8 days a week

Phew, it's amazing how busy one can remain when you have to squeeze in plenty of sun-bathing, swimming, cocktails and shopping into each day.  We are officially installed into our new condo, pics to come but waiting until we get some furniture first.  In the mean time, this is where I enjoy my daily swim, a mere twenty feet from our front door.

Shopping in KL puts any American city to shame.  There are so many malls I can't keep them straight, they have all blended into one.  And it's never just one mall, it's usually about 4 malls linked together or at the very least is a 'megamall' which includes grocery, hardware stores etc.  It's nice that you can get anything your heart desires (I have already located Banana Republic as well as blue corn tortilla chips and chipotle en adobo) but there is no such thing as a quick trip to the store.  Parking and then weaving your way through these places takes ages.  This is not at all helped by the fact that they have scattered the stairs, elevators and escalators all over the place so there is no direct route up or down - the idea is that this make you walk around and therefore shop more.  It makes me irritable, not want to shop and one can only hope one of these places never goes up in flames because there is no way out.

Fortunately, we have now acquired just about enough of the bare essentials so that we don't have to make daily shopping trips.  We did our first big grocery shop yesterday which literally took hours.  It's going to take me a while to crack the logic behind supermarket organization in the part of the world, because as far as I can tell there is none.  There also seems to be an irritating setup in which you have to get all unpackaged fruit and veg weighed and priced before you pay, cosmetics and medicine often must be paid for separately as well.  Food prices however are a real treat.  We got just over a kilo of fresh clams for about $1, Dover Sole was going for $6 a kilo, fresh Tiger Prawns are basically free ($0.80 for about 4 meals worth) and we got 8 squid for about the same. 

I also got a huge kick out of what we like to call the 'sin section' of the supermarket.  They have stashed all pork and booze away in a corner away from everything else.  Beer and bacon, yum.  Unfortunately, beer prices are roughly what they are at home - even slightly more expensive, and wine (a lot of it terrible wine) is outrageously pricey.