A different life


As I've said before, part of our trip was not just about travelling but changing our lives for the 
better, and I want to record and share some of that.  Over the last few months we've talked a lot about what aspects of our lives we liked and what we wanted to change or improve about ourselves.  It came down to just our family and friends, and our flat that we really liked.  And those are the things that we are really missing now and we wish we could pick up and move with us.


There were several areas that I wanted to examine and try to improve on in my life:


Work: 

I did really enjoy my first 2 years of teaching and I really landed on my feet, in most ways, starting out at OJS.  I met a lot of great people who were extremely supportive and will continue to be good friends and of course the kids were fantastic.  But and I knew after 2 years I wanted a change and that I wanted to go back to working in 'special education'.  This is where my heart is.  I am really interested and passionate about working with young people with Autism, in particular.  Now I am in Vancouver this is the area of work I am pursuing.  I have now added another page, about getting back in to this line of work, my experiences of working with young people with Autism and also anything I've read or watched about this area that I think might be interesting to people!

I also decided that when I go back to being a teacher I need to find a way to have a better work/life balance.  I'd lost who I was apart from being a teacher!

Fitness:


In the year or so before I left the UK, I finally discovered a sport that I enjoyed doing - Pole Dancing.  In fact I became a bit obsessed with it.  So I have added a page to track my progress, when I can finally afford to go classes again that is!  But so far I have added pictures of some pole that I did while travelling and also a video of a pro!  Watch this if you still have a 'sleazy, lap-dance club' image of pole dancing!

Diet and Cooking:


Now, I've always felt that I ate a reasonably healthy diet - 'everything in moderation' being my motto. But I was aware that we could eat more fruit and veg and that some foods didn't agree with me! I knew that my repertoire of recipes was very limited and based on convenience.  So my quest now is to experiment more with cooking, buy more organic food and increase my awareness and understanding of how different foods and minerals can effect our bodies.

I've created a page to add any info I find out about diet and any recipes I think other people might like!

Creativity:


Before I started on the long road (well it was longer for me than most!) to teaching Fine Art was my passion and it consumed all of my time as a teenager.  Unfortunately, this is an area of my life that has almost completely disappeared, especially since teaching.  So I have vowed to spend more time being creative, therefor one of the first things I have done is ordered some wool to make felt!  I plan to make the most of the time I have free while I'm waiting to start work!  I have also been working hard at doing some basic photo-editing of all our thousands of pictures I have taken over our travels and I'm trying to learn how to be more creative with Photoshop.

I've created a new page to show off some of my projects!

Jonkers Walk buffet!

19.11.11 Melaka

First things first - we had to move hostels to Sayang Sayang 2 this morning,

which is much newer. But I couldn't help feeling they've cut corners and a

lot of the thoughtful little touches were missing here, even though the

price was higher and the bedrooms/beds/showers are all smaller!! But, hey,

it's clean and the lady that runs it is helpful and friendly.

Next we crossed over the murky brown river in to the 'historical old town'.

Melaka has a interesting history and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Melak first grew as a trading port and developed an interesting cultural

mix because of this. Melaka has been under the rule of the British and

Dutch in recent history.

As we crossed over the river we came to Town Square or Dutch Square where

tens of competing trishaws are waiting around the Stadthuys, which is the

old dutch-builty town hall and governors build. It's hard to miss as it's

a rusty pink colour. The trishaws surrounding it are solely for tourists and

are all in competition to be the most wacky. Most covered in gaudy plastic

flowers and some even blaring out western music.

When we walked behind the square and around Bukit St Paul towards Porta de Santiago

we discovered there was an arts festival going on this weekend, due to start

in a few hours. We ducked in to the nearby mall for some much needed air-con,

on the way passing an outdoor paint-ball centre. Inside the mall there was

a cinema, acquarium, roller disco and small archery centre. What more could

you need?!

Out of the mall and strolling to the sultanate palace we came across a small

crowd forming around a lone performance artist that to be honest came across

a bit deranged. She was doing some interpretative dance of some sort,

neither of us could really follow what she was doing, work out of there was

any narrative and wasn't very impressed with the actual dance, but it was

interesting!

The Sultanate palace is a wooden replica of a Melaka sultans palace and houses

a cultural museum, that tells some historical stories about personalities

important in Melaka's history and explains how the sultanate is governed.

Not a particularly scintilating museum!

Next we went back to Jonkers walk and one of the hawker stand cafes where

where we had a guess at what we wanted to eat, Ice Ice. We enjoyed a cheap

late lunch of wanton noodle soup. Afterwards we went back to the festival

and listened to a local singer-songwriter, who mixed it up with, of course,

a cover of Jason Moraz! Then we went to sample a cendol each. In Lonely

Planet they describe this delicacy as an ice monstrosity and they're not

wrong! You can have different flavours but the orignal one is coconut with

ice, with a kind of syrup over the top and then strangest of all, at the bottom

are green-bean looking jellies, sweetcorn and kidney beans (of course!). We also

sampled a mango falvoured one, which was a little more familiar tasting as it

was sweeter and fruity!

This evening, we had en exciting dinner! We spent a happy few hours walking up

and down the night market sampling food from different stalls. We tried Tiwanese

sausage on a stick, a 'tornado' crisp (which is a potato cut in to a big screw

and put on a skewer and then cooked, so it becomes a cross between a chip and a

crips) and a popiah (spring roll). We also shared a mango milk tea with pearls,

which is like a milk shake but with small balls of chewy jelly. Later we had

japanese oyster balls. These were delicious parcels that melted in your mouth

hiding chewy oyster. Next we shared a sweet potato cake and finished with a bag

of dim sum.

After we had filled our bellies we clambered up St Pauls hill to the church to

watch some performance artists. Unfortunately we were too late to be able to

fit in to the church,but glimpsed a half-naked man, painted white prancing

around under blue lights and flapping flowing fabric around and thought it may

not be to our taste anyway!

Never mind!