A Day In the Life

(Now you know how many holes it takes to fill James Albert's head.)

What have I been doing the last few days?  Settling in.  And finding peace in the Mr. Roger's lifestyle.

The last few days have been filled with shopping (beyond linens): floor mats for the bathrooms, drink mixes, drinking glasses, proper laundry and dish soaps, toilet paper, paper towels.  Today we added scissors and other little things.  I keep freaking out when I see the totals.  RM150 'feels' like $150 for a moment until you realize you just bought a whole hell of a lot for $40.  RM1500 for 4 sets of sheets (fitted, duvet cover, pillow cases, bolster covers - I might actually buy bolster!)  and 2 wonderful (tencel filled, in part) duvets is actually pretty damn good.

The discounts and grocery stores here are wild.  Their organization structures leave me bewildered. Body wash next to dishwasher soap?  Take your local "dollar store" broaden the product lines by a factored of 5 or 10 and mix up the rows.  If China has an excess it ends up in stores all over Maritime Asia.  And at different tiers.  Mr DIY is pretty good stuff; Super Saver less so.  But things are priced fairly for their quality.

At some point I had Nasi Goreng, Mee Goreng, and a really garlicky Damascsus style chicken schwarma/donner  Good, but serious allium abuse on the schwarma.  With cukes.  Burping garlic for hours.

Today started with an omelette - really just flat scrambled eggs -- at Bobby 99.  Bobby is a good dude.  We talked at length and just enjoyed each other's company.  He's on the "Circuit" I'm building.  It wasn't enough.  

So I walked to a place called Kaya & Toast.  Kaya is a local sweet viscous syrup made of palm products.  Not my thing.  But they have much to offer.  A "2 slice" serving of toast was actually 4 slices.  Here "a slice" is 2 pieces of bread for toast purposes.  I received 4 pieces of toast.  With raspberry jam and butter. Yummy!  It's on the Circuite de Cuisine too.  Next up will be eggs on toast.  The ideas are Western but the implementations are Eastern.   Fun.  Half-boiled eggs are like they've been poached in the shell.  Teh-O Lychi rocked me.

A haircut was a great call 6mm up top, 3mm on the sides, 12mm on the beard and mustache (#2, #1, #4 combs.)  My hat fit better and I was 10F cooler.  RM25  Oh, eyebrows were approaching Soviet General length.  They got #3.  That feels much better too.

Laundry....sweat is abundant.  I brought a few shirts but not enough shorts.  And, for my short legs the shorts are too long.  I look ridiculous.  Time to investigate UniQlo in the next few days.

I do not remember how I met Mike, a local, on the last trip.  But he's well traveled, educated, and friendly.  The other night he saw me and we reconnected.  He is an independent entrepreneur of some sort.  Hustling from project to project without any common thread I can guess at.  Spends his day sitting at a local joint using their wifi.  I walked by to chat with him today.  It's good to connect.

For an afternoon meal I had the wonderful fried cauliflower again.  Tempura battered and served with tartar sauce, a bowl of rice and a small salad.  Surprisingly delicious.  Worked on my current McGee book.  Lovely.

Bought a pair of scissors.  $4. I was supposed to haggle, I didn't want to. She offered them at RM15  I raised the price from RM15.50 to RM16 (I hate the coins!).  We compromised at the sticker price of RM15.50 and laughed. 

I cannot find lo cal drink mixes here (I grand a lot of 5 cal Crystal Light drinks in CA).  But there are flavored tea mixes available.  60 Kcal is fine.  I'll drink 2-4 per day (in 36oz of distilled water in my beloved Yeti) .  And given that I'm only eating when hungry which seems to be twice a day, that might actually be OK.

 

Oh, got the wifi hooked up in the apartment.  FIBER TO THE UNIT - WOW!  Nice good speed.  Now I can laptop it poolside or bedside.  Caught on some fave YouTubers.

I even cleaned up the apartment a bit.  My tendency to unpack in fits and starts meant clutter.  Less so now.

It's been a good few days.  I'm smiling. I hope you are too.

This is what the best Kolo Mee joint in town looks like closed.
I was bummed.

Last night from my bedroom. Meh.

No idea, but it looked like it was smiling at me and that was reason enough to click.

My SoCal (South of Paso) Shrine.  And router/modem.