Making Cookies at Grandma's

With a typically generous spirit, when it was Gabi's turn for a sleepover on Saturday night at Grandma and Grandpa's place, she invited Reeve to accompany her (Reeve having been here alone the previous week-end). When it was discovered that bowling was not an option (all lanes busy due to a b-day party), Reeve came up with the bright idea that he and Gabi could help Grandma make chocolate chip cookies. So be it!
The project was conditional, however, upon Reeve and Gabi agreeing to help do dishes and put away toys prior to bedtime, a condition that both readily accepted. (Notice Gabi's eagerness at her task!) Following the consumption of the quota of cookies for each, we all viewed a very interesting DVD entitled, "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (SF)." - rw

Making Pewter in KL

One of the blessings of being retired in Malaysia is that opportunity presents itself on numerous occasions to do interesting things while Nancy is hard at work at ISKL. For some time we've been members of the American Assn. of Malaysia, so when they announced that for RM50 (a tad over $15) a group would be gathering at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 24th at the Royal Selangor Pewter Factory to attend "The School of Hard Knocks," I signed-up. The "School" is simply an hour-long experience in a pewter lab where "students" receive a thin 6" disc of pewter (looking like a DVD) and then pound it into a nice-looking bowl using a wooden block with a concave depression in it.
There were ten of us in the class from AAM, but with another large group already present in the lab, the din of pounding hammers was so great that our instructor couldn't be heard by the whole group, even on their PA system, so her instructions were given individually. The finished product is displayed below by better-looking members of the class. (You will observe that yours truly was such a klutz that he couldn't even get his apron on properly!)

Royal Selangor is apparently the largest producer of pewter in the world, with ownership of the company now in the third generation of the same Chinese family. The company dates back to the 1880's in Kuala Lumpur. Tin mining produces the raw material, with pewter being made from tin (90+%), antimony and copper. The employee pictured below is using a lathe to transform a straight-sided pewter glass (to the left) into a highly-polished and slightly concave-surfaced finished product.
All in all, it was great fun! (By the way, I'm pictured at the top beside the largest pewter mug in the world.) - rw

Work and a Holiday

My great staff has almost finished processing 30 boxes of new books which is almost 900 books.

From left to right are Zeti, Uma, Bavani, and Razali who does AV, and of course me. Wednesday turned out to be unexpected day off - "snow day" - Malaysian style. It was declared a holiday since it is a big Hindu holiday. So this a four day work week. Doug and kids came for a swim.


To get an idea of where we live, the top picture of our building is taken from the swimming pool. The lower picture zooms-in to our 18th floor apartment -- the one right below the glass windows that shows some plants on the outer wall of the patio. We do have a great view from our place of the hills out to the north and of the traffic level on highways leading west and northwest. - rw

Sunday in KL

Today was a typical Sunday in KL. We've been attending church at St. Andrew's Presbyterian. The picture was taken when Dad and Ramona visited us in December.

After church today Ron and I took the three grandchildren back to our condo for a nice swim while Doug and Tracy took a short break and went to KLCC.

We had a quick dinner since there were very tired kids and off they went to their house for naps.
Ron and I got in naps (me a long one and Ron a short one). I got in an hour of lap swimming. The evening was spent catching up on emails, watching the news and going to our closest shopping center for groceries. It's all decorated for Chinese New Year which is February 7 and 8. It's been a good Sabbath Day. -Nancy

Reeve's Sleepover - Jan. 18-19

After having a nice dinner at Doug and Tracy's on Friday evening, Nancy, Reeve and I drove back to our place at GCB Court and suddenly decided to go bowling before Reeve's bedtime! Cautious and shy at first (his bowling shoes were one size too big), Reeve really got into it with great enthusiasm. With bumper-guards at the side of each gutter, Reeve bowled a 70 and then an 89!

Then, first-thing on Saturday morning -- after Grandpa's pancakes -- Reeve said, "Let's go bowling!" After Grandma announced that the bowling alley (right nextdoor on the 3rd floor of the Flamingo Hotel), wasn't open in the mornings, she decided that she ought to check online to confirm that fact. When it was discovered that they opened at 10:00 a.m., it was determined that we'd surely have to make a return trip today.

GCB Court is a 22-story building of condos, some privately owned, others like ours, rented-out. Later in the day we will certainly find ourselves in the pool! - rw

Nancy Back to Work

When we were reading our blog entries I realized that I had no pictures of the ISKL library. Since my job at ISKL is the reason we are living in Kuala Lumpur I thought it might be time to post a few pictures of where I spend the majority of my time.
When I came back from our semester break on January 7th there were 30 boxes of new books! What fun to begin to unpack them and get them ready for checkout.

Two of the library assistants Bavani (left) and Zeti (right) seemed to be buried in the new books.

The other pictures are of students in the library, a class in the library computer lab and one of the six kites that I purchased to hang from the library ceiling. Our headmaster gave each teacher money to spend to "spruce up" the classroom, office or place where we work. Another reason I like my job - lots of great support for excellence. -Nancy

Winter at Angkor Wat

No, you don't see snow on the ground, but when we stepped off the plane in Siem Reap on the 2nd of January our immediate thought was, "Wow, it's much cooler here than in KL!" And so it was during our stay -- with relatively low humidity and temperatures at or below 80 degrees.



We had a great time, even with the great number of 10th-12th century Khmer temples that we visited. The sheer magnitude and complexity of Angkor Wat is astounding, along with the detailed carvings and bas reliefs -- especially when you consider that none of the construction was done with hoists or huge cranes.

Our hotel (Princess Angkor) was very adequate for our 4-night stay, and our driver, with whom we had made arrangements in advance, worked-out well. We purchased a 3-day pass to visit the temples ($40 ea.), and actually rode downtown in a "tuk-tuk" (motorbike rickshaw) on one occasion. At the recommendation of our good friend Susan Stewart we ate at the Red Piano Restaurant on two different occasions. (The typical cost for an entree was $3-4.) We flew rt from KL for about $145 each on Air Asia, Malaysia's volume-and-no-frills low-cost carrier and appreciated the savings. A great trip to a world-class heritage site! -rw