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Taken for granted…

Sunday, October 26th, 2008

Rob musing this time…..

It is one of those unfathomable quirks of human nature that we find it so easy to lose sight of the big picture and get tangled up with the minutiae of a situation. Why is it just so easy to take things for granted, and so quickly to lose appreciation of reality?? Especially in those times when you know there really ARE bigger things going on, so you wonder HOW on earth you could get wound up by small irksome events. Try, for example, being three weeks into a world trip with your family … and finding yourself having to grill some older children for the umpteenth time about speaking to another sibling in a voice that is disrespectful, or for fighting, or for.. well, you name it! And there is that sudden flash of thought, “Man, I wish we were back home”. Then you stop and think about what has just gone through your mind and you realise *whoa! it is time to get things back in perspective*

Not just the perspective of all the ideals that this trip was meant to be about for our children – about opening these young eyes to the wider world and some of its needs, about experiencing a different type of life than what we had in NZ, about hopefully allowing seeds to be planted in these little lives that might direct their future life-choices. Yes, these perspectives are important, but also how about considering the perspective offered from the simple fact that we can CHOOSE to take a trip like this, which sets us apart from 99% of the people we are rubbing shoulders with on those crowded trains, the locals next to us standing in line for LRT tickets….compared to the rest of the world, we are rich. Not just in the family sense, but in cold hard cash terms. I know this privilege carries with it responsibility, but I found myself momentarily stuck on  my inconvenience.

How do you maintain the bigger picture when those everyday events such as disciplining your kids seem to grate so much? Maybe it is about constantly reminding myself that this trip is not so much about ME and what I am going to get out of it, but more about what I am going to possibly help others get out of it. After all, the children have just had their complete worlds turned upside down – they are in completely new countries, eating completely different food at strange times, meeting completely new people (even if they ARE related 🙂 ), it’s incredibly hot, nothing is familiar, regular bedtime is a distant memory and they are constantly thirsty… so maybe it is no wonder they are feeling and reacting slightly out-of-sorts! Maybe I need to remind myself that this IS an opportunity of a lifetime, and one that I should embrace with open (and patient) arms. And if I keep doing this, hopefully we will be able to walk through this trip as a united family, to grow together through the shared experiences (good and bad), and to keep our eyes on the bigger lessons that this classroom of life has to teach us all as we journey. That is my goal, my prayer for the next few months. God-willing, it will be our experience too!

Rach adds: we had been warned by some who have gone before that the hardest part of extended travel like this is the 24/7 contact. Obviously we are only just beginning, but I suspect this is the time Rob will find it most difficult. I’m used to having the kids around all day every day (although even for us it is different – they can’t escape outside to climb trees and ride bikes for hours each day, and they don’t have books to snuggle up with for *down time* each afternoon. But we knew about that when we started, and we decided to proceed all the same.) For Rob, it’s VERY different. He usually walks out the door as we are having breakfast and reappears in time for dinner. The kids perk up when he walks in the door and he can sometimes wonder if the events I recall from the day could possibly have happened! He’s seeing now, it’s all true 😉 In case you should think I’m saying his job is not demanding or challenging or difficult or trying, I’m not! It’s both-and. Both jobs have their ups and downs. And right now we are negotiating how best to guide our children along this new path. Soon we’ll find our groove of working together…..and a burden shared is a burden halved.

sometimes it's too much

Update on a previous post:
if you want to see pictures of the girls’ tattoos, click right here 😉

Oh, and nearly forgot….happy birthday to L8.

happyi birthday L8

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

Saturday, October 25th, 2008

Competition:
First person to leave a comment stating the difference in these pictures wins a roti.
Whoever guesses the story of the second picture wins the curry sauce to go with it.
We’ll eat both for you tomorrow for breakfast OK!

on tow  on tow ipoh

Now another story while you think.

Of Bumps and Bruises.

Day started with ER2 banging her head on the tiles three times – once she fell off the bed, once she was running when she shouldn’t have been, once she was dropped by a sister, who should not have been picking her up. Doesn’t matter where in the world you are, these things happen!
Then the car hiccupped <hint hint>. Or rather, it wouldn’t start. So the adult boys ended up with another tow truck ride and amazingly cheap repair story to tell.
Meanwhile I took the children for a play at the playground over the back of the YMCA, where we are staying. Have we shown you our digs here yet? No, I didn’t think so:

Ipoh YMCA

Anyway, T4 fell on the skateboard ramp, donking her head on the concrete.

skateboard ramp

Our afternoon plans were thwarted by the car saga, but we made it to dinner at a Thai restaurant. Yummo. Although, not before L7 managed to stand on some broken glass in our room, cutting his big toe.

thai meal ipoh

The BUMP came at the end of the meal. 74-year-old Uncle Yew Weng slipped on the wide concrete steps and crashed onto the road, splitting his head open. It very quickly became apparent that he needed to be taken to hospital, where he was kept in overnight. Although he would turn out to be fine, we were not so certain at the time, and as he was being helped into the car, T4 tugged on my hand and suggested, “Could we ask God to help him?” So we did. In the morning T4 would awake with a question on her lips, “How is Uncle Yew Weng?”. Even before eating breakfast, she  completed a journal entry:

Uncle YW hurt head

That’s Uncle with stubble on his chin and the blood pouring out to the pool on the ground. The old tea towel used as a bandage is covered with more blood stains. He is sad and his hands are outstretched as he falls.

We got home to M6 in tears over a sore foot. Turns out he had a white pus-filled blister between two toes, which Rob popped in due course, and without the crying boy’s knowledge!

So have you worked out the difference between the two photos?
You’re right if you don’t see much!
Rob can take over the story from here….

OK, if you are on to it, or you received our email, you will now know that we had a real case of déjà-vu with the van. It was just meant to be a quick trip out to the cyber-cafe to check that our room booking in Penang had been confirmed. Grandpa and I and K9 drove down to Ipoh-Parade – one of the local malls. First we parked in the parking building, went into the mall, only to find the internet cafe was a full house – and there are over 80 terminals in the place! Talk about good business! So, we quickly decided to drive over to another mall where we had been told there was another cafe. Well, you guessed it, we got there only to be told there was NO internet cafe here… but down the road at the “business compleks” there were plenty. So we got back in the van and drove down the road, but try as we might, we could not find any sign of any “compleks”….although we were starting to develop our own by this stage. So, we rashly decided the only option was to go back to our original cafe and see if a terminal was now free! Now, note that it is only 2 km from the YMCA, so we were expecting to be back well in time for our 3:30 pm “tea” appointment (which here means more of a small meal!) I drove into the carpark at the mall, which was still mega-busy… it was a Saturday afternoon after all! Double parking and risking the wrath of the whistle-blowing, uniformed security guard on duty, I said I would run upstairs to the cyber cafe and see if there was a terminal.

By now you are wondering when am I going to get to the van issue! Well, it all happened as quickly as in this post…. I ran upstairs, got a terminal for 20 minutes and called Grandpa, who said he was still outside the mall as the van had just stalled on him and he was going to try and restart it (it had developed a particular aversion to hot-starting!) I checked the emails and headed back down stairs, and Grandpa and K9 were still in the van outside the mall. The van would not start. We left it for the obligatory 15 minutes; still dead. We left it some more… not even a splutter. I texted my cousin to say we may be late for “tea”…. little did I know! While we waited for the engine to cool completely (a trick that had worked in the past), I disconnected the air filter, took the cover off the carb and checked the fuel line. No fuel! Hmmm, faulty fuel pump or blocked fuel filter? Re-assembling everything confirmed this, no sign of life from the engine, no whiff of petrol, despite our vigorous tap dance on the accelerator.

Thankfully Grandpa is a member of the AA in NZ – so we tested out the reciprocity agreement between NZ and Malaysia and rang the AAM… and also my cousin to say we definitely would not be making it to tea! Talking to the AAM helpdesk in a mixture of broken English and Bahasa, we hoped we had managed to clarify our problem and our location. We were told a service vehicle would be there in 40 minutes.

Amazingly, within 20 minutes of our initial call, an AAM tow-truck arrived on scene. The driver spoken even less English, but thankfully my cousin had arrived and translated for us – and also offered to ferry K9 back to the YMCA for us. Bottom line – we needed to be towed to the nearest garage for repair, and thankfully they seemed to accept Grandpa’s NZ AA card as legitimate. Within 45 minutes of that call we were on the road… with another “ON TOW” sign dolefully hanging off the rear window of the van… Grandpa and I squashed into the cab of a tow truck for the second time in a week! We were taken to a garage where three guys immediately jumped into the van and started stripping seats, engine linings, handbrake assemblies (it would be a van, right?). Within just over 2 1/2 hours of our initial mayday call to the AAM, they had replaced the faulty fuel pump, re-assembled everything and presented us with the “fixed-price-only lah!” bill. The damage? RM230 (about $105 NZ) for the pump, and $50 RM ($22 NZ) for the labour. Now that is service! The towie even had the decency to ensure there was a place next to the garage selling roti canai, which Grandpa and I had to sample while waiting 🙂

And the best part of it all? They fixed the van just in time for us to get back to the “Y”, take a shower and make it out for dinner! Ah… the food!

*children*

Friday, October 24th, 2008

melaka wheel

children

After only two weeks on the road in this part of the world, it would seem a little premature to go making sweeping generalisations, ... [Continue reading this entry]

“Stabah”

Friday, October 24th, 2008
having found an internet cafe the other night, we returned this morning to hook up our laptop for the first time in days....bit it could not be done, we were sent downstairs to "Stabah" where we were promised there would ... [Continue reading this entry]

FamilyFoodTime in Ipoh

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

First stop: eldest brother Uncle Yew Weng's house (for anyone reading this who is not familiar with our family, Rob's father - the Grandpa doing this trip with us - married a Chinese girl from Ipoh in 1957 - ... [Continue reading this entry]

time to go

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

For our benefit as much as the children's <wink>, our little ones tend to be in bed by about 7pm at home.
We knew this was one routine that would not necessarily be observed on the ... [Continue reading this entry]

more tea, vicar?

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

By Rach

Cameron Highlands, 24 degrees Celsius. In comparison to KL, it feels really COLD and we all need long sleeves on! No sweating, just goosebumps. Funny to think that this temperature at home would be considered a hot ... [Continue reading this entry]

a long and winding road

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Preface:
We try to keep our posts short enough to read in one sitting, but this post cannot be written in fewer words than what we've managed.......it was a long day and it has taken a ... [Continue reading this entry]

the doctor ordered a quiet day

Sunday, October 19th, 2008
Cousin PD arrived while I was still in the shower to take some of us to the morning market. I should have known this would not be a good place to go on an empty stomach! Luckily for those of ... [Continue reading this entry]

101 coconut uses (or 3 anyway)

Saturday, October 18th, 2008

you can drink it and eat it:
coconut

you can mix it with rice, wrap it in banana leaves and cook it in bamboo over a fire:[Continue reading this entry]