I feel like the BBC … and now here is today’s weather in Miri. Heavy rain overnight and still raining when I left for the office at 6:30, thus first use of an umbrella was required. The little football pitch I spotted on the first day had large pools of standing water and was occupied by a flock of white egrets.
Lots of admin today as I start the process of registration in Malaysia and work in SSB, as usual you just never have enough passport photographs, the demand for photo ID seems insatiable. I met many of the members of my team all of whom seem nice but I have some challenges, between failing hearing and east Malaysian English accents, as I communicate with them.
Got my new laptop, thus now 3 in the hotel room in total, and more importantly my new phone a spanking new Nokia with every feature you could possibly need ( so why do I feel a bit like a Luddite and want to keep my nice simple 6310i…. ).
I had lunch at the Piasau boat club, great location and they still use bar/restaurant chits ( shades of Ras al Hamra ). Quite a varied menu but apparently quite static, there was supposed to be a new menu introduced in October but that has yet to materialise. Anyway I had a Tuna and Chickpea salad which was very good. The noodles also looked good, and I am sure that over the next few months I'll have lots of chances to sample the different options.
This afternoon I met up with the housing administrator and found out that I was 48th on the waiting list for the camp houses thus could have up to 2 years to wait for a house on camp. The good news is that I am over the housing points threshold thus get access to Cat A houses ( essentially everything other than the management houses ). Thus not so good news on the camp houses but better news on Taman Bayshore; I am the only person looking for a house at present, there are 4 available now and another 3 become available in November. There are two styles which are very similar other than the addition of balconies in the later houses, given the restricted garden space I think I will opt for one of the balconied houses.
So that’s it for today…
Lots of admin today as I start the process of registration in Malaysia and work in SSB, as usual you just never have enough passport photographs, the demand for photo ID seems insatiable. I met many of the members of my team all of whom seem nice but I have some challenges, between failing hearing and east Malaysian English accents, as I communicate with them.
Got my new laptop, thus now 3 in the hotel room in total, and more importantly my new phone a spanking new Nokia with every feature you could possibly need ( so why do I feel a bit like a Luddite and want to keep my nice simple 6310i…. ).
I had lunch at the Piasau boat club, great location and they still use bar/restaurant chits ( shades of Ras al Hamra ). Quite a varied menu but apparently quite static, there was supposed to be a new menu introduced in October but that has yet to materialise. Anyway I had a Tuna and Chickpea salad which was very good. The noodles also looked good, and I am sure that over the next few months I'll have lots of chances to sample the different options.
And this is the view of the beach to the left of the boat club itself.
This afternoon I met up with the housing administrator and found out that I was 48th on the waiting list for the camp houses thus could have up to 2 years to wait for a house on camp. The good news is that I am over the housing points threshold thus get access to Cat A houses ( essentially everything other than the management houses ). Thus not so good news on the camp houses but better news on Taman Bayshore; I am the only person looking for a house at present, there are 4 available now and another 3 become available in November. There are two styles which are very similar other than the addition of balconies in the later houses, given the restricted garden space I think I will opt for one of the balconied houses.So that’s it for today…
