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The Bags are Still Not Here, Part 2

3 Jul

The perils of jet lag continues! Waking up at 5.30am yesterday morning not for golf but due to jet lag seem to have clouded my senses.

I misinterpreted the information on the status of our bags as stated on the website that KLM provided. Bag One will leave Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on 2nd July, not arrive at KLIA on the said date. And the airport baggage claims office called yesterday evening to confirm this.

What this means then is that Bag One will arrive on 3rd July, today and delivered to us in the evening. Haish…

Meanwhile up till yesterday, Bag Two was still being traced. Dear oh dear…

Work and worry took the toll on me and last night, I crashed at 9.30pm; I couldn’t hold up and brave the anxiety anymore. And this morning I woke up at 3.30am. I’m not complaining though because there was a text message from KLM saying Bag Two is currently being transported to KUL! Yay.

I checked the website and indeed, Bag Two was labeled ‘Rushbag’ and on flight KL809 en route to KLIA. I hope it’s the same flight as Bag One.

We hope to receive both bags this evening. Fingers crossed.

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Oops, The Bags are Not Here

1 Jul

It’s mind boggling when I look back now at the total time of the whole journey inclusive of the car rides. So from the time we left Corvallis for the airport, the flights, transits and our taxi ride home, it was 43.5 hours! Goodness gracious me.

The delay of the bags added to this and it could have been worse if the delayed flight departures were longer. But being under half an hour each time, the flying itself made up for it.

Yesterday when we touchdown at KLIA, all I was thinking of was a nice cold shower and a good sleep to start my recovery from the jet lag. But our checked-in bags never arrived. With this clouding our minds, how to sleep snugly?

We stood at the baggage conveyor belt for more than half an hour and our two checked-in bags never came. They are still in Amsterdam, along with the bags of several other travelers who transited at Schiphol Airport.

Some of them were connecting from Paris and Japan, and us from the US. Like them, we lodged a report and this took time too as the office was packed. Initially I thought we had to go to the airport this evening to get them but hubby said they will be delivered to us instead. I await anxiously for them.

This morning I woke up at 6.20am. I had a good eight hours sleep with four and a half of it being deep sleep. That’s good, maybe a faster recovery but the nagging headache is still there, I don’t know why. Hubby on the other hand, woke up every two hours. He said he was still in airplane sleep mode and each time, he was expecting to be served a meal or ice cream! Hahaha…

We jumped right into work this morning, not wasting any time to rest.

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Oh My Body, Part 2

30 Jun

There’s always something about the return journey compared to the initial arrival one. The traveling hours are about the same or sightly longer but the woes seem to be different.

When we first arrived in the US three weeks ago, the next day upon arrival I had recovered from the jet lag. The same can’t be said for returning to Malaysia for sure.

I recall our 2012 US trip, I took a week to recover from the jet lag. Now, seven years later, a week too or longer? Hmm…

Maybe the fact that we are returning from a holiday – back to reality, makes it hard for the body to accept, thus longer to readjust.

In the meantime, I was hoping to sleep 18 hours throughout when we arrive home but I cannot do so because our checked-in bags never arrived at KLIA! Haish…

Looks like recovery sleep has to be shortened to return to the airport tomorrow as our report has been done and bags should arrive by then to be collected.

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Oh My Body

30 Jun

All that sitting and inability to find a snug position on the second leg had caused my backache to flare up. Throughout the journey, I had my painkiller on standby but I tried not to resort to them.

The last three hours of more sitting and waiting in Schiphol was just so arduous. And we didn’t want to walk too much too as we had the backpacks to carry and the cabin bags to pull along. We both knew it will just tire us and most likely we can’t sleep well on the third leg of the journey.

By 8.00pm, the announcement came on for boarding and in an orderly fashion, passengers boarded when their zones were called out. We sat in the aircraft for a good 40 minutes or so because of one late inconsiderate dude to come onboard. Eventually we were cleared for take off, 24 minutes passed the scheduled 8.50pm.

Within an hour, dinner was served! And after the meal, I tried to sleep again and it wasn’t easy. I just couldn’t get any comfortable positions. So I watched a movie and a couple of documentaries but not long enough to kill time. We still had over five hours to go. Felt like forever. Oh my body!

Eventually I forced myself to sleep. After all, I was wedged between two people this time, I couldn’t get up and the aisle passenger was asleep. Then I had to pee. Oh dear…

Do I wake her? It wouldn’t be polite because she was in deep slumber snoring away. Hubby too was sound asleep against the window. Hmm…I shouldn’t go pee and tried to sleep instead as my eyes were tired. I think I managed two hours at most and not more. And it made matters worse.

The legs were sore, the back hurt, the butt numb and the shoulders stiff and I still had to pee. As if these problems were not enough, a tiny nagging headache started developing. Oh my body…

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Marys Peak

15 Jun

The drive to Marys Peak took 50 minutes and we did a short hike, not to the top but midway to a good spot to catch the sunset. It was indeed lovely but it sure was cold for us and this is only Summer! I can’t imagine visiting during a colder season. Brr…

We stayed a little longer after the sunset to catch some stars too. And some bright ones we did see including the Big Dipper.

We staked out this tree stump to catch the sunset

Join the stars!

Thank goodness the hike was short for when we got home, my Mi Band2 recorded slightly over a thousand steps more, so in total I, or rather we all walked 14,539 (9.0km) today. Good workout I’say.

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Be Silly or Be Happy

11 Jun

Today’s the day we leave! But there are worries, silly ones and several of it…

Silly #1: my cocoon is still hanging on the front tree and it’s been seven weeks since the giant caterpillar morphed into it; way overdue from what I checked online to be at this stage. Why is the moth not emerging? Is the constant rain stunting its metamorphosis? Is it even still alive and okay? I dare not climb up the ladder to check because it’s way too high. Whatever it is, looks like we will miss the moth emerging from the cocoon if it does decide to come out during our time away.

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It’s nice in here, I’m not ready for the world

Silly #2: my 1000 and more Days trek on the Daily Bonus for Candy Crush Soda on the retired iPhone5S will be broken because I am not bringing the phone along. And will the iPhone XR and iPad Mini have the trek broken too being in different time zones? I told myself I should stop this obsession but I just can’t shake it off. Silly.

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Day 1016 for the iPhone5S and Day 1023 for both the iPad Mini and iPhone XR

Silly #3: will Rooney, official pet number one miss us?

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Should I chew on it or not? Hmm…

Silly worries aside, there are some happy reasons too…

Happy #1: the pineapple in the garden. It’s been more than two years that hubby’s been taking care of it, and thank goodness it decided to ripen on time before we leave. Harvested last Friday, the fruit of labor and love weighed a whopping two kilos! Needless to say, the juicy and home-grown pineapple was thoroughly enjoyed.

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Juiciest pineapple ever!

Happy #2: the constant rain seems to be good for the habanero plant for it has thrived well and we had a bumper harvest. So much chillies! I ate a little on Wednesday night and oh my goodness, almost died from the fiery burn. This batch is super duper spicy.

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The spicy level of the reds win hands down over the greens

Happy #3: we will be meeting up with M2 in Amsterdam! Yes, our baby will fly tomorrow from Ireland to meet us at Schiphol. And she will miss a few days of Summer classes which unfortunately can’t be helped. I feel it’s important for her to attend her only sister’s Commencement ceremony, hence the plan as such.

Happy #4: we will finally be seeing M1. The last time the family unit was complete was when she came back for Christmas in 2017, so that’s like a year and a half since we last saw our firstborn in person. The weekly Skype video sessions do not count. Can’t wait. A 12 hours and 40 minutes flight for the first leg, then a four-hour transit before the second leg of 10 hours and 17 minutes flight (hopefully no delays) before the family will be whole again. Yay!!!

I guess with the happy reasons outweighing the silly ones, I shouldn’t be too silly and just be happy.

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Have Blundstone Will Travel

10 Jun

I am excited that my Blundstone boots, after being fitted with new soles, will finally be put to good use from tomorrow onwards. We are flying over to the US for M1’s Commencement ceremony as she has completed her undergraduate studies.

Initially when I was doing my research for flights, I wanted to fly Eva Air because of the Hello Kitty-themed aircrafts. Heheheh… I know it’s kinda silly for a dinosaur like me but hey, Hello Kitty IS cute.

But I couldn’t find suitable connecting flights to our final destination upon arrival at LAX, SFO or even SEA. The transit options are all too short to clear immigrations. Oh well, forget Hello Kitty then.

So we are going with KLM via Amsterdam’s Airport Schiphol with a four-hour transit before the next leg directly into PDX which works out perfectly. Stay with me for the next two weeks plus for our exciting journey to the Pacific Northwest!

And yesterday I managed to schedule another body massage at the spa, a last minute little indulgence before flying. This time unlike the last time with no choice at all, I had the granny undies or G-string to choose before the session. I took the G-string thinking since I had to strip down to my bones to be worked on, I might as well wear something without hindrance to the new masseur for her to do her job.

And it was a job well done for she worked out the kinks especially on the legs and feet, in time for me to be ready for the trip!

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Pushing Myself

7 Jun

Last week, I pushed myself on my activities. After playing golf in the morning, I was back in the office in the afternoon. Then in the evening we went to the gym. I told my trainer to go easy on me because I had done more than 11 thousand steps already, more than the quota for the day.

So she put me on the lighter weights instead of the ten-pounder that I have been using the last few sessions. And certain routines, I jumped, lunged and turned less than hubby. I managed and survived the workout session.

And towards the end of last week, my weight dropped even further! Now that’s motivation to push myself. I was down to a mere 0.3lbs away from my new revised target. Woo hoo…

This week, it was the same for Monday – golf then office. However, gym was cancelled because it’s two days before Hari Raya. And it’s only sensible to give my trainer a break from fighting with traffic (like last week) to make her way over to us. It can be very aggravating to be on the road with so many cars for their last minute errands and what nots. Not a good feeling to have before the festivity and holiday.

With Wednesday and Thursday being public holidays again, focusing on the 16/8 diet was a challenge because our routine and menu had to be adjusted.

In fact on Tuesday, I literally pigged out when I met up with my girlfriends dining on a sumptuous porky spread. That evening we talked, laughed and ate passed my eating window. Forget the 16/8 as it was a great night catching up. And after an eventful week, the weigh-in this morning, to my surprise was 0.8lbs beyond the new target! Double woo hoo…

Now I know why I push myself and not sit on my laurels. It sure feels good! Maybe at this point, I will go for another 0.2lbs just to round up the number. From then on, it should be about maintaining the weight as is because my target, twice, has been achieved. There’s no need to set a third new target weight.

To recap, I started this 16/8 diet on 25th Feb and had a horrendous weight spike at the end of that week. But perseverance and discipline paid off over the months. Today, officially on record, I have lost a total of 10.8lbs. So proud of myself.

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A Drowned Caterpillar

31 May

These past few weeks, it has been raining just about every single evening or alternate evenings. It isn’t nice. For us, the rain disrupts a lot of afternoon or evening plans. We wouldn’t play golf in the afternoons because we know it will be a wash out, so only morning tee offs for us.

By three o’clock everyday, we can hear thunder and rumbling. Then it pours. And pours like crazy.

In the evenings if the rain came down too heavy, there would be traffic snarls to deal with, so any plans to go out had to be reconsidered. But of course if the rain wasn’t long and heavy, we will go ahead with whatever we plan. We had to cancel our movie date to watch John Wick 3: Parabellum the first time because of the rain as it was just too troublesome. We watched it three days later when the weather was better.

Last week, during the public holiday on Wednesday and we were home after the morning golf game, the skies opened up without fail. It rained so heavily that afternoon, the garden was flooded. And official pet number one was grumpy and terrified at the same time because of the wet condition, loud thunder and lightning.

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The poor caterpillar

After the rain stopped, hubby was out in the garden to inspect his plants and discovered a drowned caterpillar! It’s incredulous and terrible at the same time as we have never seen anything like this before.

The poor creature was exposed in the open and the pelting rain was too much for it to withstand thus, laid battered and drowned on the leaf. But amazingly, it stayed there and did not plunge to the ground. Rain affects not only us, even small creatures too are at risk.

On hindsight of this unfortunate incident, maybe it’s a good thing that there has not been many caterpillars on our lime trees lately, otherwise they could have also suffered the same fate as this fella.

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G-strings & Granny Undies

27 May

So I went for my massage on Sunday and to my surprise, my consultant at Philip Wain did not schedule my appointment despite telling me she had done so. On top of this, I found out she had left as well. Aiks! Young people these days, they don’t take their job seriously nor is there dedication. She was there only for just two months apparently.

I was mildly irritated thinking it was a wasted trip then for nothing. But the front desk girls were quick to find a replacement, assuring me the masseur was good. Although not the one I had requested (because she was off due to the boo-boo) I had no choice but to try the replacement out or leave without any massage done.

When people recommend something or someone, surely they would sing praises of their suggestion for they can’t say the choice is average, so-so or worse, right?

The petite masseur was all business, giving me a G-string to wear! Geez… all these while, it used to be puffy paper-based one-size-fits-all granny undies or even thongs when I go for full body massages but this time, a paper G-string which barely covered my modesty. Hmm…

I guess it makes sense with this minuscule of an attire because the posterior is exposed and therefore easier to work on without hindrance. Otherwise she would have to give me a wedgie to get to my… erm, cheeks.

Was the masseur good? I’d say average and could be better. She may have worked the kinks in the shoulders well–which were evident during my golf game on Saturday–but she focused too much on that area. So much so, the legs which were more in need of some relief were not attended enough. Put it this way, I did not feel rejuvenated after the treatment. Sigh…

After the session, I decided to schedule another massage, this time with another consultant assigned to me, in two weeks’ time but not sooner unfortunately. Maybe a different masseur might do the job better, and who knows… maybe thongs or the one-size-fits-all granny undies instead of a G-string again. We shall see…

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