Short blog for today...

Today is a "Missing Malaysia" day....
(for you JK, this means missing home)

We have had winds that knocked down electrical poles and a few transformers blew in town so half the city is in darkness. We saw a traffic light that was fully bent over, and a Santa that was rolling down the street.

Tonight, my mum and I went for "Chinese" in downtown Port Colborne. I was deathly afraid mum was going to ask me to order in Chinese. My mandarin would have been enough to order a bit of 'chee cheong fan' or some 'niu ro mian', but if it was Cantonese I would have shocked the waitress by ordering a healthy portion of 'ji bai'. I might have got a slap in the face for it, but luckily mum wasn't out to impress the staff so I got away with ordering the hot and sour soup in English.

Today I talked to a good friend, Anna. Anna and I studied together in Poland back in 1997 and we had a wicked time, back in the day when the Russian shampoo wreaked havoc on her hair and I was infatuated with a Polish girl who had TEASE written all over her. Anna also taught in Bangkok when I was first in Malaysia. I rode a train from Kota Bharu through the jungle, sleeping on a dirty floor overnight to go and see her there. Then when she came to visit me in KL, I got a call at 4:00am. "Mark, I'm at someplace called 'Puduraya' and I've borrowed some guy's phone to call you. There's no banks open! Can you come and get me?!?!" This was when I was living in Kelana Jaya, a good forty minutes away. (Oh god, Anna, just stay under a street light and I'll try to be there as soon as possible! Don't go into any dark places!) An old minefield in Cambodia is preferable to Puduraya at 4am...

For me, Anna is home. She's one of the good people who will always stay with me. When I call, it can be years since we've seen and talked to each other but she will give me shit for not calling sooner, and then we'll make plans for dinner (like for tomorrow night) meet up and gab for hours! People like her keep me sane, mostly because they know what going home is like.

"So, Mark, darling! Are you in the 'it's so great to be home' phase, or are you past that and in the 'oh god, get me out of here, I don't fit in' phase?" she said over the phone.

"Definitely number two", I replied.

But knowing you makes it all so much more bearable.

Love you babe...