Red Tomato

I am back at the Red Tomato restaurant in Langkawi. They have great food, ambiance, and a decent internet connection (Malaysian). We spoke to Jordan this morning and his passport arrived. He was out shopping (he loves to shop) for a carry on suitcase for the trip so he is good to go. He writes his last exam on the 17th and flies out on the 18th. We are really looking forward to some hugs!

We rented scooters for Shelley's birthday and travelled around the island as she wanted to visit a craft village. Turns out the village was great (read air conditioned). The government has obviously dumped quite a bit of money into it. It was part museum, mostly crafts with resident artists. The batiks were very impressive and quite affordable.

Jaime received a very quick scooter lesson from me and then rode her own scooter for the next 3 hours. She did very well and arrived back at the hotel in one piece!

We finished up Shelley's birthday with supper at a seafood place. We started off with breakfast at the Red Tomato with eggs benedict, Shelley's favourite. My breakfast just arrived so ...

TTYL,

Jim

Saturday Shopping

Today is Saturday and our vacation schedule dictates that we have to do some Christmas shopping today. We fly out to Langkawi tomorrow at 8 am. We also have to hit my favourite bookstore in KL at the Petronas Towers. You really can't do a beach vacation unless you have some books to relax with. The internet access where we are in Langkawi is also a little sketchy as we access it through the Red Tomato restaurant. However, I will endeavour to keep you updated.

Jordan has 2 exams left, one on Monday and one on Friday. I really hope his passport shows up on time. He flies out after his exam on Friday and gets into Singapore on the 20th. He seems to be looking forward to the trip if only to get a break from school.

Jaime seems ready for another beach as well. It will be interesting to see how the Langkawi beaches compare to the ones she has already seen in South East Asia.

TTYL,

Jim

Graduation Day

Back in Ottawa it's winds of 60 km and 20-30 cm of snow. Here in Malaysia it is 30 degrees (as it always is) and w are getting ready for the graduation ceremony today at 2 pm. That means a jacket and tie for me. It's kind of like an August wedding back home.

The rehearsal was yesterday and it seemed to go well. My duties are simple, be visible and hand out programs to the guests as they arrive. After the graduation ceremony we must mingle and chat with parents. Sounds like good fun as most parents should be in a good mood as their son/daughter just graduated. Yet another milestone along the journey of life.

Stephanie and Gerry have departed and headed off for the Thai island of Krabi (I spelled it Crabby by mistake last time). However, not before they indulged in feeding the fish. There are quite a few places in the malls where you stick your feet in a tank of fish and they eat all the dead skin stuff off your feet. Definitely not for me, but the young and adventurous sometimes try it.

Here are some pics.

TTYL,

Jim

Sunday and the Living is Easy

It's Sunday and definitely a day of rest. Shelley and Jaime are flaked out on the couches watching Gray's Anatomy. I think they are on their 4th show in a row. It is so easy to buy a whole year of any show you want. There are stores that sell these DVD's as well as vendors on a street corner. Michel has someone he calls his video guy. I prefer simply downloading shows or movies off the net. It somehow seems less morally corrupt eliminating the middle person.

We will have visitors later today. Stephanie Albert and a friend will stay for a couple of days. Stephanie grew up on the same street as Jaime and Jordan and is about 2 years older than Jaime. Shelley taught her at Mother Teresa. Stephanie has been in India becoming qualified to teach Yoga at the highest level. They were supposed to stay with friends in Kuala Lumpur but failed to make contact. Shelley has her as a friend on Facebook. Her sister Chantal is a friend and football buddy of Dorota.

I can see that after a few days of RnR I will be bored. No doubt Brent will find some programming chores for me. It will also be time to learn something new. I find that learning makes me happy. I have also been following the phone platform wars and the battle is heating up. You can now buy phones with a screen resolution of 480 by 800 which means a very decent browser experience on the web. Combine that with a camera resolution of 5 mega pixels with flash, gps, wifi, and of course phone features and all of a sudden one device does everything. My favourite device at the moment is the HTC HD2 but there are some very good competitors appearing in the next 2 months.

Jordan flies out in 16 days and hopefully he is studying hard for his exams which are happening over the next 2 weeks. We are all looking forward to giving him a great big hug.

TTYL,

Jim

Christmas is Coming ...

Now that exams are out of the way it is time to put the Christmas tree up. I do believe we have the tallest Christmas tree in Malaysia. Shelley and Jaime, well mostly Jaime picked it out. It is now about 12 feet tall after I lopped off about 2 feet. Good thing we have 12 foot ceilings in our condo or we would be in trouble. Jaime and Shelley are trimming the tree as I speak.

Shelley is also baking up a storm with strawberry tarts, apple pie and other goodies. Tonight, Shaun, one of the Taylor teachers is celebrating going back to Canada. The official party starts at 10 pm in Farshad's condo and Shelley thought we would have a warm up in ours at 8:30 pm.

Friday was kind of a consolidation day for me as I cleaned up some teaching/marking odds and ends. Shelley and Jaime headed of to Ikea where they bought the Christmas tree. The tree was delivered on Saturday just in time to put up and decorate for the warm up.

Here are some pics.

100% done and Marks are in!

So ends the semester. It was lots of fun and very much a return down memory lane. The last time I was teaching in a classroom was 1988. Of course I coached each and every year of the 30 years in education so I always had contact with students. Teaching students is was more rewarding than teaching teachers. Sorry to all you teachers out there, but kids are just more fun and spontaneous.

The Taylor's student remind me very much of the Pius students in the early 80's before full funding altered the landscape. Perhaps because it is a private school and therefore somewhat elitist as Pius was in the 70's and 80's. There is a sense of belonging and purpose that permeates the school. The teachers are extremely dedicated and involved in the lives of their students, again very much like Pius.

Tonight I will celebrate with a beer and maybe a trip to Sunway Pyramid for dinner. At times I miss the various forms of TGI? and the gang at East Side Marios. That would be the 3 chimps, Francis and Doogie. It would be a great celebration.

TTYL,

Jim

75% Marked

Seventy five percent of my exams are marked and I hope to finish tonight. If not, there is always Wednesday as my marks are not dues until Thursday. I carried some exams back to school with me this morning as I planned to mark there as workmen were supposed to be fixing our last aircon and repairing the leak in the wall. They had not shown up by 3 pm which is not all that unusual in Malaysia.

I just received the picture of my period 4 class and will be uploading it now. Other than that, there is not much new. Brent and Jeanine Wilson called last night and seem to be getting excited about their visit in early February. Shelley and I are now on Malaysian time and that is too far down the road to even contemplate. Oh well, maybe the aircon will be fixed by then :-)

I decided to be lazy and hang around until 4:15 to catch the van home rather than walk. Not that it is a long walk, but it gets boring after a while. The van is quicker and I do have a cold beer awaiting me in the fridge to celebrate 75% done.

TTYL,

Jim