Here in Malaysia chicken's breast is considered the least desirable part of the chicken.
I am, and always have been, a fan of the breast meat of a chicken.
Admittedly, if it is cooked wrong, chicken's breast can be dry. That's the key though, if it's cooked too long it will dry out. Cooking chicken's breast is a fast affair with heat too keep it moist.
Previously I cooked chicken's breast for a few of Siew's family members to prove that it can be very moist.
Tonight, I cooked chicken's breast for the family dinner with cabbage. I stir-fried it with a little garlic (for them, certainly not for my vampiric palette !) and a bit of salt.
I started with the skin from the chicken's breast, sliced into pieces and fried for awhile to melt the fat, then added the garlic and fried it longer before adding the cabbage (half a small head chopped into 8ths and washed to fall apart as it will) frying that for a bit then adding salt, frying a little longer then adding the breast meat and frying it for only a few minutes long enough to cook the meat, but maintain moistness.
Aside from the garlic part of that, it's ok. . . I'd liked to have added hot chili powder, but that is not a seasoning to be found in this household and I didn't have Siew get me a fresh chili to add in. Oh well.
October 29, 2008
Exercise
While I'm still a little sick, I'm mostly recovered now.
My stamina, I found out yesterday at the mall, isn't very good after being sick for a bit.
Oh, yeah, did I forget to mention that I was sick?
I started feeling feverish and then getting chills, I couldn't sleep and my back ached horribly and my skin was hypersensitive. I was wonderfully miserable.
After a couple of days of this and normal OTC medications not helping my fever much Siew took me to a doctor who gave me some anti-biotics and some pain killers. I don't know what either type was (that's something else done differently here than in the USA.) but they helped at least somewhat.
Anyway, back to my other tale.
This morning I decided to use my in-laws elliptical machine for 20 minutes then did some stretching, which felt nice. After I showered I started to feel shaky so I was going to fry a couple of eggs to eat.
When I went to take a skillet out from under the sink but found that all of the pots and pans had water in them.
It turns out that the sink drain was leaking.
Further, it's leaking because no one ever glued the PVC piping together the way it should have been.
I cannot stand half-assed jobs. If you're going to do something, do it until it's done right. Even if you're going to mess something up, say a country, AHEM BUSH, then mess it up right, instead of half-assed. FUCKTARDS.
Luckily there is a plumbing supply place across the street from their shop/home.
I had thought about putting a T in place of the 90 degree elbow and putting a screw-cap on top of that in order to access the pipe to clean it out. However, when we went to the supply store, with Siew translating, they said they didn't have something like that. I was shocked. . I know they have things like that for PVC pipe!
After Siew's dad left to deliver some wholesale goods I set to fixing the drain. When I took it apart the pipes were full of greasy sludge. . . The maid is supposed to run hot water down the drain frequently to keep that sludge from building up, but she does not. Siew's dad didn't want the drain glued together previously because of this problem. He'd take the drain apart and clean it once in awhile. . . apparently he doesn't do this anymore as he gets older.
The drain also has traps for both sinks that should be unscrewed and cleaned once in awhile. . . no one seemed to know that those pods were drain traps though.
So, I cleaned up everything, which was a nasty mess. When trying to put the traps back together I found that one of them had been glued together by Siew's father (we think) in order to hold it together.
Siew went and got a new sink trap from the supply place. I was able to get it to work, just barely, with the old piping (which is all poorly designed and really needs to be rebuilt to allow for gravity draining).
At one point I was talking to Siew about the elbow and things and she decided to try checking the plumbing store again. This time she was able to explain closer to what I was trying to ask for and get a T and a cross with a drain. When she brought them back I described what I needed and she returned shortly later with exactly what I wanted.
I put everything back together with some trouble, things have been torn up a little by other people taking apart and not putting together correctly the drain pieces.
This time it's all glued together, and there's still access to clean the drain out if needed. No leaks, and I scolded, via Siew, the maid. She really needs to run hot water down the drain more to keep it clear.
My stamina, I found out yesterday at the mall, isn't very good after being sick for a bit.
Oh, yeah, did I forget to mention that I was sick?
I started feeling feverish and then getting chills, I couldn't sleep and my back ached horribly and my skin was hypersensitive. I was wonderfully miserable.
After a couple of days of this and normal OTC medications not helping my fever much Siew took me to a doctor who gave me some anti-biotics and some pain killers. I don't know what either type was (that's something else done differently here than in the USA.) but they helped at least somewhat.
Anyway, back to my other tale.
This morning I decided to use my in-laws elliptical machine for 20 minutes then did some stretching, which felt nice. After I showered I started to feel shaky so I was going to fry a couple of eggs to eat.
When I went to take a skillet out from under the sink but found that all of the pots and pans had water in them.
It turns out that the sink drain was leaking.
Further, it's leaking because no one ever glued the PVC piping together the way it should have been.
I cannot stand half-assed jobs. If you're going to do something, do it until it's done right. Even if you're going to mess something up, say a country, AHEM BUSH, then mess it up right, instead of half-assed. FUCKTARDS.
Luckily there is a plumbing supply place across the street from their shop/home.
I had thought about putting a T in place of the 90 degree elbow and putting a screw-cap on top of that in order to access the pipe to clean it out. However, when we went to the supply store, with Siew translating, they said they didn't have something like that. I was shocked. . I know they have things like that for PVC pipe!
After Siew's dad left to deliver some wholesale goods I set to fixing the drain. When I took it apart the pipes were full of greasy sludge. . . The maid is supposed to run hot water down the drain frequently to keep that sludge from building up, but she does not. Siew's dad didn't want the drain glued together previously because of this problem. He'd take the drain apart and clean it once in awhile. . . apparently he doesn't do this anymore as he gets older.
The drain also has traps for both sinks that should be unscrewed and cleaned once in awhile. . . no one seemed to know that those pods were drain traps though.
So, I cleaned up everything, which was a nasty mess. When trying to put the traps back together I found that one of them had been glued together by Siew's father (we think) in order to hold it together.
Siew went and got a new sink trap from the supply place. I was able to get it to work, just barely, with the old piping (which is all poorly designed and really needs to be rebuilt to allow for gravity draining).
At one point I was talking to Siew about the elbow and things and she decided to try checking the plumbing store again. This time she was able to explain closer to what I was trying to ask for and get a T and a cross with a drain. When she brought them back I described what I needed and she returned shortly later with exactly what I wanted.
I put everything back together with some trouble, things have been torn up a little by other people taking apart and not putting together correctly the drain pieces.
This time it's all glued together, and there's still access to clean the drain out if needed. No leaks, and I scolded, via Siew, the maid. She really needs to run hot water down the drain more to keep it clear.
October 10, 2008
Banking in Malaysia
Banking in Malaysia is a lot different than it is in the USA.
In the USA, for the most part, banks are more than happy to take your money and put it into your account. They'll let you do this during business hours at the counter, out of hours via deposit boxes or even the ATM.
This is not the case in Malaysia.
We changed our money from USD to Malaysian ringgit on Wednesday.
On Thursday we went to the bank to put the money into Siew's account, or to create an account with both of our names on it.
When we asked about closing her account and opening a new account we were told we cannot. Siew opened the account in another city. To close the account we would have to make a 4 hour trip to Kuala Lumpur in order to closer her account. Furthermore, we would have to go to ANOTHER bank in the same chain to open a new account.
Apparently they do not have an updated system within the banks that make them all inter-linked and people have used this to scam the bank. I'm not kidding.
People would close their account at one location, drive to another and close it again, doubling their money to the bank's loss.
So, we decided, for the time being, to just put the money into Siew's account as it is. We had a fair amount of cash after all. Well, guess what? Another annoyance. The banks here in Malaysia CHARGE you to deposit money at the front counter. It's really like they want to do their best to discourage your from using the bank. Why would you charge someone to deposit money?
The staff member at the counter pointed us to a machine that would accept deposits.
So, we go to this ATM like machine. Instead of giving you money though, you put money into it.
So, we proceed to start depositing our money.
The machine sometimes has a hard time reading bills so we would put some in, let it take what it would, finish the transaction and then do it again with another batch, setting aside the money it would not accept.
This went fine until our last batch of "fresh" money. This batch locked the machine up with a warning that the machine had an error, to contact bank staff and that it's now out of service.
Siew goes to the counter to inform them that the machine just gave an error and ate our money. I stay with the machine to make sure no one else touches it until we get our money.
Siew comes back saying they'll have someone out shortly. We wait for several minutes before 2 people come out to look at things. This is where things get REALLY interesting.
The 2 people who come out, a Chinese man and woman, start off with a nasty attitude and are SCOLDING us because their machine had a problem.
At one point the lady, rather than asking what we did and what the machine did, scolds us saying we shouldn't keep putting rejected money into the machine. . . We had done that, but not on this last batch we had not!
Then they wanted us to leave and they would let us know TOMORROW what happened to our money. We were like "What?!" There was no way that I was going to leave the money in their already nasty hands to inform me about it later. Who knows if we'd ever see that money again!
After arguing with them about this for awhile we went into the lobby to wait.
I complained to Siew about their behaviour and suggested we go back to the front counter to complain.
The guy at the front counter was a bit shaken that we wanted to complain, and tried to get us to lay off, without being rude himself (he was always polite). I asked for contact information for the manager. He said he'd try to find us some information and left the counter.
After a bit the other 2 nasty people came back from the counting machine and went into the back. Very shortly the lady came back out with a bit of a panicked look on her face asking us why we wanted to speak to the manager and explaining that she really had not behaved in such a rude manner. She even brought out papers with other people's information that apparently had similar problems with the same machine recently. She was blaming their behaviour on the machine messing up so much recently and stress.
I don't care who you are lady. That is NOT a professional way to behave!
She tried to apologize to us, but it wasn't very sincere, yet. The guy. . well when he came out he straight away started trying to make excuses, but the lady cut him off multiple times. He tried to put his hand out to Siew to shake and apologize, but his eyes and his voice didn't show ANY sincerity at all and she refused to touch his hand. Lucky for him he didn't offer his hand to me. I do not have a weak grip and would have enjoyed the look of pain on his face, especially with my anger level at that point.
I need to note that Siew and I both remained calm during all of this somehow. We did not lose our cool despite their behaviour and the amount of money involved. More so for me, the culture shocks in banking here in Malaysia didn't rattle me enough to raise my voice or show much of any emotion.
I then dropped what I thought was a reasonable request, that apparently was a bomb.
I asked for their business cards.
I thought the lady might faint. She Asked me why I wanted their business cards. I explained that I may need to contact them again after this is settled, in case we have any other banking needs. She didn't believe me.
I asked several more times, while we were waiting for them to sort out the money problems still, for their business cards. I was firm, quiet, but insistent. She was refusing, without doing so directly, to give me her card, instead asking why I wanted it, assuring me that she'd get everything sorted out, would we like something to drink? Are you sure you don't want something to drink? We have some cold coca-cola's in the bank. Damn it lady, I don't want a fucking drink. What I wanted was my money and your head and the asshole's head on a fucking silver platter for my amusement!
One thing of note that almost set me off. Once when I asked for her business card and she asked why I explained that it is normal in a professional setting to offer your business card. She replied with "May I have your business card?" to Siew and I both. What the fuck? We're CUSOMTERS you bitch!
Finally, they managed to get our money out of the machine and we went back to the same machine (because NO you can't put it in over the counter without a charge, even though we fucked up) to finish putting money into the bank.
This time, however, the lady put the money in while we stood and watched. During this process the manager bothered to show up.
After we finished putting the money in Siew needed to have her bank book updated with the deposits we'd made so she went to do that with the lady while I talked to the manager.
By this point I wasn't as mad with the lady because she had made earnest effort to straighten things out and finally managed to be more sincere in her apologies. The asshole, however, had not.
I explained this to the manager, and complained very heavily about the lack of professional behaviour from the asshole (no, I didn't use this kind of language with him!). Then chatted with the manager for a little while before he needed to leave again.
I went over to Siew, who was still talking to the lady. Apparently the lady freaked out a bit when I pulled the manager aside to talk. Siew had been trying to distract her, asking about investments and mentioning that I was only going to complain about the asshole.
I hope that banking in Malaysia improves, that's not any way I would like to do my banking that's for sure.
If it stays like that, maybe a huge heavy safe would be a better sort of bank?
Just remember, when in doubt in Malaysia, just ask for their business card and they'll freak out that you're trying to get them into trouble and start bending over backwards for you.
In the USA, for the most part, banks are more than happy to take your money and put it into your account. They'll let you do this during business hours at the counter, out of hours via deposit boxes or even the ATM.
This is not the case in Malaysia.
We changed our money from USD to Malaysian ringgit on Wednesday.
On Thursday we went to the bank to put the money into Siew's account, or to create an account with both of our names on it.
When we asked about closing her account and opening a new account we were told we cannot. Siew opened the account in another city. To close the account we would have to make a 4 hour trip to Kuala Lumpur in order to closer her account. Furthermore, we would have to go to ANOTHER bank in the same chain to open a new account.
Apparently they do not have an updated system within the banks that make them all inter-linked and people have used this to scam the bank. I'm not kidding.
People would close their account at one location, drive to another and close it again, doubling their money to the bank's loss.
So, we decided, for the time being, to just put the money into Siew's account as it is. We had a fair amount of cash after all. Well, guess what? Another annoyance. The banks here in Malaysia CHARGE you to deposit money at the front counter. It's really like they want to do their best to discourage your from using the bank. Why would you charge someone to deposit money?
The staff member at the counter pointed us to a machine that would accept deposits.
So, we go to this ATM like machine. Instead of giving you money though, you put money into it.
So, we proceed to start depositing our money.
The machine sometimes has a hard time reading bills so we would put some in, let it take what it would, finish the transaction and then do it again with another batch, setting aside the money it would not accept.
This went fine until our last batch of "fresh" money. This batch locked the machine up with a warning that the machine had an error, to contact bank staff and that it's now out of service.
Siew goes to the counter to inform them that the machine just gave an error and ate our money. I stay with the machine to make sure no one else touches it until we get our money.
Siew comes back saying they'll have someone out shortly. We wait for several minutes before 2 people come out to look at things. This is where things get REALLY interesting.
The 2 people who come out, a Chinese man and woman, start off with a nasty attitude and are SCOLDING us because their machine had a problem.
At one point the lady, rather than asking what we did and what the machine did, scolds us saying we shouldn't keep putting rejected money into the machine. . . We had done that, but not on this last batch we had not!
Then they wanted us to leave and they would let us know TOMORROW what happened to our money. We were like "What?!" There was no way that I was going to leave the money in their already nasty hands to inform me about it later. Who knows if we'd ever see that money again!
After arguing with them about this for awhile we went into the lobby to wait.
I complained to Siew about their behaviour and suggested we go back to the front counter to complain.
The guy at the front counter was a bit shaken that we wanted to complain, and tried to get us to lay off, without being rude himself (he was always polite). I asked for contact information for the manager. He said he'd try to find us some information and left the counter.
After a bit the other 2 nasty people came back from the counting machine and went into the back. Very shortly the lady came back out with a bit of a panicked look on her face asking us why we wanted to speak to the manager and explaining that she really had not behaved in such a rude manner. She even brought out papers with other people's information that apparently had similar problems with the same machine recently. She was blaming their behaviour on the machine messing up so much recently and stress.
I don't care who you are lady. That is NOT a professional way to behave!
She tried to apologize to us, but it wasn't very sincere, yet. The guy. . well when he came out he straight away started trying to make excuses, but the lady cut him off multiple times. He tried to put his hand out to Siew to shake and apologize, but his eyes and his voice didn't show ANY sincerity at all and she refused to touch his hand. Lucky for him he didn't offer his hand to me. I do not have a weak grip and would have enjoyed the look of pain on his face, especially with my anger level at that point.
I need to note that Siew and I both remained calm during all of this somehow. We did not lose our cool despite their behaviour and the amount of money involved. More so for me, the culture shocks in banking here in Malaysia didn't rattle me enough to raise my voice or show much of any emotion.
I then dropped what I thought was a reasonable request, that apparently was a bomb.
I asked for their business cards.
I thought the lady might faint. She Asked me why I wanted their business cards. I explained that I may need to contact them again after this is settled, in case we have any other banking needs. She didn't believe me.
I asked several more times, while we were waiting for them to sort out the money problems still, for their business cards. I was firm, quiet, but insistent. She was refusing, without doing so directly, to give me her card, instead asking why I wanted it, assuring me that she'd get everything sorted out, would we like something to drink? Are you sure you don't want something to drink? We have some cold coca-cola's in the bank. Damn it lady, I don't want a fucking drink. What I wanted was my money and your head and the asshole's head on a fucking silver platter for my amusement!
One thing of note that almost set me off. Once when I asked for her business card and she asked why I explained that it is normal in a professional setting to offer your business card. She replied with "May I have your business card?" to Siew and I both. What the fuck? We're CUSOMTERS you bitch!
Finally, they managed to get our money out of the machine and we went back to the same machine (because NO you can't put it in over the counter without a charge, even though we fucked up) to finish putting money into the bank.
This time, however, the lady put the money in while we stood and watched. During this process the manager bothered to show up.
After we finished putting the money in Siew needed to have her bank book updated with the deposits we'd made so she went to do that with the lady while I talked to the manager.
By this point I wasn't as mad with the lady because she had made earnest effort to straighten things out and finally managed to be more sincere in her apologies. The asshole, however, had not.
I explained this to the manager, and complained very heavily about the lack of professional behaviour from the asshole (no, I didn't use this kind of language with him!). Then chatted with the manager for a little while before he needed to leave again.
I went over to Siew, who was still talking to the lady. Apparently the lady freaked out a bit when I pulled the manager aside to talk. Siew had been trying to distract her, asking about investments and mentioning that I was only going to complain about the asshole.
I hope that banking in Malaysia improves, that's not any way I would like to do my banking that's for sure.
If it stays like that, maybe a huge heavy safe would be a better sort of bank?
Just remember, when in doubt in Malaysia, just ask for their business card and they'll freak out that you're trying to get them into trouble and start bending over backwards for you.
Computer
Well, I formatted and re-installed everything on this F-tec laptop.
We also had a heck of a time upgrading the ram on it.
The cpu's FSB is 533, but it runs pc3200. There's very little information online about this model of laptop though!
Finally, however, we managed to find a place that located ram that works. 1 gig of 3200 for this laptop cost 169 ringgit. . . ouch.
If it had been a little bit newer ram then it would have cost less than half that!
After the ram uprade this computer is running great.
The internet connection here, however, is NOT so great. We have broadband (DSL) however I have seen dialup speeds faster than this before. Oh well.
We also had a heck of a time upgrading the ram on it.
The cpu's FSB is 533, but it runs pc3200. There's very little information online about this model of laptop though!
Finally, however, we managed to find a place that located ram that works. 1 gig of 3200 for this laptop cost 169 ringgit. . . ouch.
If it had been a little bit newer ram then it would have cost less than half that!
After the ram uprade this computer is running great.
The internet connection here, however, is NOT so great. We have broadband (DSL) however I have seen dialup speeds faster than this before. Oh well.
Flight
Finally we were leaving America to come to Malaysia!
America didn't want to let us go though!
We had a 2 hour delay in Louisville.
When we got to New Jersey we had another delay, around 2 hours again.
We get to Sweden and have to disembark to await plane re-fueling and maintenance. But as soon as we got off the plane we had to go through security as though we were getting on to a plane. I guess they take it pretty seriously there though.
Guess what happened after that? Yep! We had another 2 hour plus delay!
We would like to have been updated about things, but the stewardess at the counter was too busy being flirted with by 3 guys who were extremely loud and disruptive.
Once we arrived in Kuala Lumpur we had to make a dash to make it to the right plane due to the delays. Malaysia Airlines is good about helping people out when there are delays though, they want you on the flight that you're supposed to be on or one very close to it if they can help it.
We went to one terminal they told us to go to. When we got there that gate was closed. The guy who'd pointed us in that direction picked us up in one of those over-sized golfcarts and we drove to the right terminal to catch the flight to Penang.
This time around there were no baggage delays and customs, because of the delay in flights, was faster than normal.
We've still a lot of unpacking to do, luckily we really didn't bring that much with us.
I found that most of the computers here are. . . needing help. So, I had to format and re-install windows on this laptop in order to send out this e-mail.
There's another computer downstairs that needs my help, and another one, but it might be beyond me at this point, that also needs looking at.
I need to update the ram on this one so it'll run faster, windows xp on 256meg with some of that shared as video ram is not fun!
So, later, we'll go shopping a bit, for computer parts and for shorts/shirts for me. Then I can resume my teaching English as a foreign language course.
The weather hasn't been too bad, raining a lot since we got here actually.
We brought a decent amount of money with us, but we're going to avoid touching that until we're both stabilized more.
I think that things will be ok.
America didn't want to let us go though!
We had a 2 hour delay in Louisville.
When we got to New Jersey we had another delay, around 2 hours again.
We get to Sweden and have to disembark to await plane re-fueling and maintenance. But as soon as we got off the plane we had to go through security as though we were getting on to a plane. I guess they take it pretty seriously there though.
Guess what happened after that? Yep! We had another 2 hour plus delay!
We would like to have been updated about things, but the stewardess at the counter was too busy being flirted with by 3 guys who were extremely loud and disruptive.
Once we arrived in Kuala Lumpur we had to make a dash to make it to the right plane due to the delays. Malaysia Airlines is good about helping people out when there are delays though, they want you on the flight that you're supposed to be on or one very close to it if they can help it.
We went to one terminal they told us to go to. When we got there that gate was closed. The guy who'd pointed us in that direction picked us up in one of those over-sized golfcarts and we drove to the right terminal to catch the flight to Penang.
This time around there were no baggage delays and customs, because of the delay in flights, was faster than normal.
We've still a lot of unpacking to do, luckily we really didn't bring that much with us.
I found that most of the computers here are. . . needing help. So, I had to format and re-install windows on this laptop in order to send out this e-mail.
There's another computer downstairs that needs my help, and another one, but it might be beyond me at this point, that also needs looking at.
I need to update the ram on this one so it'll run faster, windows xp on 256meg with some of that shared as video ram is not fun!
So, later, we'll go shopping a bit, for computer parts and for shorts/shirts for me. Then I can resume my teaching English as a foreign language course.
The weather hasn't been too bad, raining a lot since we got here actually.
We brought a decent amount of money with us, but we're going to avoid touching that until we're both stabilized more.
I think that things will be ok.
On our way to Malaysia.
Well, after things just never became stable in the USA we decided to move to Malaysia and make a go of things there.
Some of my family and friends showed concern about me moving, but I've always been interested in Asian cultures and things. This move is beneficial to me and my wife.
I'm about half way done with my TEFL certification. That gives me a piece of paper that will let me do many things in Asia that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise. I can offer something that most people here cannot, native English speaker, and be able to travel more easily as an English teacher if we decide to do that.
I'm glad we came here. We were both burned out and frightened by what America is doing. America's really a scary place now and it's not going to get better. I hope that someday my native country pulls it's head out of the sand (it's own ass really) and wakes up to the real world. It's really like a child dreaming of santa claus, who knows that there's no such thing, but refuses to admit it to everyone else.
America, please disconnect your head from your ass prior to joining the rest of the world, THANKS!
Some of my family and friends showed concern about me moving, but I've always been interested in Asian cultures and things. This move is beneficial to me and my wife.
I'm about half way done with my TEFL certification. That gives me a piece of paper that will let me do many things in Asia that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise. I can offer something that most people here cannot, native English speaker, and be able to travel more easily as an English teacher if we decide to do that.
I'm glad we came here. We were both burned out and frightened by what America is doing. America's really a scary place now and it's not going to get better. I hope that someday my native country pulls it's head out of the sand (it's own ass really) and wakes up to the real world. It's really like a child dreaming of santa claus, who knows that there's no such thing, but refuses to admit it to everyone else.
America, please disconnect your head from your ass prior to joining the rest of the world, THANKS!
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