Travel Plans, Neuroses and Resolution Keeping

The Most Recent Thing to upset me is that BIKSS is going away on a play trip (as opposed to a work trip) at the end of March and I found out in the most disastrous way. 

Background - I have separation anxiety, adjustment disorder, and abandonment issues. I'm not proud of it or anything, it's not like I WANT to collect disorders, but these are all things that I've been in therapy for. And while I can function and survive in the normal world most of the time, sometimes it takes a bit of doing for me to haul my crushed and fractured soul off the ground and get it back in the realm of the living when something comes at me out of nowhere. 

Dramatic, much? Yes. On a regular day with a sane mind, I would agree. But that is exactly what it feels like when a thing comes flying my way and hits me square in the face. Reason and logic? What? No where to be found.

Anyway we talked (MANY TALKS) about it, and by now I'm feeling ok again. However, moving forward, there are some things that I will have to do to cope and compensate for such unplanned out-of-town trips tho, the most obvious being PLAN MY OWN out-of-town trips. And on his part, TELL ME WITH A BIT OF SENSITIVITY. Ahem. Moving on... the rest of the Plan.

If he's to travel more this year, being my 'leave the country every month year' and all, then the original plan was that I would tag along on his work trips. But if his trips are gonna be last minute and clash with my work schedule / cost too much in airfare / coincide with my periods guaranteeing NO ONE has a good time, then I would rather not go. (Which is what happened the last BKK trip he took - it was short notice and the flights were almost $500 return and it was period week. Plus my colleague was on leave the Monday that he was to fly off, meaning I couldn't get time off till Tuesday, shortening an already short trip. As for this upcoming play trip to HKG with the fellas - he suggested I come up and join him for a couple of days after the match, but $700 is NOT a price I'm willing to pay for a 2 day tag-on.) 

In all likelihood I'd have to beat the last-minute-high-priced-ticket situation by booking my own cheap-ass-on-promo tickets early. With other people. In order to keep my New Year's resolution (leave the country every month.... let's not lose sight of this!)

Which then means that by the time he CAN confirm a work trip I might already have used up whatever vacation days that month for my own travel plans. And that leaves us no better off in the "travel together" department. 

To address the issue we have decided that :

1) If tickets are too pricey for my cheap ass to hand over good money for,  but are within a range HE thinks is acceptable, and he's willing to pay for them, then I might go. (It took some convincing cos I'm not one to spend $400 on something that can be got for $200 you know? However since CHEAP is dependent on having "advance notice" and that's not going to be likely in most cases, I suppose something's got to give.) 

TO BE FAIR - he did offer. I would say "I'm not paying XXX for a ticket to YYY just to hang out with you for 3 days... it's too expensive!" and he would say "Then what about if I  paid for it?" And I would gasp in horror because WHOEVER paid for it, it's still too expensive. 

But ok. If the purpose is to vacay together on his short work trips and we'd be saving on hotel anyway, and he's willing to sponsor the ticket, then fine. (I also have a LOUSY relationship with money... I am aware, and I am working on it.)

And 

2) He'll try and plan in advance as much as possible, wherever and whenever he can. I'm not hopeful about this second one. But we'll see. 

Meanwhile, I've decided instead of sitting around and being depressed when he's in HKG I'm going to grab CG1 and my sister and we're going to hop onto a bus to Malacca for 3 days. We booked the tickets yesterday! Whoop!

There's also a legit teaching holiday at the end of April (I usually teach on Saturdays and it would be waste to let a free Saturday go by without doing something!) so the sister has booked me for a trip to Genting Highlands to enjoy the cool weather - and roam the Genting Premium Outlets. She's been, I haven't. I don't think I've been to Genting in at least 10 years, which is a shame cos they've made so many improvements to the space. 

So far I've left the country every month... my resolution looks like it's firmly on track. The plan to travel with BIKSS on his work trips... well, not so much. But we're only a quarter way into the year... so there is hope yet!

Kuching - The Foto Dump

I've just come back from East Malaysia - Kuching, Sarawak to be precise. Fun fact - Sarawak and Sabah are considered "east" Malaysia as they're not on the mainland (where Kuala Lumpur, Malacca and Penang are) but on an island - Borneo. Which is home to another country, Brunei (it's really small) and also contains Kalimantan which belongs to Indonesia! Yes, I only found this out when I was looking at the map. 

By Mortadelo2005 - Image:Borneo2 map english names.PNG, by Astrokey44, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2137950

I'd been once before last September when the boss went for a conference and me and the colleague tagged along for a quick weekend trip. 

This time I went with CG1 (the only CG still with me right now) and the sister and niece. 

We had a grand time eating all the local food and doing some touristy things I didn't get to do on the previous trip. 

FOTOS INCOMING!!! (in no particular order)

Brunch at Lau Ya Keng foodcourt. 

Top left - Sarawak Laksa and a plate of ngoh hiang; 

Top right - Kolo mee with mince pork; 

Bottom left - Kway chap; 

Bottom right - Gula apong ice cream - from a little stall by the side of a road (signboard below)

TOP - St Peter's church when it was still under construction last Sept. 

BOTTOM - When we dropped by on Ash Wednesday it was so crowded there were parishioners standing OUTSIDE because they couldn't get in. We stood outside and said a short prayer then left to get dinner from a traditional Dayak restaurant. It's so popular that when we visited last I made the mistake of thinking we could just walk in - I was wrong. This time I was sure to make reservations ahead of time.

It is safe to say I have never eaten ANY of these foods - I enjoyed most of it. 

Clockwise from top left - 

Tempoyak (or fermented durian - it's milder in taste than the actual fresh fruit, trust me) with prawns

Midin cooked with a garlicky sauce

Terung assam with fish slices in a sour broth

Cangkuk Manis with pumpkin and egg

Purple Bario Rice (rice from Bario)

Deep fried calamari - probably the only thing I've ever eaten prior to this dinner.

Tapai with ice cream - we do sometimes get this in where-I-live but these days it's made using tapioca or sweet potato. The one we had at the restaurant was made using glutinous rice which I understand from the sister is the more 'traditional' version.

Spotted some WTP ice cream at the convenience store

Breakfast on the 3rd day was had at the coffeeshop near our hotel. Discovered purely by accident. 

(Pic below)

Top left - red wine chicken with mee sua (it's a red glutinous rice wine to be exact). The Hakka version is a dry chicken dish using lees from the fermentation process. You can read about it here if you want to know more. 

Top Right - simple blanched green veggies with oyster sauce and fried shallots in some fragrant oil

Bottom left and right - Kampua mee - Comes in white, red and black versions. It's basically the same thing with a slightly different sauce for each one. 

My H n M haul - my cousin saw this pic and asked if I was building a capsule wardrobe. I laughed and replied - hon, 80% of my wardrobe looks like this. 

6 tops and a pair of culotte pants - which I bought only because I fell in love with the feel and the look of these blue ones I got the day before (see piture below). The niece and I were shopping and she decided on these pants. I thought I'd try them on too cos it's not a cut I have, and it looked interesting. They make me feel very glamourous and fashionable. 

(Culottes originally referred to knee length or slightly longer than knee length pants cut with full legs "to resemble a skirt". But these days it seems as long as it's a mid to large flare cut it'll qualify, regardless of length.)

In any case, I tried it on, and oh my it was voluminous! I loved it! So I bought it. I wore it the very next day. And I decided that if I chanced upon another I might get a second one. Well, turns out I did. LOL

That top is new too - I've been wanting to try a "muscle tee" with sewn in sleeves but didn't want it to end up as a sleeveless top. This oversized one has a nice boxy cut, elastic hem and more of a capped sleeve than sleeveless look to it. In a medium deep almost hunter green shade. Which is totally my jam.

Right. And then after shopping we stopped for tunch. That's banana fritters with condensensed milk at the bottom of the plate, and shredded cheese over top. Decadent. Confusing. Sweet and salty and crunchy and fruity all at once. Interesting. But would I go looking for it again? Probably not. 

A river taxi to take us across to our hotel - that brown building on the left

At the top of darul hana bridge - the echoes here were so fun we spent waaay too much time hollering at each other up here.

That's the darul hana bridge by night.

The view of the Sarawak River from the bridge

The new Sarawak legislative assembly

An 'I heart Kuching' sign with colourful lights

Sarawak is also known as the land of the Hornbills. 

The view from our window

And that was Kuching! 

I shall be back with more ramblings soon, but for now, it's bedtime!