Moving Along Rapidly

The project (as the invention has come to be known) is moving along rapidly at the moment. A few months ago, it became obvious that with the sheer bulk of administrative tasks to complete, The Inventor was making little progress with the actual tasks of inventing (which actually, at this stage, is running various additional bench-top tests and designing equipment for the small-scale plant, for which a shed on the property has already been allocated). So, I decided to accompany him to the lab twice a week to assist with some of the more mundane tasks in the office, and aside from organising his filing cabinet, office space and paperwork, I am doing some regular communication and financial tasks and assisting with various jobs that are numerous in the early stages of a new company, like creating a website and various procedures and forms. He has also had invaluable assistance from an engineer from our partner company, a man with 30 years' experience in plant design, who regularly comes to assist The Inventor with design and system modelling issues. We are also rushing towards the employment of various additional staff, the first of which started today. By the end of the year the planned staff will total at least five, from engineers to a driver. With these additional staff, progress will grow exponentially, and The Inventor will need to learn new skills as his role moves from “Jack-of-all-trades” to managing a team of professionals, all devoted to making an idea from his head become a commercial reality.

I know some of you would like more information about the science and how it's progressing, and I apologise for being so vague at the moment. With a lot of things “up in the air” and my blog receiving numerous visits from total strangers, I must be intentionally light on facts. Hopefully as we become more advanced in the work The Inventor is doing and as we draw closer to the stage of commercialisation, I will be able to divulge more about the project, what has been achieved and where we are headed. Until then, please be content to know that everything is steaming ahead at almost uncontrollable speed, results are pleasing and we are managing the pace well.

Sunday Exploring

Today was a very different, relaxed and enjoyable Sunday. We decided to stay home rather than driving to Ipoh today, as I have been getting quite tired and a little run-down. We have been quite busy lately, and we also haven't been getting a lot of sleep, so a quieter day was in order. The lack of decent sleep has been in a large part due to the adoption of our little black cat, which we have named Possum. The name, courtesy of fellow Australian Dame Edna Everage, is a reference to the spectacular fluffy “feather duster” on her rear end, a tail which for a Kampar street cat is unusually complete, long and possum-like. She was starving when she landed on our doorstep, but after four weeks here is now growing well though still small. The lack of sleep is the result of the vet not wanting to spay her until she is healthy enough for the general anaesthetic. She is now in her second round of being on heat in two weeks, the yowling and unsettled behaviour being very disruptive to our sleep (and probably everyone else in our neighbourhood, as we live in a townhouse).

Having decided to skip church and Ipoh, we got up fairly early so we could have a bike ride before the heat of the day. Bikes loaded into the tray of the D-Max, we drove a few kilometres up the main road and parked by the bridge over Sungai Kampar (Kampar River). From there, a dirt road leads along the river, and I had explored it once before for a short distance. Our goal today was to continue along the road until the end, and we had a delightful time exploring the kampongs, tin-mine lakes and farms along the green, quiet road. We called “pagi” to all and sundry, raising smiles and replies from the friendly Malay women and men who worked or relaxed outside their homes. After some weaving and turning and agreeing with little concern that we were probably going to become lost or at least well off-course, we emerged at a major road we knew, and interestingly very close to where we had expected to emerge, despite the road we had traversed being unmarked on any map we have access to. After more weaving, exploring, side-tracks, pedalling and “pagis”, we found ourselves back at the car with surprisingly few hiccups. Getting off the beaten track and into nature for the morning (actually, only about 80 minutes, as it turned out, though we had been prepared for longer) was so relaxing and enjoyable, after a rest, a nanna nap and a late lunch of Japanese-style pancakes, we decided to do some more exploring in the D-Max. For three hours we drove here and there, discovering a new development at the back of Bandar Baru which looks like a new city and will house thousands, and then a short-cut through more farming land that will offer an alternative route to Gopeng once the roadworks are finished. Our curiosity, always active, led us down a number of green, shady side-roads and we discovered parts of Malaysia that we never knew we right behind our home. The most interesting were a large fish farm, and a Chinese kampong that we suspected to be one of the “new towns”, fenced villages which were established in the 1950s to house Chinese inhabitants during the communist threat known in Malaysia as “The Emergency”.

The last exploration of the day was to finally explore a road that we have been interested in since a “land for sale” sign appeared some months back. We wound up a rough dirt track, thankful for the high clearance and four-wheel drive, until I dared drive no further, then we clambered on foot up the weathered and eroded remains of road through the wasteland of the of the forgotten subdivision. Now on the market again, we dreamed of building a house there high on the hill looking away from Kampar towards the solemn hills cloaked in deep, dark rainforest, hills that reminded us so much of the dearly-beloved ancient neighbours which hang over our home in Smithfield. As we completed the drive home, the panic returned as I remembered the long list of jobs that I had allocated for Sunday, but this was a day of outdoors, relaxation and exploration in which google had no place, and for that I am happy. Tomorrow life can crowd me in once more.

The highs and lows of visa acquisition

I know that I told you about our trip to Singapore in late October, when our first tourist visa expired after three months, but I have failed to add any updates since, including the exciting news that we now have visas until June 2015, the inventor on a working pass and me on a dependant's pass. The process was slow and frustrating and consumed a lot more of the inventor's time than it should have, but finally we have the pass and can concentrate on the work that should be done. 

The three-month visitor's pass that we obtained in October was due to expire in late January, which was bad timing for us, with so many visitors coming to see us for the big birthday celebrations. So, instead of dashing to the border for a short trip again (a new three-month visitor's pass is usually issued on your return), we decided to visit the immigration office in Ipoh and paid 100 ringgits each for a two-month extension to our visitor's passes. It seemed like a good idea at the time, though we were a little dismayed to have the pass take up a whole page in our brand new passports. Later, we decided it was a bad idea, as it was to prove problematic, and we know a Canadian lady who also had problems returning after having an extension pass in her passport.

The extension allowed us to stay until late April, when we once again had to leave the country. Our daughter Timeka was staying with us at the time, working gratis for the inventor, helping him every day at the lab. We decided to make a nice trip with sightseeing, and chose Siem Reap in Cambodia. The trip was delightful, and we found the Cambodian people friendly and the food lovely. We only had two days there, but managed to have our fill of ancient temples, as well as a sampling of culture, silk weaving, massage and shopping. The most famous temple is, of course, Angkor Wat, but we also enjoyed Bayon Temple with its hundreds of Buddha faces, and especially Ta Promh, exotically entwined in the roots of enormous fig trees, mysterious and exciting. The trip was more expensive that we had anticipated, and twice we visited the ATM to get more US dollars for our transactions there. The local currency is mostly used for lower-value transactions and to give change for less than one dollar (US coins aren't used). Transactions under one dollar US aren't common for tourists- cheaper items will be offered in multiples for a dollar.

Resting briefly in a cool doorway at Ta Promh- it was an exhaustingly hot day.

An alarming number of disabled people hang around Siem Reap, drawn by the opportunity to work for tourist dollars. Few of them beg, preferring to play in small orchestras like this one, or sell books or other nick nacks to tourists. Many are the victims of Khmer Rouge landmines, which are still claiming lives and limbs.

Cambodia is so close to Malaysia, but worlds away culturally and developmentally. While airconditioned taxis exist, tuk tuks are also prolific and cheap.

We landed back in KL airport just before midnight on the Sunday night, after an enjoyable weekend away. We had hoped that the immigration officials would be tired and happy to stamp our passports once again, but this was not to be. Timeka had no problems getting a new tourist pass, and I also was granted one after a brief discussion on the topic of the whole-page pass. The inventor, however, was not so lucky, and the lady that he approached was reticent to allow him passage into the country at all. He was marched off to another office, and returned not too much later with a 28-day pass. Immigration had figured that if his working pass was imminent as he claimed, 28 days would be sufficient to complete the necessary paperwork for this. As the 28 days ticked past, however, it became obvious that we were not going to have the paperwork and bank account for the newly-created company ready for his employment pass. Company registration was complete, but we still had job descriptions, company structures, job offers and numerous other paperwork to create, and each visit to Putra Jaya by the office girl resulted in new information and new list of papers to procure.

21 years goes so quickly!

A rare mothers' Day with my Mum, daughter and sisters.

The inventor's pass would expire mid-April, just days before we were due to fly to Australia for our son's 21st birthday party. We decided that the easiest course of action would be to fly a few days earlier, especially as the inventor was achieving little work while being consumed with the task of acquiring a visa. We flew to Australia and had a very busy time visiting family and friends in Brisbane, Cairns and the Gold Coast, then paid yet more money to alter the return flights, the inventor to stay a few extra days for a specialists appointment and me another week to help Timeka move house. It was to be almost another month before everything was completed for our long-term visas, which arrived in Kampar with little fanfare but great excitement on our part. The very last problem we had with the visa acquisition was in offering our original wedding certificate at Immigration Department. The original was not sufficient, and the poor girl from KL office had to travel across town to the Australian Embassy to acquire what immigration wanted, which was a copy of the certificate, stamped to verify that it was a true copy. Malaysians are certainly fond of "chopping", the term they use for a rubber stamp.They've obviously been taking lessons from either Australia or Great Britain in the refinement of bureaucratic procedures and paperwork.

We now have no good excuses for another international trip, though we would like to take a short trip to Vietnam, so maybe will break with tradition and actually take some of the public holidays that are coming up after Ramadan. The Moslem month of fasting will start on the 9th July. Hari Raya is the celebration at the end of Ramadan, and the four-day weekend will be in mid-August, so for now we will be looking at some hard work and hopefully some good breakthroughs in the lab.

Observing from within- language and conversation

They're all speaking Cantonese. I can tell they're having fun- the smiles, the good-natured banter, the back-and-forward exchanges are universal language for good times and friendship. I'm sitting in the hairdressers, as this friendly yabber ebbs and flows around me, my hair shrouded in plastic and clips as the potion works its magic on the silver-and-brown-and-blonde mess of locks. I don't mind that I can't understand the words, because the other language I can understand- I've heard it in Australian salons. They're speaking of their kids, of the weather, of current events and politics. They're sharing happy occasions and joking about the strangeness of life.

Cantonese sounds nice to us. It isn't as harsh as Mandarin, and sometimes it flows so smoothly, I have to listen carefully to make sure they're not speaking Malay. The lady's voice is louder, higher and harsher, but the young man has a deep, soporific voice, and at this late stage of the afternoon, I close my eyes drowsily. I haven't heard many deep voices in Malaysia, and when I do, my attention is always drawn to them.

There is only one conversation now, and as all three of them laugh, I wonder what was said. I'm enjoying my separation, the detachment that comes from not being able to understand, and am appreciating the privilege of observing from outside. They don't expect me to join in, and I make no attempt to do so.

The same observation from within occurs at netball. Even though I can't play until I have my knee repaired, I still go now and then to see my friends. I sit amongst them, watching and listening as they yabber in Malay about family and home, schools and community. Unlike the Chinese, I pick up snippets of the Malay, usually only an isolated word or two, and rarely understanding enough to follow the gyst of the conversation. Unlike the conversation in the salon, however, I don't sit and observe contentedly. I am trying to learn more Malay, and I want to join in. I get frustrated at the speed they talk, and annoyed at myself for not understanding more. These are my friends and I want to know what is happening in their lives, and I want them to take the time to explain slowly and carefully. It's not that I get left out altogether- Asma will explain  in English when I ask- it's that I want to be a part of the conversation, not an aside to the conversation. For now, I'll keep doing our twice-weekly English/ Bahasa Melayu lessons (I teach the lab ladies English, they help me with Bahasa Melayu), and I'll keep practicing and learning, and maybe one day soon I will surprise them all when I join in. Until then, I'll be the privileged outsider observing from within.

How the other half live

The more progress is made on the project, the sooner the invention will be off the ground, commercialised, being used, and ultimately, making money. So, we try not to take off too much time, and try to make the time that we have as productive as possible. To help the inventor focus his time on the technical side of things, I am now going to the lab 2 days a week, to help with organising the office and doing some of the simpler jobs. The inventor rarely leaves the lab before 7pm, and while he says his brain needs "downtime", can often seen in bed later at night reading articles with titles I couldn't even hope to repeat. He tries to work at the lab on Saturdays also, if we are at home. It's hard to devote weekends to work, though, when we are living in a new and interesting country with so many places to discover, and we are often away on weekends. He also loves to spend time on Saturdays with me, and I'm grateful that he's still as devoted to me as he is to his new project. Sundays are our day off, usually busy days in Ipoh, so he doesn't get many quiet days at home.

This month we have been away a lot. The first Saturday of the month, we went to Port Klang to meet up with my parents for the day while their cruise ship was in port. The second Saturday of the month, I had decided we needed some culture, and we spent the weekend in Kuala Lumpur taking in a band concert and two plays. We had a weekend at home, then the fourth weekend just passed was another weekend away. We left as soon as we were packed on Saturday morning, as our 28th wedding anniversary fell on that day. It took us four hours to drive to Berjaya Hills, as we stopped for drinks and fuel, then again for drinks at a cute Malay stall after we had left the expressway, and then for a delightful lunch at a Chinese restaurant, I think in Batang Kali. The driving component we estimate to be about 2 and a half hours, but we were in no hurry.

The Chateau, Berjaya Hills

Our room at The Chateau was ready for us when we checked in a little before 2pm, and we were thrilled that we didn't have to check out again until 2pm, giving us a whole 24 hours in our delightful spa suite. Often we do little more for our anniversary than a special meal at home or at a restaurant, so booking the spa suite was a real treat, and not a thing about this stay disappointed us. The whole anniversary celebration was brilliant, even matching up to our 25th anniversary which was spent at a castle-hotel (Parador) in Spain. In fact, it was particularly reminiscent of that anniversary, as The Chateau has been styled off a particular French chateau and is very castle-like. I was quite impressed with the architect's ability to blend the haphazard chateau style with modern, crisp finishes. Our room was lovely, with a spacious bathroom, and doors from both the bedroom and large sitting room opened to a large deck where we had our own lounge chairs and spa bath. I had plannned to make it to the pool for a swim, but with such a wonderful private space right at our door, we didn't see the need.

 

We did, however, leave the room for dinner, where the brilliant, attentive service was even more pronounced, as we were the only guests in the restaurant. A number of treats "compliments of the chef" made their way to our table, along with the duck and poussin we ordered, and our dessert, raspberry souffle and a chocolate dish. Despite the lovely piano entertainment and wonderful food, the highlight for us, somewhat ironically, were the bread rolls. Fresh and soft with a crispy crust, we have had nothing as superb since we landed in Malaysia. The Malaysian bread never fails to disappoint us. Often sweet (especially the white loaves) and usually dry, even the bread we have bought at specialist bakeries and patisseries has been disappointing. The two things that set apart this hotel from others we have been to were the polite and always available service, and the bread.

A lovely little treat that appeared in our room!

Breakfast was equally thrilling, not just for the made-to-order omelettes, waffles and pancakes, but because the same bread rolls were served. It is the first buffet I have attended where I did not need to leave my seat once. My coffee cup was not empty for more than 30 seconds, and even when I tested the staff's attentiveness by sending away my cultlery on a used plate, the clean cutlery appeared immediately. My only complaint of the hotel would be that we were not able to get any exercise, for when we mentioned we would go to the nearby Colmar Tropicale, a busier, livlier hotel complex where there are shops and more restaurants, they insisted on driving us and also magically appeared with a car as we were walking back. I did, however, manage the complimentary yoga class at the hotel, for which my shoulders are still suffering.

On "our" balcony

We've stayed at 5-star hotels before, but this level of personal, attentive service is not something we have experienced before, and being looked after so well is something we could get used to!

The disappointing smoke haze courtesy of the Indonesians this weekend. Straight ahead is Colmar Tropicale, The Chateau is to the right.

Progress report

Some of you are wondering how things are going with the inventor's project, so I thought it would be good to fill you in a little on progress to date.

Work on the invention continues to go well, and results have been pleasing. However, I worry about the Malaysian partner's impatience to see results and the inventor's lack of capacity to fully explain to him the requirements of the project and projected timeline. Progress was bound to be slow, given that the total manpower hours input on the project cannot exceed the number of hours the inventor has in a week. This will change soon, as I have committed to spending two days a week at the lab helping with office tasks, and the inventor has been given the go-ahead to hire a part-time research assistant. We may also soon be hiring a qualified Malaysian as Director of Research, which will really improve the pace of progress. Of course, between January and April, the two weeks we had our son working here with the inventor, the three weeks he employed an engineering student for vacation practice (called "internship" here) and the 6 or 7 weeks our daughter was working there were a lot more productive times.

The other major factor that is slowing us down is the painfully long time it takes to get any parts here. We had hoped that in an industrial area we would have access to a range of competent, experienced manufacturers, however this has not been the case. It is very difficult in Malaysia to find specialised businesses, and being new here, we don't have access to a range of contacts and prior knowledge, which unfortunately is the mian way Malaysian businesses seem to attract customers. Internet and phone searches are useless, as is asking someone (as you would in Australia), "If you can't do it, do you know someone who can?" One major breakthrough came when our dear friend Desmond took the time to introduce us to a client of his, and we found a major business in Ipoh that we hadn't realised even existed. It took us many months to find the biggest and best hardware store in Ipoh, the only store in the entire district that would come within 50% of the stock range of Bunnings. Stores don't necessarily stock the same things that they would in Australia, either, and stores don't necessarily come in the same specialties that they do in Australia, so the store you are searching for might not necessarily exist.

Another problem is getting the correct thing made when we have found the manufacturer that seems to be right for the job. The first issue might be a case of "Malaysia, boleh!" Malaysians love to please ("boleh" means "can"), but I do wish a company would either admit to not being able to do what has been asked, or if they are concerned about the amount of work and the cost, tell us outright that it's going to be expensive. Because the fact is, sitting around for a month waiting for a part that isn't coming is also expensive. It's frustrating and really slows down progress when we are told a part is being made and it isn't. The inventor spends inordinate amounts of time ringing to check, driving to Ipoh to check, re-explaining, sitting at their plant and demonstrating. To some extent, asking for one-off pieces that have never been made before is going to be tricky, but it doesn't need to be so slow. Communicating with people in what is their second or third language is difficult in person and even harder on the phone, and people avoiding his phone calls or hanging up when they hear an English-speaker only makes the communication difficulties more frustrating.

After all this whinging, though, we have some equipment working and the inventor is working on the next stage of the prototype now. The application for Malaysian government funding has been completed, and now we wait to see if, or how much, financial assistance will come from this development fund. Initial contact has been promising, and they seem keen to be involved. Even a small amount of extra cash injection will speed things up, but we are hopeful to get enough funding to get many things happening simultaneously. He is also getting some vauable regular assistance from one of the senior managers of the partner company, and things seem to be rolling along faster, so the future is looking busy and promising.

The inventor often works on a Saturday, though not every Saturday. We are enjoying seeing the country and try to get away somewhere at least once a month, though this month is busy with three weekends away, so next month will need to be more subdued. Sundays are ours for leisure, and if we're not away somewhere, we drive to Ipoh for church, then usually go out for lunch with friends from church. Lunch often doesn't finish until 2pm, but then we might go and see a movie, or go shopping, or both. Ipoh is big and there are a lot of specialty stores, and even the supermarkets stock a wider range than our little Tesco in Kampar. Occasionally we do some sightseeing around Ipoh. When our daughter was staying here and working with the inventor, one Sunday we did some driving around and had a closer look at the marble mine, and another we went with swimming gear to a delightful creek we had discovered. Even in this popular swimming spot, we were able to enjoy a swimming hole to ourselves.

Promising, exciting, successful and frustrating. I think that sums it up.

Not-so-feverish rantings and more family

Today I'm finally feeling quite a bit better, after days and days of feverish blur. My mind has been a little lost without a body to take it places, but even my thoughts have tossed and turned as my body took on the ominous charge of killing the millions of viruses that came and stayed like unwanted houseguests. With my inpatience, three days in bed seems like a month, so today I am feeling somewhat cheery that I have been able to do some things.

The ship docked in Port Klang

Now I am left hoping and praying that the vigilance of the inventor and myself was sufficient to keep the germs to ourselves, because many weeks before we had arranged to meet up with my parents on Saturday. They are travelling on a big cruise liner around the world, or, as my father puts it, "going from Brisbane to Sydney on a boat". It's more than 100 days, and the second port of call was Port Klang, the port for Kuala Lumpur, last Saturday. We'd stayed the night in KL, having been there a good part of the previous day sorting out things in the office, so we just did the one hour drive to Port Klang to be there at the pre-arranged meeting time of 10.30am. They were ready and waiting, though not, as I had assumed, to go sightseeing. Their shopping list included shoes for my 80-year-old father and a glasses chain for mother, coffee, beer and a few other essentials. There was also the drama of my mother's tooth, as she had lost a sizeable filling and needed a dentist. The difficulty was compunded by the fact that it was not only a Saturday, it was a public holiday, so I suck my nose into my ailing Galaxy S and started google searching and phoning to no avail. Imagine our surprise and delight when the inventor suddenly pulled the car into a u-turn and suggested, "Let's try this dentist", then our further delight when he wandered back out to the car two minutes later and announced, "He can do a filling right now".

Not the day I was expecting in Port Klang, though we did manage to fit in all the sights I was hoping to visit, as the entire list of things worth seeing, all three of them, were within a few blocks of each other, and there really was little point getting out of the car to look at them. It left us time to fit another saga into what was left of the afternoon- the saga of the ice blended. I'd had a coffee ice blended for breakfast earlier in the morning, and my mother decided she'd like one. She also hadn't eaten lunch, so we pulled into a shopping centre and found a park. The four of us hobbled in, the 80-year old with the injured back, his elderly wife (perhaps the most sprightly of the group), the red-nosed and sniffly inventor, and me limping, my injured knee stirred up from the morning's shopping escapades. The shopping centre eventuated to be smaller than it had promised, and there weren't any specialty drink stores. From the meagre selection of food outlets, though, we did find one with ice blendeds on the menu, so in we went and found a table. Unfortunately, today they weren't serving ice blendeds, in fact, they only had juice or coffee. Up and wandering again, our searching led us to the first floor where we found another place. Yes, they were serving coffee ice blended. Yes, please, she'd like a one, we'd like Tiramisu ice blendeds, and also and a plate of chips. The tiramisu blendeds came first, and the inventor and I had only just put our germy lips to the straws when the waiter reappeared. He was sorry, but the machine had broken and they couldn't make the coffee ice blended. My mother settled for an iced coffee. I hope she managed to find a coffee ice blended in Langkawi, which would be their stop the following day, after sailing through the night. In our hot climate, ice blended is the most refreshing culinary highlight of Malaysia.

The Sultan's Palace, Port Klang. I wouldn't mind living there!

This mosque, which we just happened upon, was far nicer than the dull one that my DK guidebook said was a "must-see".

We enjoyed each other's company despite me using half a tube of antispetic hand wash. It has only been a few weeks since we saw them in Brisbane, but bonus day was a delight, as we probably won't see any family now until Christmas. It was a more relaxed and enjoyable way to see family than having 11 of them come to visit at once! For Christmas we are planning to head back to Brisbane, though our life is so unpredictable and uncertain right now, I will not say we'll definitely be there, even though I have booked the flight. We will all have to wait till later in the year to know about that!

 

We drove home via The Blue Mosque in Shah Alam, a truly beautiful sight in the late-afternoon sun.

 The minarets are said to perhaps be the tallest in the world, and

The mosque is the one of the largest in southeast Asia.