For Your Information

Just to let you know that the biscuits turned out great. We enjoyed them with our eggs, pork bacon (cost $11.00, but worth it) and tomato gravy. Yum Yum!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It is crazy here in Malaysia.  We are on the 31st floor looking out and it reminds us of Times Square in New York. There are thousands of people in the park, music playing, horns blowing and huge spotlights shining around the city. We were told not to go out of the building and now we know why. The fireworks were incredible, the best I have ever seen. Now we get to wait for Chinese New Year which is January 23rd.

Washing Clothes

Another adventure in Malaysia - it actually takes around three hours to wash and dry one load of clothes. That load of clothes will only consist of about four towels and washcloths. We have a very small washer and dryer combination but at least we have one. You start early in the morning washing and it just runs all day.

Oh Happy Day!!

Oh my goodness. I thought I was going to do the happy dance right there in the grocery store today. I could not believe I found buttermilk and bisquick. I will try for the 4th time to make biscuits Saturday morning. I will let you know how they turn out.

Random Pictures

When you walk outside the mall and look up, this is what you see.

This is outside the mall. This is a huge pool of water and it has all sorts of fountains they turn on during the day. There are normally four people walking around in this pool cleaning it all day.

The Highlands

We took a road trip and went to The Highlands. This is way up in the mountains about an hour from KL. The road is full of curves, but the scenery is beautiful. The hotels at the top are normally above the clouds but the day we were there they were in the clouds. You could not see much of anything and it was cold. The tempertures are in the 70's during the day and mid 50's in the evenings. It does not have alot of things to do so not sure we will go back again.

Friends

This is Katie Pope and Mary. Katie is married to Joseph who works in the office with David and they have a 2 year old son named Rylie. Joe and Katie have been in Malaysia for two years. Joe is a marketing person who Rowan sent to set up contracts. We were out shopping at Central Market and when to Peter Hoe's for lunch.

This is Stephen. He is the money man in the office. He pays all the bills. He lives in Malaysia but his wife and daughter do not.

This is Abdula. He is married and has four children. On the right is Brent. He is the Rig Manager and is in Malaysia 35 days and then goes home. John comes in and takes his place for 35 days

Friends

This is Joyce Ting and her son Cody. Joyce is the assistant to Dan Cocca in the office and she is the most incredible person we know in Malaysia. Any time we need to know where to find something we call Joyce. She takes care of every need we have here. I am not sure any of us here could do without Joyce.

Not completely true!!

Some things we were told in our Customs Class are not true. I think maybe the lady doing the class has not been in Kuala Lumpur in a while.

The water for one thing - nothing is wrong with the water or the ice as long as you stay in KL. We can drink from our faucet and we order ice all the time when we go out.

Second - Americans do not smile too much. Alot of people here speak and smile when they see you. Of course we do have our share of rude people but for the most part everyone is very friendly.

Clothing - we were told they don't wear black or white. Everyone wears black. Most of the employees in the hotels and the employees in the stores wear black everyday. You see other people dressed in pretty much anything.

The food is great - I have not found the food they are talking about yet. I know I have to get better at trying things but there is no way you will catch me eating some of the things I have seen. We tend to go to Chili's ALOT.

The weather - I have not found the weather to be any different here than the weather we have in Montgomery. The only thing is that the weather here never changes.

Grocery Shopping

An adventure in itself. There are alot of adventures over here I have found out. There are two grocery stores in the mall across the street from us. They are Cold Storage and Isetan. I go to these stores first to see what I can find, most of the time they have what I want unless it is something special like self rising flour. Just kidding, you can find flour most of the time but even self rising does not rise. The biscuits I made for Christmas were not to exciting. I did make a red velvet cake and a pound cake that were not to bad. There is a wonderful place called Hock Choog which is an american grocery store. They have most things you want but you pay dearly for them. We also have a place called doorstep which is a store that you go online and order your groceries. I do this for all the bulky stuff such as paper towels, toilet tissue, etc. and the heavy stuff like cokes, water and canned goods. Speaking of water, you can drink the water in KL. We have a place called Jusco which is sorta like a Walmart. I would give anything for a Walmart. I had a meltdown there one day just because I was expecting more. I do go grocery shopping most everyday just to give me something to do. Oh how I wish there was a Publix close by. It is amazing what we take for granted.

Merry Christmas from Malaysia

This is at the big mall across the street from us called Suria. There are Christmas decorations everywhere.

This is Mary Cocca and I at lunch one day. We found this great little restaurant and shop called Peter Hoe.

This is what we call the wet kitchen. There is a gas stove, dishwasher and two sinks. The maid's bathroom and the maid's room where she keeps cleaning stuff is also located here. At the end you will see a door. That is where you find the shoe room. I did decide to use Mary's maid (her name is Marilyn) just four hours once a week. She does the floors, which are marble or hardwood, cleans the five bathrooms we have and does the windows. I figured since I was not working that I could do the laundry and ironing.

This is the shoe room and whatever else you want to put there. We have a front door and a back door into the apartment. As most of you know, you remove your shoes when you enter someone's home. We don't always do it at our house but this is the purpose of the shoe room. You come into the back door, leave your shoes and then go into the house. We also keep grocery bags and umbrellas here. When I head to market, I grab a bag, umbrella and my shoes. You always carry an umbrella during monsoon season which runs September through December.

When you get off the elevator this is what you see - our pool.

There is lots of security in this building.  This building is divided into four sections, A,B,C and D. Your access card will only let you in a door that takes you to your elevator. Your card will then only let you access your apartment. No one except Management can get to your apartment. You can leave your doors unlocked all day and it does not matter. David said our pool is probably 10X10 and 4 feet deep. Every apartment has this pool or a lap pool in it.

View from our bedroom.

Upstairs looking down. There are three bedrooms and three baths upstairs.

When you first walk in the apartment.

Out front going inside the building.

The name of our building.

China Town - not somewhere I care to go back to anytime soon.

Pictures - Finally

This is right outside our apartment.

In Malaysia

I left home on Monday, November 28th. With the time change (14 hours ahead) and the length of the flight, I arrived in Malaysia on Wednesday, November 30. David was waiting for me with a smile on his face. When we arrived at the hotel he had flowers for me. I know, it was sweet.  As of today we are still in the hotel but hopefully moving to our new home on Friday. So far I feel like I am just on vacation but I am sure that will change soon.

How It All Began

On July 22, 2011 I was on my way to the lake to be with friends for the weekend.  I got a call from David telling me he had been approached by Dan Cocca ( works at Rowan) with an offer. When he said Malaysia, I thought he was joking. There is no way David would take me 10,000 miles away from my family and friends. Little did I know that he was not joking. I just kinda ignored it for the weekend but he kept calling and talking about it. Well, now you know the rest of the story.  On our 38th wedding anniversary, September 1st the offer from Rowan was made. It took a few days to think about it but as you know, David accepted the offer. I could not believe that this was happening. As things settled down I became excited about the move.

As of today David has been in Malaysia for three weeks.  I am working fast and furious at getting everything ready for the big move. I will be leaving on November 28th.  Most of you know that David and I have been apart from each other for quite some time now and we are really excited about actually living together again.

I will keep you posted as time goes on so that you can keep up with us. Keep David and me and our family in your prayers please. Even though we are excited about this adventure, it will still be hard being away from our family.

First Post

Welcome to our site!  We are the Montgomerys and we are moving to Malaysia!