The positive stuff

OK feeling positively normal again and ready to go on. I thought I'd share the good things about living in malaysia. Here they are, I'm sure I can come up with 20 Good Reasons to Live in Malaysia:
1 Cheap rent people - where I live anyway, which probably explains it. We pay only RM 450 per month (about $130) for a big 4 bedroom house. We had to install the kitchen and it's surrounded by concrete, but it's liveable and we all sleep comfortably in an air-conditioned room each.

2. Food - the food here is cheap and tastes amazing. Just follow the locals and you can feed the family rice, meat and vegies for a mere RM 20.00. Noodles can be cheaper. Example, in Sorrento, VIC, where we hung out for a while, we'd go to the Chinese restaurant there and order Char Kway Teow - flat fried noodles with bean sprouts, chilli, prawns and a bit green vegie. Price $20. Here I can buy the same thing and pay RM 2.00!!!! Astounding.

Other things food wise, yesterday I bought fresh broccoli for RM 4.50 a kilo - good price for the best vegie. There's all different types of green vegetable that you can stir fry with a bit of garlic and soy sauce and it sells for about RM 1.50 a bunch. Bananas, the power food, are a mere RM 2.00/kilo

3. Water - cheap and there's lots of it - sometimes too much, but that's another story. Our water bill is around RM 7/ month. And we do our best not to waste it.

4. House cleaners - A lot of people have 'maids' (that's what live-in house assistants are called here) - we use a part time cleaner once a week to come and clean the bathrooms, toilets, drains and floors and other stuff we need done. Although I keep the house up reasonably well, I don't have to deal with the really dirty stuff, which I'm grateful for. House work is bad enough, housework in a tropical climate is even worse. And for this little god-send, I pay RM 30/week for 5 hours of her time. She would get paid about RM 420 per month by her employer. She comes from Indonesia and supports her family with the money she earns here. She's a lovely person, very humble and hardworking. And she's patiently teaching me more malay than I can currently speak.

5 The opportunity to learn another language. Both my kids will be fluent in Mandarin (chinese) in a few years time and not only will they be able to speak, they will be able to read and write it. My daughter is already reading. writing and speaking Mandarin - I see what she writes in her school books and am astounded (and so proud) every time. I find learning chinese extremely difficult, but malay is better and I can speak and understand basic malay.

6. Petrol is cheaper - it's subsidized by the government so we only pay about $0.75 a litre (RM1.92) whereas the rest of the world is paying much higher prices for fuel.

7. Did I say 20 postives , maybe I meant 10. Thinking... crickets chirping... Oh yes, I can get my vegies and meat from the guy down the road and it's all fresh. I don't have to go to the supermarket all the time.

8. My kids learn piano for only $20/month, at the Yamaha music school. They have one individual lesson each week.

9. I have made some wonderful friends here. K & W are wonderful people who operate two kinders and an English tuition centre. I met them via my doctor because they have a son who's autistic. I teach him during the day and at night K & W and I go for supper or hang out in their office and talk til all hours.

10. I get to swim at night (provided it's not raining) in an open air pool that's not artificially heated. Soooo nice. Under the stars, lap after relaxing lap, quiet, peaceful aloneness.

There - got 10. I'll do another 10 another day. I got a little too ambitious.

Cheers