mari’s blog

My friend asked a while ago in her blog, which woman wouldn’t start glowing in Kuala Lumpur while the attention You receive from the men here is more than usual. Today while me and Joanna went for lunch in a short distance two cars honked in addition to the looks. One other vivid case to remember is from a time not long ago when a car full of 5 guys in suits gave us THE look. Not to mention the countless ‘hello’s’, ‘welcome to Malaysia’, ‘i love You’ etc. Sometimes the attention might scare a bit, especially while being alone. BUT You never know where Your happy moments are … Are they that day hidden in someone’s smile, in the compliment, in the good food, in the sun, in just spending the time with Yourself, in watching snow leopards in the himalayas on Youtube with Waqas … haha or somewhere else. Either way THE moments are there …

Yesterday was my last trip to the hairdressers here. My hair has been cut every time by a different local Chinese guy. Yesterday’s one was the most colorful one. He said ‘Yeah Babe’ after every line and asked me why I haven’t come to meet him before. Women usually go to a hairdresser or some other beauty specialist with the wish to tell about their world problems, I don’t I am more on the quiet side and like to read the magazines there, and my typical talk with the hairdressers is quite short. They ask me what I do here, where do I live, where i’m from, does my company pay for my flat, do I get paid in ringgits or big bucks and if I have friends here. And then I ask from them how long they have been a hairdresser. Yesterday’s talk was the same.

They also fixed my hair by applying some vitamins and then steaming it up. In the end I had 4 different guys who worked on my hair. What a service I am not that picky when it comes to my hair, since it grows back anyhow, but yesterday the outcome was actually what I wanted and my hair is shining and soft now. So little is needed to be happy and have a good hair day Now I sit in the couch and realize that mosquitos are eating me. Cannot hear them and then I notice I have red bites on the skin. I wonder how is it possible that they do their action so quietly

Today I discovered my blouse has a hole. And i come to know it quite often that some of my blouses suddenly has a hole, and they are not old, but rather new. So shoes wreck, shirts have holes and whenever i dye my hair, it turns back to blondish. All mysteries during my stay in here…

There’s a facebook page about Malaysia and expats. What shows You have been too long in Malaysia … (I copied here my favourites)

2. You pop in a shopping mall just because ‘they have aircon in there.’

9. You moan about when Roti Canai comes for RM0.60 when it used to be just RM0.50. (1USD = 3.49RM)

14. You think there’s nothing wrong with putting chili sauce on everything you eat

20. You talk about “pollution days” when your friends talk about “snow days”.

21. You can tell the time of day by counting how many times it has rained so far.

24. You have a supply of breathing masks inside your store room. Oh those indonesians!

27. An entire road that only sells foot massages no longer seems strange to you

28. A train taking 14 hours to travel 400km no longer seems strange to you

35. A traffic jam where every car is pointing in a different direction no longer seems strange to you.

37. Purple balls hanging from a 5 story christmas tree no longer look unusual.

39. You say “I’m on my way” and really mean “I’m just getting into the shower.” Upon arriving 20 minutes late, you blame it on the traffic.

43. You make LOUD smooching sound to get waiter’s attention at a mamak restaurant.

The last one I also practise sometimes … I think more or less are all applicable to me It rained today and soon we are breaking the fast with the colleagues. So bon appetit and hello yummy mutton with rice!

Today I realized I want to give up on eating rice, bananas and papayas for a while. Over dose. At least until next week. The food moods come and go as You can see Maybe I was so ‘moody’ since it was so cold in the morning while going to work. Only 24 degrees. Can You imagine! I can, I experienced it

‘You always eat tandoori chicken, haa?’ The waitress smiled to me. Well I like it. I like it so much that i am even willing to learn how to cook it. I hope I can find the recipe online, or I should volunteer myself to the kitchen of some Indian restaurant? Mhmh not a bad idea. Maybe I like the tandoori chicken so much because my taste buds are still not used to the other spicy food. Hmm …. anyway now speaking about celebrities …

Yesterday I was wondering with Joanna looking at Petronas towers how French Spiderman climbed it on 1st of September. When he reached the top he was standing there just like that, not holding hands. The round shaped figure is so small at top. How is it possible to stand on it? But he could stand there just like that.. The news is here …

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090901/wl_asia_afp/malaysiafranceclimboffbeat_20090901055809

And today while we were walking in a store this world renown guy passed as by just like that. We were staring. Of course I did not have my camera with me, and of course my mobile was totally dead so no pictures. In real life he is a rather short guy. And now I have seen him. Wow haa …

Ok, so I haven’t written my blog for a while. Just needed some time and inspiration. Last weekend I went to the East coast to refresh my tan. I was in Perhentian a year ago. Now going back brought back some really nice memories. The island had changed a bit, there were new bars, and the water was more blue than I had remembered.

Now we had three days of sun and sun and sun. I think I have never been as tanned as now So what else did we do … well first day everyone slept. Stan slept in 4 different places and didn’t realize where the day went. Obviously when You do as much in different places, it goes by so quickly. Second day we went snorkeling. Ewa and Stan tried scoobadiving, we snorkeling. The day ended in the bar… me laying on the mat looking at the stars. So many stars compared to KL, but no moon. The third day we took the water taxi to the turtle beach. It was/is a real heaven on earth to quote Joanna. Blue water and white sand. I will upload new pictures soon.

This week has gone by pretty quickly. I’ve studied, gone to Luna bar, slept, work, and this is how the time goes. Though I am happy. Whether I am playing ping-pong with the guys on the 6th floor, studying about tools and actions of sustainability or planning my unplanned future.

Lately I’ve been laughing a lot. Laughing is good and supposedly prolonging life span. So what has made me giggle? Male strap panties. Joanna was showing where she was working before. I didn’t know guys even have that kind of panties. Sexy. For sure. Anyway I won’t go into details of other jokes, as You know telling a joke which was funny for me, is not so funny for You now. It has to be, between the people, within that time and place context.

Yesterday I had a really great day. After work I went to the cinema to see ‘The Proposal’. The movie was great. Really funny. Don’t remember last time I saw such a funny movie. After the movie we went to pick up Ando from KL Sentral. Ando arrived from Singapore, not so tired, but rather thrilled of his first Asian experience. The day ended in our favourite Indian food place. Cheese naan, butter chicken and mango lassi. MMmmm…

Now I took a break from my studies. I have to submit another assignment, this time about Happy Planet Index. It is the first ever index to combine environmental impact with well-being to measure the environmental efficiency with which country by country, people live long and happy lives. The index challenges GDP and HDI and other indexes, because it compares the countries from a different angle. In 2009 the ‘happiest’ ( index is not a measure of happiness but rather measure of environmental efficiency of supporting well-being in a given country) place was Costa Rica, followed by Dominican Republic and Jamaica. In 2006 Estonia was number 173. In 2009 I cannot even find Estonia in the list. I don’t understand why our ranking is so low. Any ideas?

I found an inspiration to this post today at work when my colleague had written Joanna like Juana. You hear the name, cannot really spell it, and then there’s plenty of room for creativeness. Last week we went out to eat and Gabriela booked us a table under her name. When I arrived to the place, there was a name on the table – GRABULA. So now she has a really cute nickname – Grabula. To give Your more examples, then my colleague’s name Eugene was once written like Yiu Jin. Luckily my name is easy and the versions I get are either Mary, Marie or Lili. Go figure

Today I will start a new blog in my brand new homepage. I have to thank Shafqat for that He has contributed a lot! And  without his idea, I wouldn’t have this. It all started from my  complaint, that I cannot have a gmail account, since all my  name versions are taken, and I don’t want another ‘funny’ e-  mail address. And then one thing led to another … and now I  have my own page with my name. Also compared to my old  website, this page is much more interactive, people can  comment, I can have easier access to the blog, I am not so  much dependent on the internet speed and so on and so forth. If  You have ideas what You want to see on my webpage, be sure to  share and comment, by doing so I will have more ideas….