January, the month that feels like 5 months, is over. January blues are really a thing and the past month has been quite a weird one. Coming back from the UK this time was tough, we had such a wonderful Christmas and saw lots of precious friends and of course family. Transitioning from one life to another and one culture to another has been harder than usual this time for various reasons but February is looking to be a great month with SKIING IN JAPAN 🇯🇵 on the calendar.

A couple of weeks into January things were hitting a low point and then my sister had a bad reaction to mosquito bites and vacated her feverish bed in Myanmar to join us here in Penang. Alice and I rescued her from the airport and thankfully she’s now recovered and back to planning her Asian adventures. It’s been a much needed family reunion that neither of us planned.
We had 4 days off for Chinese New Year last week. Gong ci fa cai to all who celebrate! This year is the year of the rat and this is not a good year for horses. Fellow 1990 babies you’re in a 1 star out of 5 year sorry. I’ve been told to stay away from people, be amongst trees, don’t invest any money and to find a new job. I’ll take the isolation and the trees.

Tom Owst graced the island of Penang with his presence and was like a celeb for a few days. Mums just love Mr Owst. We went to Langkawi for a mini island getaway. We stayed at Eagle Eye Home Stay and it was an absolute steal. Amazing villa with loads of space on Tanjung Rhu beach. Dreamy. We saw the largest mutant jellyfish anyone has ever seen (if there was a Jaws film version for jellyfish this would have featured) and we did what anyone would do, we got a stick and poked it to see if it was dead. It was. A small child asked me for my stick and I said no so they gave me evils, probably whilst wondering ‘what kind of adult are you?’ This is what teaching does to you.

Cookedrinks made a significant come back and has avid fans over here in Malaysia. If you don’t know what cookedrinks is where have you been but you can also check it out http://www.instagram.com/cookedrinks

Oddly satisfying isn’t it?

I laughed so so so much over this weekend and I needed it. Word association and the music quizzes were a highlight. Smokey weird bar with weird man wearing feather in hat was a lowlight. Also customer service at Dash was infuriating and Soph ended up telling one man not to look at her.

Fave pic has to be this one:Many an Asian photo shoot were observed on Cenang beach along with a man having his spots popped by his mum (?!) / older gf/wife (?!) either way that was utterly disturbing. We obviously did our own photo shoot cos when in Asia…Alice and Tom wowed everyone with their gymnastics routine.

Langkawi weekend was entertaining, relaxing and much needed.

Unfortunately we were slapped back to reality on the plane ride home when a family behind us allowed their child to continously kick the seat, a woman filmed us in a very obvious manner and a man’s armpit invaded my personal space. I vomited when I got home and I blame him (and the lack of water consumed).

In the midst of all of this fun Coronavirus has become a global hysteria. We await the next stage of this pandemic with frustration, amusement and irritation. For those who are concerned, we are all absolutely fine except Tom who is back in Hong Kong but can’t go to work until March.

Chinese New Year celebrations came around again and I do love this festival. It’s colourful and has catchy songs and cool dancing. Also a lot of snacks.
That’s all for January! I’ve decided I need to write more because I now pay for my blog can you believe?! Apparently I’ve exceeded my free limit so I have to make it worth every penny.

On a very sad note I woke up this morning to see that the UK have finally left the EU. Devastating. I hope everyone is coping OK I know I feel really unnerved about it.