Quick trip to Malaysia

It was that time of the year again - to try out for the Sime Darby LPGA in Kuala Lumpur.  I was all set to travel on a Sunday, to arrive Sunday afternoon, practice on Monday then play Tuesday & Wednesday and then fly home on Thursday.  Yes, a quick trip!  Well, instead of 5 days and 4 nights, my trip was cut short to just 4 days and 3 night!  This was all because I did not have my resident visa in my passport.  Who knew!

My bags were all checked in and I had my boarding pass in my hand.  Once I approached an immigration officer and handed her my passport, she looked it over and handed it to the guy at the next counter.  And he then told me to wait to the side and off he went to see someone.  Well, that someone came back and told me "No travel".  I could not believe it!  Was this some kind of joke???  Well, no joke of course and I did not want to argue with this tall big officer!

So the next day, I headed to the immigration office and after gathering some paperwork and paid some money of course, I was back at the immigration office 5 hours later waiting in line for another 2 hours.  And finally, once it was my turn, I barely sat in the chair for a minute and the lady printed the visa, peeled off the sticker, and put it in my passport.  Hooray!!!  I'm glad Bobby was able to get off work to be with me at that moment because every counter I went to before that kept asking me "Who is my sponsor?" and "Where as he?"!

Anyhow, back to the airport on standby.  Thankfully there were 3 seats left and I was able to get on the plane. So not much of a practice round. It was straight to the golf course Tuesday morning and posting a 9-over par 80.  OUCH!  I had a good practice session with my caddie after that but a 78 on the next day was obviously not good enough.

So now it's back to Mommy duty!  It's been quite hectic waking up early and getting the boys ready for school and then driving at least 20 minutes to Graham's school.  We drive through the desert:

It's take about 11 speed bumps and 11 roundabouts to get there from Charlie's school. Some days are more as I may take a different route depending on traffic.  Here is one of many - along the desert the speed bump comes first before the roundabout, so people slow down and don't go dashing out to the roundabout in high speed!

One of many homes under construction along the way.  Everything is made out of concrete here:

People standing out in the sun at the bus stand.  I feel so bad because it's still so crazy hot outside!

By the way, back to the roundabouts - people stand by the side of them to wait for their ride. As in this case, the bus just stops right by the side of it, blocking traffic on the outer lane of course.

And this guy is here from early morning until who knows when - by the side of the roundabout, selling newspapers.  He has his bicycle and he's trying to get some shade from the light post.

And today, I spotted some wooden boats on the side of the road by the houses.  Hmm... can't really see it too well from the pic.

When we get home, a quick shower for the boys and it's nap time.  Graham and Charlie loves napping on our big bed so of course, I'm in bed with them too :-)  Sometimes I think I doze off before they do!  And then, it's back to cooking more at home.  This can be quite tedious at times because I have to go and get the meats the day when I do cook it. So it's a trip to the grocery store almost every day which is so unusual back in the United States.  The meats are packed fresh every day here and some are defrosted.  So there is a label on the packaging telling you not to refreeze it.  I've mentioned this to a few people about this and they have actually put the meat back in the freezer.  I may have to start doing this too!  Until at least the new plaza opens up next to us and hopefully there will be a nice grocery store in there.

Ok, time to make the "school bus" run.  I've been driving so much these past few days that the side of my body are actually sore. True story!  I did buy some Malay music while in Malaysia. Maybe that will keep me entertained in the car.  Hopefully I'm still able to understand the lyrics! :-)