Living without ome letter

o, mung tell me I hve to updte my keybord driver. Peronlly, I think tht i  lot of B. ometime key on my lptop work, other time they imply don't...

Now I m hmmering wy on ome key, hoping tht there i till live in them. My emil onvertion with them pn 3 week nd they re unble to jut ell me how muh it i to rple the keybord.

Of quiet dogs and noisy places

The idea was to move to a place where there is less traffic. Not that difficult considering that right down from the bedroom was a major traffic artery with 5 lanes. Now that this is 40 Km away, it is dogs that keep me awake. Strangely, dogs would be sleeping most of the day, not bothering with anyone passing by. Wait till night falls.

The other day the "Outdoor Dog" barked for 3 hours at a squirrel across the street. Like that is gonna be a threat to the house or the non-existing valuables in the home.

Barking competitions typically start at 3am and will last for hours. Don't you love it when your folks communicate?

So, off I go to meet people in a Restaurant / Bar. Nice and relaxing as many (if not most) people are too busy staring at their smartphones and hardly talk to each other.

Biggest news this week is a missing plane. Now, how can a plane vanish without ANY trace. Give it 2 or 3 years and someone will make a movie out of this.

Reset - Third time

Finally. With a bit (more) pushing from the missus, I have finally signed up for a gym membership again. And it HURTS! I can feel every beer and Gin+Tonic of the last five years.

Just a light training of the upper body yesterday and today I am totally stiff (Normal days I am just stiff as any personal trainer that has ever assessed me will certify).

Now the goal is to get back into the shape I was in when we left Hong Kong in 2006.
This is, by the way, the third time that I am starting from scratch on this. Never getting easier, isit?

That black, dark hole

Five years. It started with Floyd saying "Assess what you have. Not in terms of money, but other things and your abilities!" From there sprung the idea to start Launchpad. What it meant was a lot of polishing door-knobs and meeting people and long hours on weekends. It also meant "entertaining" clients. Read "Getting drunk in the presence of people that may sign a cheque".

While the business took off, the fitness level nose-dived. The 5Km run previously used to wam up is now a major obstacle. However, as we are now settled, I am getting back into shape and out of that black dark hole. Went for a work-out with Kamlesh on my last trip to Hong Kong. What would have been an easy warm up routine a feew years back had me at the point where I was about to just walk out on the training...

New running shoes are ready and tomorrow morning I am breaking them in. Time to get back on track. But first we are going to have Mojitos on the front lawn of the house. Cheers!

A German lives here

After we decorated all the interior of our house, we are now busy with the outsite. Centerpiece is of course the Barbeque (Neighbors already asking "BBQ agaiiiinnn??"). Typically, the evenings are spend with the porch on a Gin + Tonic. Especially fun when the thunder rolls in from the nearby coast. No, I am not going to post my new address here so that anyone can scout the place and plan to steal my TV. Neither am I going to post dates when I am travelling. I leave that to teenage kids to post on their Facebook that they are alone at home.

Adding some German-ness to the place, we got us some of the Gartenzwerge for the outside grass patch. Looking cool and making sure no one dumps litter!

Now's the season again. I got myself a BBQ!
And it is not standing still. In the first 8 days after the purchase, we already had it fired up 4 times. While that is not a record for me, it is not a bad number.

We have now settled in and we are having fun being different. Everyone else is parking their car under the carport. We have hour dining table there. Hey, other people pay to have the "Al Fresco" feeling when they have their dinner...

House: moved

We thought we arrive in Kuala Lumpur, rent a place for a year and then put down the money for an own place. Well, the World Economic Crisis had other plans and the one year went on to become 5. Finally, last year we plonked down all the money we had, pawned the family silver and we are now proud owners of a house.

The key ingredient still has to be obtained: the Barbeque. I am eying a steel-cylinder type thing that will light the sky and drive the neighborhood mad with the smell of steaks and Bratwurst.

House-warming party slated for mid July.