archive for the “at home” category
The 3000 megabits/second (3 gigabits/second) broadband internet access in Malaysia is painfully slow when accessing websites outside Malaysia and neighboring Singapore. Data transfer across oceans and seas via cables is slow. Accessing U.S. websites from the U.S. with a broadband is so much faster than trying to reach the U.S. from here. And this is the fastest service that is offered by TM Net. I shudder to think how slow the cheaper services from TM Net –and the cellular phone companies– are. This is slow enough.
Household water in Malaysia is so cheap –even free from rivers for Malaysians in the boondocks– that some residents spray water on their homes’ roofs via hoses and lawn sprinklers to alleviate heat in the summer.
Internet Explorer 5 and 6 are old, defective browsers that no one should be using since the advent of Exploiter 7 and 8. Browse the internet more securely and see websites as they were designed by using Firefox, Safari, Camino, Google Chrome, Flock, Opera, OmniWeb, or IE 8. By the way, the new Firefox 3.5 is two times faster than 3.0.
Last night I saw, from the den, a cockroach calmly crawling across the kitchen floor. I thought, ‘What audacity! The apartment’s not dark and silent. I haven’t gone to bed yet.’ I walked to the kitchen, picked up my spray bottle of chlorine bleach, used for sanitizing and cleaning and insect ‘control.’ I set the nozzle to ‘STREAM’ then aimed at the intruder which didn’t seem to notice that I was standing behind it. I shot. »→
I had decided not to spend time and money to travel south to Sepang to watch Formula BMW Asia, GP2 Asia and Formula One races because I’d read daily of rain forecast for each afternoon and evening this weekend. On Penang we’ve had rain most evenings. If I’d gone down to Sepang on Sunday, I could’ve seen an interesting GP2 race in the afternoon, but I don’t know who any of the drivers are and thus don’t care who takes which position on track nor who wins. I know who the drivers in F1 are, but I thought that the race which was slated to start at 5 p.m., would likely be rained-out. And it was. »→
From my bedroom windows and from the balcony bordering the den I can watch a dozen tiny, brown birds bathing at the edge of the kids’ wading pool below then shaking themselves dry and preening in the three small pine trees which are very close to the apartment. The palm trees of various species, with fronds waving in the wind, aren’t suitable perches for the birds. They favor the textured, skinny, horizontal branches of the young pines which aren’t moved much by breezes. »→
I just watched a Formula One race on television – the season-opener in Melbourne, Australia. The race began at 5 p.m. there – 2.p.m. here in Malaysia. Racers of Brawn GP, formerly Honda F1, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello had qualified Saturday to start in positions one and two! An auspicious start for Brawn GP, which as Honda F1 had been languishing for years. »→
The parish will have a blood-donation day on April 5. Until then, I’m an involuntary donor. Mosquitos love me. The ankle-biters visit me each week. They like my neck, hands, ankles and feet, perhaps because they don’t have much hair for the skeeters to avoid. I think that they get me when I sleep. We leave windows and balcony door open day and night for airflow through the apartment, and Asia doesn’t have window screens, so the bugs are free to come in. Oh, well. Small nuisance.
Well, mail doesn’t take too long to arrive here (unlike the Philippines). A friend sent mail from Baguio City on Monday, March 16, and it arrived here on Saturday, March 21. My brother mailed a small parcel from Tampa on Friday, March 13, it arrived in Malaysia on March 19, then I received it here on March 23. I sent postcards in February from Kuala Lumpur to U.S. and Germany, and transit times weren’t long, so I was glad.
I woke feeling worn-out. I suppose that it was from excessive swimming and motorcycling. When I arose, I could see rain clouds, and I thought that maybe the incoming weather helped to make me achy. I stayed home to await the apartment’s owner and a floor tile installer who wanted to see the cracked, uprising tiles and plan a repair job. I’m having a slow, easy day so far. I walked along the promenade beside the channel. Penang kids are enjoying their spring break by playing in The OceanView pools, bicycling and roller-skating along the esplanade and in their neighborhoods.
Weather here is warm yet breezy, sometimes overcast, sometimes cloudy, occasionally with a light rain shower. Most apartments in The OceanView have 1-3 small air conditioners. Dominic’s bedroom has one, mine has one, but the guest bedroom and den have only ceiling fans. Dom and I don’t use air conditioners, because the breeze coming from the channel between us and the mainland is sufficient. When breeze slows at night, ceiling fans can be used. Our apartment is on the third floor, at treetop level, and we easily get airflow through the apartment, unlike the one in Tuding.
After two days of demolition — Malays using a pneumatic hammer to destroy the tile floor in the apartment beside ours – some of the beautiful, white tile in our den has cracked and bulged upward between the heavy TV and the balcony doors. I heard cracking/crackling sounds while reading on my bed, so I rushed to the den. I assumed that the weight of the TV was overstressing the particle-board TV stand and that it was about to collapse. As I lifted the TV from the stand to set it onto the floor, I relieved weight on the TV stand and the floor beneath it, so the tile on my right cracked more quickly then buckled upward so that I knew what was happening. »→
After days of hot, sunny weather in which my face and neck were sunburned despite wearing a hat and a visor, today the sky was gentler, and in late afternoon we had light rain when I’d returned home to swim laps in the large pool. I didn’t swim the first two days we were in the new apartment, but I’m in the ‘swim of things now.’ This apartment complex, including the fitness center containing free weights, weight machines and treadmills (convenient in the rainy season) is the best one that we’d looked at. And our apartment is in a very good location in the building, overlooking the smaller, wading pool, rather than having hot sun beaming on it all day or facing the highway, such as another advertised OceanView apartment with the same price. So I’m happy to be here. »→
The cost to mail a letter, greeting card or postcard from U.S.A. to Malaysia is now 98¢
Transit time from U.S. to George Town, Penang is ten to fourteen days.
E-mail me for my address.
Well, we paid 20 ringgit ($5.40) for a taxi to carry our luggage to The OceanView near the waterfront, where a lady was cleaning our apartment, a plumber was cleaning drains, replacing water hoses attached to faucets near toilets in each bathroom, and the apartment’s owner, Eric, was installing a new light fixture on the balcony which overlooks the water pools. This place is 860 square feet, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, on the third floor, on the ‘inside’ of the ‘u’ if you see this as a u-shaped apartment complex. So we get the sea breeze in our windows and we have views of trees and ornamental landscaping and water pools in the interiour of the ‘u.’ Come to visit whenever you will.
In about half an hour Dominic and I will get the keys for an apartment in east George Town, Pulau Penang, Malaysia. One year has elapsed since we moved into a flat in Tuding, Itogon, Benguet Province, Philippines. One week has passed since we left that home.
The ethnic Chinese Malay with whom we’ll do paperwork and payment doesn’t go to church on Sundays, and I went to (Roman Catholic) Church of Our Lady of Sorrows beside Macalister Road yesterday. So I’m waiting in the hotel lobby, where I can see and hear a ballroom dancing class ten meters away, and Georgian houses, hundred-year-old trees and Island Hospital outside.
After days of looking and inquiring, my friend Dominic and I agreed to rent an apartment in The OceanView, built in 2004, in eastern George Town, overlooking the channel. The apartment is on the third floor, overlooking a palm tree-lined swimming pool. The rent will be $216 per month divided by the two of us. It has three bedrooms, so one is available for guests. Come to visit.
I had asked about nearby Pinang Court, and reportedly that place is older, jam-packed and noisy though cheaper. Across the street, closer to the water, are big buildings, Pinang Court 2 and Pinang Court 3, but they’re not occupied. Many tall buildings on this island — offices, apartments and condominiums stand finished yet unoccupied.
The OceanView a nice place — a ‘u-shaped’ building with two pools in the middle. I’d like to show photos of the complex and the apartment. Some day I will.
I’m not homesick; I’m home, and I’m feeling lousy, as I did yesterday in a taxi, bus, airplane, another bus and another bus. I had only slept four hours yesterday, and I think that I ate something in Kuala Lumpur that disagreed with me, or I used unsanitary utensils or a drinking glass … Yesterday and today I’ve had sporadic heart palpitations and have felt sick-to-my-stomach. So I’m recovering from my vacation. Done that before. My back has hurt yesterday and today. Muscle ache from bus and plane seats or kidney problems? I don’t know.
