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Hi all!

Everybody at Opito seems pleased with my not-for-profit report- thank goodness because it was hard work!

Now my role is to identify and contact other industry bodies to make them aware of our presence and our remit so far in Asia. There’s interesting things happening in Thailand and Indonesia for Opito and we are hoping success with our neighbours will start the ball rolling in Malaysia. The national oil company here, Petronas, is VERY nationalistic and very hesitant to allow any foreign companies to have any influence. Thus I am here, bonding with other Malaysian industry organisations who will hopefully sing our praises to Petronas! Also, I will be arranging meetings with government ministers to talk about Opito in Malaysia. Phew!

Time has flown by and I can’t believe I’ve been here so long already and how much I’ve learnt in that time! There’s always so much to do, someone to help out, that 5 o’clock just appears so suddenly!

I can’t really talk any more about the work due to confidentiality but I’ve certainly done a lot more exploring last week!

My parents came to visit on Wednesday. I took them to the Twin Towers and let them have their first real Asian curry. Yum! We got some groceries (they are a fussy pair) and all crashed out from a long day.

While I spent the day at work, they lay by the pool all day. We went to Central Market so I could let them try the Taiwanese chicken (the staff still remembered me from chatting before!) and so mum could spend far too much money on handbags! I then took her to another shop I have fallen in love with- full of beautiful silk dresses and tops and tunics... once again the women remembered the wee Scottish girl and gave us some nice discounts for coming back. Next stop: Chinatown.

I know I said I hated Chinatown before but this was actually pleasant. Being a weekday and very very late at night, Chinatown was quiet and cool compared to the packed-like-sardines, melting hot crowd I had previously experienced. Needless to say, I kept well clear of the crazy Jimmy Choo woman!  Chinatown’s not so bad during the week...

 Friday night was good as we had ‘sundowners’ after work. Instead of going to the rubbish bar in our office block (and paying through the nose for it), we went back to my apartment and cracked open a bottle of wine. My colleagues and my folks got on great- we had a good laugh about our travels, culture differences and, for the girls, shopping! As the sun began to set, we relocated from the main balcony to the one in my room to watch the pink, purple and blue sunset over Menara KL (the tower). It was beautiful and when the last of the sunlight was gone and the clock hit eight, Menara had its beautiful, colourful light show.

An early night was in order (I know, Friday night...) as we were off to Singapore very early Saturday morning. Managed to sleep on the bus- it was pure luxury with full reclining seats and movies and everything!

So... Singapore. It’s a tiny country- I’m told you can drive East to West in 45mins and North to South in about 20. Wow! It’s very clean and pretty with lots of trees and sculptures decorating the city and adding a bit of colour. There’s so many shopping malls it’s unbelievable- Orchard Road is a huuuge line of them! There must be eight branches of Mango on that street alone!

Little India was nice- a myriad of colour and spices. Beautiful bright and gold tunics sparkled along old bright shophouses. There was a brilliant atmosphere. The Hindu temples were beautiful as well- intricate and colourful small statues of Gods made up the walls of the building! We watched their evening ceremony- it was wonderful. The highlight though had to be the amazing curry we had at a restaurant called Delhi. (Oh dear, I’m turning Malaysian- always thinking about food!)

The next day we did the sightseeing bus tour. It was great- two hours and I think we had covered all the sights! Singapore is like a bigger version of Melaka with all the colourful buildings. It was tres hot and a stop for ice cream was definitely needed... poor dad didn’t realise we’d end up doing so much shopping in Chinatown!

We finished our touristy day with a river cruise that night. Like Melaka, it was so pretty with colour and fairy lights! Very relaxing!

After five weeks in the sunshine, a day at the beach was definitely overdue! After climbing the Merlion at Sentosa, we parked ourselves on the golden sand. It was beautiful but would have been nicer had the sea not been polluted by the hundreds of ships sitting just off the coast...

The result of our beach day out was three lobsters! Despite careful application of sunscreen, we are still walking about in agony! Oops...you know when you’ve been Tangoed!! ;-P

Shopping with sunburn is not the nicest thing to do! On Tuesday we gave up on splashing our cash and went to the Botanic Gardens. It was a beautiful day to roam around the trees, lakes, waterfalls and flowers. We were gutted that Michael Jackson’s orchid can’t be seen due to refurbishment...

A couple of martinis in the park and we were off to sleep on the bus again!

Back to work I went, looking lovely and red and lobsterish... anyone going to Singapore soon- take factor 50 and slap it on!!

It’s nice to be reading all the new blogs now as well- sounds like everyone is having a ball : )