Settling In a Little

How strange it is to stand inside the house and wave goodbye to the Inventor each morning. I have not yet become accustomed to NOT being the one who leaves in the car, nor to being at home all day, having copious amounts of time to clean, organise, run the household finances, and then partake of leisure activities. Leisure, in fact, has been somewhat of a rare commodity in our household for some time, and both of us are still reacquainting ourselves with this old friend. Once we become more settled, when our social lives become more involved, and when I start working or studying or doing whatever I am led to do, life will no doubt become more complicated.

Yesterday I didn't wave goodbye from behind the padlocked screen door. Yesterday, I drove the inventor to work and went in to have a look at his work environment. I sat and spent some time thinking about how I might organise him better. Then I hopped behind the wheel of the car with a long list of possible jobs to do, though it was the last day of the long, long weekend for Hari Raya and I was not sure which shops would be open. At the end of a tiring day I returned, and wiped, filed, labelled and moved until I could think of nothing more to do. The day is marked as successful, although none of the furniture shops were open, nor the post office. I did, however, order a pair of prescription glasses, discover that I can get my medications here, purchase a mountain of stationery supplies, find a number of stores and restaurants I did not know about, discover where to buy hair colour and mousse, and top up some groceries. As each day passes, we become more comfortable in our new environment, and Kampar assumes the happy familiarity that one expects from that place called “home”.

Yesterday is also known as the day I first met another Westerner in Kampar. Not just one, but five in fact, and it may have been more if their other five children had been with them. The Canadian couple and their seven children live in Kampar, and his mother had just arrived for a visit. I stopped to talk to the father, and each of us was surprised that the other was not teaching at the university. They are, in fact, exporters of Thai goods. Generally around town, our skin colour, hair colour, eye colour and accent make us feel a little like the only black sheep in a white flock, a feeling of alienation that is not helped at all by the small local children who stare, unsmiling. The older children look sideways at us with interest, and will usually smile or speak small amounts when prompted, but it still remains that shopping trips are made pleasant by the spontaneous, genuine smiles I receive from adults, mostly from the Moslem ladies, but also many others. The shops have been busy all day and well into every night, as families enjoy the week of school holidays, the end of Ramadan and the four-day weekend, and the normally quiet games arcade by Tesco pulses with noisy excitement.

The Inventor took the opportunity to use the lab unimpeded yesterday. Although the plant continued huffing, puffing and clattering all weekend, in the lab, staff have taken turns to come in for short stints to complete only the necessary tasks over the celebration weekend, and yesterday, none appeared. The inventor has failed in his two weeks here to grasp the intricacies of lab staffing and operation, but then he is not really a part of the lab, he is using the lab. His status at the lab is a grey area, though we noted with interest his position at the top of the white board and his exclusive use of what would be the closest thing to a corner office in this building.

The four lab staff are all Malays, and therefore Moslem, and with their varying grasp of English have all been pleasant and made him feel welcome. Mimi speaks the best English, and was the one who met us and showed us around when we first arrived. She is a little reserved but seems to have a good idea of what goes on in the lab. Ismail is outgoing and enthusiastic, and tries very hard to tell the Inventor all manner of things, which sometimes means a little drive around half the state of Perak. Despite his limited command of English, he has probably been the source of the most information. Rozli is difficult to fathom. He is quiet even amongst other Malays, and we suspect he is a little shy, though his English is better than he would have us believe! The fourth lab assistant is Liza, who I met today for the first time. Alert and attractive, she followed our English conversation attentively and on most occasions was able to answer our barrage of questions, despite her claimed poor English. The four seem to get on very well, friends as well as work colleagues, and have grown up in the area. They are rostered on at various times from morning till late in the evening, to test the finished product from the plant before it is shipped. Lorena, the new lab manager from the Philippines will not arrive for another week. When she does, it is likely that many things will change as she institutes new procedures and introduces a management structure that has not existed before.

The lab itself has numerous small rooms, each dedicated to a particular process or piece of equipment, and if we were to admit that in Cairns the Inventor was starved for space, here he is spoilt in terms of space, equipment and resources. The building itself is as one would expect in this area, that is, shabby and a bit grotty, but sturdy and functional. The fine dust that settles on everything tickles my nose a little. I have only applied for the one job so far, but am content at this stage to be providing “home support”, organising the house and our belongings and finding some rhythm in our daily existence, and “work support”, helping the Inventor with some of the more mundane tasks of creating brilliance, like filing, organising jobs and the workplace, and keeping legible notes. In the future, I will probably desire something more. The ongoing lacklustre performance of our bodies which are obviously still fighting invaders, combined with the strains of moving to a new country, have left us tired and uncharacteristically lethargic. Both of us hope one day to wake up early feeling refreshed and energetic and ready to tackle the future with the vigour it deserves.

Today's blog finishes with some Kampar scenery, some outdoor beauty to add to the last blog's architectural horrors.

View from waterfalls we climbed up to, just near the lab.

Limestone cliffs.

My favourite market location, stalls tucked under craggy limestone formations between Kampar and Gopeng.

A path in cool rainforest, waterfalls and a favourite swimming spot with locals, this place reminds us of Crystal Cascades (though the pools are disappointingly shallow)

We have found somewhere to walk that rivals the Red Arrow!

It was lovely to get outdoors again, but with the unpredictable and plentiful rain, we will probably be relying on the WiiFit for regular exercise, once we get a TV to plug it into.