fun runs, snow domes

I'm in the honeymoon period of being a new place where you say yes to almost everything. Soooo that's why the morning after a strenuous hash and a big party, I was up at sparrow's fluff to go on a fun run for charity with my first non-work-related Malaysian friend, the very lovely Sue who lives just around the corner. The fun run was a fundraiser for cancer research in memory of an amazing Canadian guy called Terry Fox who ran across Canada with a prosthetic leg after a battle with bone cancer. 50 countries around the world have a Terry Fox run. The walk was in the very beautiful Lake Gardens aka Taman Tasik Perdana (took lots of piccies on my mobile phone but am resigned to the fact that I've never work out how to find them again!). Sue introduced me to a new noodle dish (fish ball soup or Sop Tekwan) which I love and could eat 3 meals a day (and probably will!). Sue is keen to come to Chiang Mai for a weekend and do a Thai cooking school with me sometime. Hurrah - the universe is providing me with some travel buddies! Shealso doesn't use indicators all the time when driving so I'm now convinced that I just need to accept how different the driving style is here and have a go at relaxing!

Later that day (after my first dip in the pool and first training session of MANY hopefully for the Busso swim!), I went with the colleagues to the Batu Caves and confronted my monkey phobia. Managed not to shriek when they bared their teeth at me, and also managed not to succumb to temptation to buy a laughing Buddha snow dome (very good luck, I'm told). It would have looked nice alongside my Brisbane snow dome... Sunday night, we all went up the KL Tower and had the obligatory over-priced buffet while we revolved 360 degrees. Everyone thought I was very brave (foolish) for eating imported oysters...however it was the unlucky Jimmy (who didn't touch the oysters) who woke up at 1.30am with food poisoning. I tried Durian icecream which is the most disgusting thing ever. Durian might be the King of Fruits, but I think Connoisseur can skip it as a new flavour. Durian is such a stinky fruit that there is a sign in the hotel lobby banning guests from eating it, along with Mangosteen. After dinner we went back to AF's apartment for a few drinks and exchanged oil rig tales. I'm due to renew my helicopter safety training but after their tales, I'm not really looking forward to another offshore experience (the toilets in Japan sound a lot more fun!). I don't much like the sound of triple decker bunk beds either.