A few more days and I'm off...
Ray put it very nicely in an email he sent a few weeks back when he said I certainly don't do things in half-measures. In the last 3 years, I've moved from a SOHO operation to a proper office, gotten married, bought a new flat and now just changed jobs as well.
As if that's not enough, just 10 months into my very happy marriage, off I go for 6 weeks on this adventure. It would seem I can't sit still. For some reason, images of some of my school teachers, waving an admonishing finger at me for some now-forgotten transgression come to mind.
With all the changes, I've had to do a lot of juggling these last few weeks as I prepared for the ride. It has been quite taxing, what with falling ill as well. For awhile there I was feeling just a little overwhelmed. Then, as has been the case for much of my life, a couple of great bits of news came through and lifted some of the weight off my shoulders.
The first was a reply from my friend Young Soon, who lives in Kampar and who works for Malaysian CARE. I managed to track down his work email and got a reply from him saying he'd be happy to see me on the 1st and 2nd of November. I haven't seen Young Soon in quite a few years so it will be a pleasure catching up. The last time we met in Kampar was in 2001 when Gan and I drove through on our aroun-Malaysia drive. Here's a slide show of some shots taken around the Taiping/Kampar area.
The second bit of news was from Lau Min Min of WWF - turns out my initial email to her was filtered into the spam folder and lost. Grrrrr.... Anyway, no harm done as it seems that although there will be no turtles about, they would still be happy to host me a for a day or so. I just received another email today with directions on how to get there and an invite to help one of her colleagues excavate hatched turtle nests incubated in the hatchery to determine hatching rate. She asks 'Will you be interested to help out? It is dirty work, as what it means is sorting through rotten eggs, so be prepared to get splattered with eggs.'
OK you just know that I said 'Yes!' and declared it sounded 'egg-citing', right? You can stop groaning now... But, you'd be right - I did indeed proffer one of my puns and if she changes her mind about letting me visit, I won't blame her!
In between all this, I finally got the digital camera I was looking for. And the Malaysian 3G SIM for my phone. I shall do a quick run in to JB tomorrow to check it works OK. So you see what I mean when I reckon the preparation's just about as tough as the ride will be?
Give me a few days and I might change my mind.... The first hills I hit may change my mind quite conclusively. I might even have to employ the Ray Webster Mantra for dealing with Hills. No, sorry, too many expletives to repeat that here!
Ray put it very nicely in an email he sent a few weeks back when he said I certainly don't do things in half-measures. In the last 3 years, I've moved from a SOHO operation to a proper office, gotten married, bought a new flat and now just changed jobs as well.
As if that's not enough, just 10 months into my very happy marriage, off I go for 6 weeks on this adventure. It would seem I can't sit still. For some reason, images of some of my school teachers, waving an admonishing finger at me for some now-forgotten transgression come to mind.
With all the changes, I've had to do a lot of juggling these last few weeks as I prepared for the ride. It has been quite taxing, what with falling ill as well. For awhile there I was feeling just a little overwhelmed. Then, as has been the case for much of my life, a couple of great bits of news came through and lifted some of the weight off my shoulders.
The first was a reply from my friend Young Soon, who lives in Kampar and who works for Malaysian CARE. I managed to track down his work email and got a reply from him saying he'd be happy to see me on the 1st and 2nd of November. I haven't seen Young Soon in quite a few years so it will be a pleasure catching up. The last time we met in Kampar was in 2001 when Gan and I drove through on our aroun-Malaysia drive. Here's a slide show of some shots taken around the Taiping/Kampar area.
The second bit of news was from Lau Min Min of WWF - turns out my initial email to her was filtered into the spam folder and lost. Grrrrr.... Anyway, no harm done as it seems that although there will be no turtles about, they would still be happy to host me a for a day or so. I just received another email today with directions on how to get there and an invite to help one of her colleagues excavate hatched turtle nests incubated in the hatchery to determine hatching rate. She asks 'Will you be interested to help out? It is dirty work, as what it means is sorting through rotten eggs, so be prepared to get splattered with eggs.'
OK you just know that I said 'Yes!' and declared it sounded 'egg-citing', right? You can stop groaning now... But, you'd be right - I did indeed proffer one of my puns and if she changes her mind about letting me visit, I won't blame her!
In between all this, I finally got the digital camera I was looking for. And the Malaysian 3G SIM for my phone. I shall do a quick run in to JB tomorrow to check it works OK. So you see what I mean when I reckon the preparation's just about as tough as the ride will be?
Give me a few days and I might change my mind.... The first hills I hit may change my mind quite conclusively. I might even have to employ the Ray Webster Mantra for dealing with Hills. No, sorry, too many expletives to repeat that here!
1 comment:
sheesh ! That Kampar curry in a loaf sure looks inviting. Stomach grumbling now...
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