who is now in Darwin, suggested I need to move my life along and not wait for you to pop your clogs. This had been my original plan, you knew that.  I know you are a really healthy old man and that you probably have a few years left in you, especially as you have no stress in your life. What Mo said made sense. I am not getting any younger either.

This is why you are now happily living with Rita and being treated like royalty - in a way that you were never treated by me, I know. In that way, you have really landed on your paws. As I say, you make your luck and the way everyone loves you is your way of getting the very best treatment from everyone. Luck surrounds you.

Having found a home for you, I sold my apartment - that was less emotional than giving you away. Then I resigned from work. So here I am, just under a day from leaving Singapore - the place where I have lived for over 23 years.

At the moment this is all a little surreal. Melanie, sitting opposite me at the table has just written a last bit in my "leaving" book and I am about to take a trip with my bags. Yet more last lasts...

What more can I say? I sincerely hope the wheels don't come off!!

Love U.

Missing work already

Dear Marms

Just like with you, it is funny how much you realise you are going to miss something when it is gone. Work has gone. There are bits that I will really miss. I will miss MyClubs.

MyClubs are a value-added opportunity for enrolled students to sign up for extra classes and I just loved having them on my timetable. They covered things like Pron Dr. , Vocab Dr. Film and TV, Coffee and Conversation, Gardening... the list goes on.

Some students are hardcore attendees and go to all lessons regardless of level so you get to know them really well. Also in one class you can get a whole range of language abilites so it is a bit like life outside the classroom where as a beginner you have to make sense of complexity and accept there are somethings that will remain a mystery.

My one-but-last MyClub was at Seed Cafe - just a short walk from work. Seed Cafe is part of the Rainbow Centre and the students from that school work in the cafe - a marvellous idea all round.

Last Thursday, there were around a dozen MyClub students from all over Asia chatting away in English - their only common language. The conversation, peppered with laughter, showed how well everyone gets along. The picture sent to me by Stella (Thank you) is a nice momento of this almost last class of mine.

Do I have any MyClub regrets? - perhaps I should have taught these ladies how to play "spoons" - I do think it has cultural currency. Maybe Diane, this is a future opportunity for you... MyClub "Spoons" - but you will need a risk assessment, for sure.

Remember Spoons? Marmite you witnessed Laura and Sammi rolling around the floor - fighting it out for one spoon.. That is spoons. How could you forget?

Love U!!!