It's very clean here, and uncluttered. We're at the designer suite of ex's Aunty. Unlike my own house, everything has a place. ALL the plastic containers have a corresponding lid and none of them are missing. There's every appliance you could ever need to make any number of dishes and the whole place has that 'hotel' feel to it. The tv, enormous as it is, provides a cinematic type experience and has been wonderful for viewing the FIFA world cup - not that I'm watching, but Aunty YC is. In fact, she's really quite into it, which is rather surprising as she's well into her fifties, works in finance and doesn't do any sport beyond the odd yoga class.
Yesterday, ex's cousin took the time to pick us up and bring us out to a different shopping mall than the one we are used to. It was good, the highlight being the LEGO shop and the centre show featuring some Toy Story characters. My son is into LEGO at the moment, thanks to a Christmas present from my mum last year of a Spongebob Squarepants LEGO set. My son loves it and I would buy him more except that it's so expensive here. Really, one box of 200+ pieces is over 200 Ringgit and if there's any branding involved (Toy Story etc) the price immediately doubles. So to build a house or something from Toy Story would cost RM$400+. Ridiculous.
Back in the afternoon, we proceeded to go swimming with the kids' cousins who were using the apartment because their home had no electricity. It was fun, the pool here is really nice and big and the kids love it. Later, we met up with ex's brother, his wife and Aunty YC to go for dinner at an open air restaurant. The food was delcious, as usual. Whenever they take us for dinner the food is always really good. The area that the restaurant was in was a little dingy and there weren't many tourists around but the place was busy (always a good sign of good food). Ex's brother is always an excellent host when we are down, as is his aunty, but we've got to make sure we don't stress them, otherwise it's pleasant for no-one. And by that I mean making sure we clean up after ourselves and don't make too much noise.
The Aunty was different this time though. Last time I felt quite comfortable and we had some good chats, but this time, not so much. There was lots of one way conversations (me talking) and I'm really bad at small talk - I hate it and I'm not good at it, so often I don't end up saying anything which some people can take as being rude. But I did get the feeling this time that she would have preferred us not to be there. She has a lot of stress with her job so it's probably that and nothing more. She didn't invite us back like she did last time though. Hmmm. The kids keep asking me if we're coming back next year. Probably not. I don't want to be someone other people tolerate.
As I'm writing this two days after I started, I am no longer relaxed. We are now at ex's brother's place and he is ex to the power of 10, though without the personal connection. I'm getting a mild flu and am very conscious that I might pass it around. I want to go home. I don't want to trouble anyone any longer as that's what it's beginning to feel like. I feel like we are in the way, which may or may not be true, just my perception of things. Ex is coming today to pick us up, but I can't expect him to just turn around and go home. After a three hour drive he'll need dinner and a good rest as the drive home will be long and dark. So we will be home tonight and in the meantime I need to be polite and not too much trouble.
Cheers
The Aunty was different this time though. Last time I felt quite comfortable and we had some good chats, but this time, not so much. There was lots of one way conversations (me talking) and I'm really bad at small talk - I hate it and I'm not good at it, so often I don't end up saying anything which some people can take as being rude. But I did get the feeling this time that she would have preferred us not to be there. She has a lot of stress with her job so it's probably that and nothing more. She didn't invite us back like she did last time though. Hmmm. The kids keep asking me if we're coming back next year. Probably not. I don't want to be someone other people tolerate.
As I'm writing this two days after I started, I am no longer relaxed. We are now at ex's brother's place and he is ex to the power of 10, though without the personal connection. I'm getting a mild flu and am very conscious that I might pass it around. I want to go home. I don't want to trouble anyone any longer as that's what it's beginning to feel like. I feel like we are in the way, which may or may not be true, just my perception of things. Ex is coming today to pick us up, but I can't expect him to just turn around and go home. After a three hour drive he'll need dinner and a good rest as the drive home will be long and dark. So we will be home tonight and in the meantime I need to be polite and not too much trouble.
Cheers
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