Week 51: dec 3 to 9

I had a minor surgery on Monday, and spent the first half of the week recovering.
Wednesday night we went out for dinner at Las Carretas with a lovely couple, Helen and Ed who we met through the High Comm.
I aslo spent a lot of this week preparing for Danae's party coming up this weekend.
Friday was a busy day. Donna organised a cooking class with her amah, Poh Lai in the morning and during lunch. She taught us many dishes, including her yummy wontons and Gula Melaka. Danae got a trophy for her group coming third in a dancing competition at school, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get to the school to see the presentation. Then when the kids got home from school we went to the DUSC Christmas party at the High Comm.

Saturday was entirely spent preparing for Danae's party, which was on Sunday. We treated Sunday as her actual birthday and gave her presents so they could be packed to come back to Australia. We had a clown and a giant inflatable slide into the pool. As soon as the guests started coming it poured with rain and I was a bit worried for a while. But it all turned out fine and the inflatable eventually went up and everyone had a great time. I also met some parents from school that I hadn't met before.

Week 50: Nov 26 to Dec 2

Monday I finally had no-one else at home so I went for a long overdue pedicure, and I went to IKEA on Tuesday. We went to Suzis for steak on Tuesday, fogetting that the steak hut is closed on Tuesdays. So we had Lebanese there instead. 
Wedesday morning I had morning tea at BIG at Publika with Michelle and Julie, then we did a little shopping.
Thursday I went to Little India with Toni. I had to get some clothes for us all to wear the following night to a Deepavali night at Steve's work. I bought suits for both the kids, a cotton shirt for Steve and 2 saris for me because I couldn't decide on just one. Then we went to an Indian department store and supermarket and spent ages looking at all the yummy food. That night we went to Red Box Karaoke with Kate, Corrine and one of the other guys teaching the course with them. It was a great night, we had our own little room and a buffet dinner and sang our hearts out.
Friday night we all got dressed up to go to Deepavali night, then as we went to leave the car wouldn't start. Mr Foo, the car guy, couldn't make it until the following morning and we decided against a taxi because Friday night traffic is always really bad. Apparently we missed a good night.
We had a pretty quiet day on Saturday and went out to Out of Africa with the Benders on Sunday for lunch after going to 1 Utama Shopping Centre. We left Out of Africa at about 4 as the clouds started rolling in and went to their place for one more drink. One more turned into a few more and we were there till after midnight. We are really going to miss them next year!

Another great unplanned margarita night with the Bender family; a drink at Tom, Dick & Harry's before karaoke with Kate,Al and  Corinn; dressed up for Deepaval; love the teacups at BIG cafe; IKEA purchases.

Week 49: Nov 19 to 25

I had lunch at Levain with Cathy, then we did a bit of shopping for Christmas presents on Monday.
Tuesday I went on a lego advent calendar search at Mid Valley, which was a success!! I got the Friends advent calendar for Danae (I had already got the Stars Wars one for Lachlan at Legoland). The kids got their calendars in the afternoon, as it's 25 days until we leave. We met up with Kate, a collegue of Steve's who we knew from Sydney and took her to Jalan Alor.
On Wednesday I did a drawing workshop with a lady I had met at one of the expat Christmas bazaars. It was really interesting and we learnt about relaxing through doodling, right and left brain, and we did some zantangling. That night I took Kate and Corrine (who was also here instructing, and Steve knew from ADFA) to ladies night at the Traders.
Thursday we had a High Comm spouses morning tea, again at Levain. Then I met up with a scrapbooking aquiantance who was here in Malaysia for a wedding. We had a coffee and did some shopping around Bukit Bintang.
Danae came home with an award on Friday and Steve and I went out for dinner at Frangipani. Ever since I had gone there with the girls, I had wanted to take Steve.
We had a quiet morning on Saturday, then we took Kate out to Bukit Melawti to see some monkeys, Chinese seafood dinner on the river and a river cruise to see the fireflies at Kuala Selangor. It was a great night!
Sunday we went to Chinatown in the morning and a Chrismas party at Rod and Gail's in the afternoon.

Week 48: nov 12 to 18

Danae was home from school Monday with conjunctivitis, not as bad as Lachlan had it though. We had an Indian feast for dinner, prepared by our maid Lakshmi for us and our neighbours for Deepavali.
Tuesday was Deepavali and Steve and the kids had a public holiday. We went a Deepavali open house for lunch. Tan Sri Tan Sri was also there an insisted I take a photo with him and his 'twin' (Lachlan). Steve and the kids also enjoyed boar ribs again. Later in the afternoon we went to IKEA for one last look, but it was so busy so we just had a look around the Curve and went to Bubba Gumps for dinner.
Steve had the day off Wednesday as well and Danae was well enough to go back to school. Steve and I went to Midvalley Mall and had lunch and a pitcher of Long Island iced tea at Finnegans.
Thursday was another public holiday. We didn't do a lot, Steve had some work to do and Danae and I made the cake for lamingtons.
Friday Danae stayed home from school because even though her eyes were better, she was not supposed to swim and junior school swimming was on all day. She helped me ice lamingtons, we made 200 for international night that night. We also had some mini pies delivered. Steve was home early to help Michael set up for the night and Toni and I went later. It was a good night, the Australian beer, wine and ginger beer were all a hit, as we're the pies, lamingtons and Anzac biscuits. One of The highlights of the night was Kim, the Korean student dancing gangnam style.
Saturday was pretty quiet and on Sunday we went up to Genting Highlands to have a look around. It was very drizzly and we stayed inside and walked through the labyrinth of hotels, casinos, shops and restaurants. The kids weren't that impressed with the rides at the indoor theme park, so we didn't bother with those. They did go into SnowWorld where it was -6 degrees. We didn't stay there too long and weren't that impressed, but as our time here starts to draw to an end it was another thing to cross off the list.