After the excitement of Langkawi, Mia, Lochy and I have settled back into life in Penang. Meeting up with Goody in the afternoon, back to the homestead late late late, making the most of the evenings out of the sun and then sleeping in late in the cool of the air conditioning! Mia managed to sleep til 10am yesterday and even Lochy slept til 9am which is unheard of! I guess it really doesn't matter what our body clocks are telling us because tomorrow we will throw them back into confusion by flying home to the UK.......to the 10 degrees of the UK. But we are prepared! We have bought trainers, our hats and scarves were washed and ready in Australia and the suitcases have been re packed with things we won't need (bikinis, flip flops, shorts etc) in the don't need to take to Jersey bag and fleeces, jeans and socks in the need as soon as we get there bag.
I experienced a pleasure pain type experience by having a Thai massage a couple of days ago. I had pulled a muscle I my neck quite badly so I knew that it wouldn't be as relaxing as normal, but yikes, I wasn't expecting an experience like that!
Pleasure: having half an hour away from the kids and walking into the most exquisite Thai spa! Pain: the sound of having a Thai lady crunch my painful shoulder muscles over my shoulder blade and laughing in a singsong voice "sorr-rry" as she sees and hears my reaction. Which, incidentally would have been much louder if there hadn't been another woman enjoying a relaxing foot rub in the chair next to me. Clearly, she hadn't pulled a muscle in her foot as it looked a most enjoyable experience.
Two days later, however, my shoulder and neck feel like there was nothing wrong in the first place, so I'm a happy (Easter) bunny.
The next pleasure pain experience was taking my kids and Johannes for a walk to the nature reserve here in Penang. It seemed like a good idea at the time and the pleasure part was hearing the kids encourage each other along in the humidity and heat by making creative storied about finding giants and dragons along the way. Seeing monkeys in the trees and enjoying the sounds of the rainforest.
The pain came in about an hour and 15 minutes into the walk when they realised they'd have to walk back and their energy flagged. Luckily half an hour later and a man came running towards us shouting not to let the kids go any further as the monkeys were grabbing bags and being aggressive.
Apparently they could also give a nasty bite, so as a gang of about ten monkeys sat on the rope bridge separating us and the entrance to the nature park, we at least got a short rest whilst we decided what to do. As they dared us to go trip-trapping over their bridge, I donned a long stick ( as recommended by the rangers) and stood my ground ( also recommended DO NOT RUN!) Clearly if Mark had been there I would have been hiding behind him but in the absence of an alpha male I banged my stick and shouted 'shoo' and other alpha male type shouts of warning. At which point, alpha male monkey ran at me bearing his teeth and growling. At which point, the two men with us ran off screaming.
I'm glad to report that the monkeys saw the errors of their way and let us pass and the kids got that extra adrenaline rush which got them home quickly and without moaning so much....well I bet you were wondering why I said "luckily" when describing how a man came running towards us. Every cloud has a silver adrenaline rush of a lining!