Hello friends offshore

It has been a while. The last few months have seen the departure of many friends making their overseas sojourn. Yet there are more still to go.

What is the lure, you may ask. I thought I used to know myself. I had that feeling and I think there is still a hint of it somewhere within the depths of my soul.

To all my friends...a reminder of home below...

An Inconvenient Truth

Its not fiction.

Buy the DVD and educate all those around you.

Our future depends on it.

Click on the Pledge Widget on the sidebar.

Thanks.

http://www.climatecrisis.net/

http://www.climatecrisis.net/downloads/

So and the lack of Snow weekend...

BONO and U2

Make Peace, Not War...

Coexist...

Thanks for an awesome concert.

Congratulations!

Lapman and Emily

I wish you all the joy and laughter in your union.

"I Shall Return"

Those are the infamous words as uttered by General Douglas Macarthur.

I have returned...

The past 8 months have been a whirlwind. I dont recall a time in my life where I have done so much and been to so many places in such a short space of time. Just to summarize the countries and places that I have visited beginning in December 2005 and ending in July 2006...

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Singapore, Singapore
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Macau, Macau
New York City, USA
Washington DC, USA
Montreal, Canada
Boston, USA
Toronto, Canada
Niagara Falls, USA/Canada
Chicago, USA
Las Vegas, USA
San Francisco, USA

Well, I'd like to think that this is the start of the adventure for me. I have many more places I would like to visit and explore. High on my wishlist are...

Eastern Europe
Greece
Japan
South America
Western Europe (to explore in more depth)

The world is an amazing place, despite the difficult times that we live in. Live it, explore it!

To all my friends...it has been great seeing all of you again :)

Arctic Cold Snap

NYC has just been hit with a cold snap courtesy of some unforgiving Arctic winds.

For reports of my time in NYC, please refer to the following site :)

JT and a New York Moment

It's Official

I am off to the Big Apple, yep...New York City to work for 4 months. As soon as I can organise my work visa and sign-off on my work here and I will be off to the Macquarie New York Office.

For the trivia buffs...Why is it called the Big Apple??

I am very excited and I cant wait. Only thing, I know I will be working my butt off over there and I will have plenty of studying and preparation before I go.

There is nothing like memorising a few Accounting Standards !!!

I dont think I will be finishing the tales of my recent travels to Asia, but I promise to account for the my time in the Big Apple, work permitting of course.

Going to have to delay leaving too early as I cant miss one of my best friend's wedding !!! grr...I hope I can delay......

Chapter 1 - Kuala Lumpur (days 1 to 3)

Night 1
Got in pretty late last night. My cousin picked me up from the airport. The first things that I felt as I left the airport was the massive blast of hot air as I left the Terminal building. The Sepang Airport was a purposely built international airport out in the middle of nowhere. Nearby is also where the Malaysian Grand Prix is held every year.

As I stepped into my cousin-in-law's car, I was greeted by my Aunt, whom I have not seen for a couple of years as well as my cousin's two very young boys. One is 3 and the other is 2. The first thing we did was head straight for some supper. It was about 10pm but being KL, there is food a plenty :)

Day 1
The first thing I did was hit the shops to check out the prices of some of the gear that I need to buy for myself and others. This includes two phones, 2 PSPs and an MP3 player. As I finished my price survey and on my way to meet a friend from Sydney who is also back in town I ran into a dear old friend (who was also back from Sydney), however, I was not scheduled to meet her til tomorrow.

I then headed up to Bangsar (suburb) to visit my friend and while there I did more shopping, purchasing a nice pair of Oakleys (prescription). Its been about 3 years since I have change my specs. Then we had dinner at an Indian restaurant with the rice served on banana leaves (this I understand is rage in Malaysian dining at the moment). The aroma from the leaves makes the meal taste nicer :)

Day 2
I met with my dear old friend and we had a quick catch up while we window shopped. Well I did, while she actually shopped :)

Then, as part of my holiday plans, I popped into the KL office for a quick visit after lunch with the Head of Finance. This holiday also includes three days planned exploratory trips into the Macq offices in the cities that I am visiting. Ended up staying in the office for 3 hours.

Next, I went to purchase some material before my visit to the tailor for some shirts to be made. I think I went a little overboard...hehe...the material was a little pricey but it is such nice material. I normally wouldnt buy such expensive stuff but it is so much cheaper when compared to Oz...haha. This is how I justified the purchase to myself.

Ended the day with more eating, dinner followed by dessert.

Day 3
Just before my flight to KL, I actually spent a couple of late nights catching up with friends and packing. Add to that the extremely late nights of my first two days in KL, I was not feeling well today. I thought I could shake it off so when my aunts decided to take me and my cousins, who were back from Brunei (have not seen them for as long as I could remember), off to one of the larger shopping malls (there are heaps of them in KL...but that is another story) in KL, I decided to go rather than catch up on some well needed sleep. So there I am miserable for the whole day!! Not to mention that I had an appointment at the tailors in the evening so rather than go home to rest, I stayed out until the appointment. Needless to say by the end of the day I was pretty much dead!!

Stay tuned...