Celebrating good times and good friends!

Penang, Penang!

Jet lag. Back in August, I thought I had discovered the solution: sleep little on the plane, stay up until midnight upon your return and hey presto! Unfortunately, that hasn’t worked out this time. Despite my better efforts, the New Year’s and welcome back celebrations led to some late nights and even later starts, so that by the time I had to get to sleep for work, I found myself tucking myself into bed having been awake for less than eight hours. Somewhat surprisingly, I was fast asleep by 10:30. But not for long. By midnight, I was awake again and stayed that way until my alarm went off at 5:50am… “Oh well,” I told myself, “I’ve had a few good long sleeps over the weekend. And at least I’ll get a decent night’s rest later as I’ll be so very tired, surely.” All  I needed to do was to stay awake until around 9pm then a full and uninterrupted slumber would await. Alas…

“We should go to the pool,” Grace suggested, after work that evening. “I can never sleep by the pool: it’s too uncomfortable.”

Turns out she could. And so could I. But only for half an hour or so, while Daniel, at the opposite end of the relaxation pendulum, went to gym. After a breezy Taco Tuesday tea, I was safely ensconced in bed by half past nine and asleep before ten. Unfortunately, at the stroke of midnight, once again I found myself wide awake like some kind of insomniac Cinderella. And so I remained until gone 5am, bar a few short moments before the alarm tore me from a mercilessly short sleep.

By the weekend I had managed to return some balance and, if not catch up, at least get some actual sleep. Unfortunately, there wouldn’t be a chance to use the weekend to recover as we were off to celebrate my pre-birthday weekend in Penang.

Penang is about halfway up the coast of Western Malaysia from KL and known for its Unesco heritage George Town with colonial two and three storey buildings filled with cafes, restaurants and shops and decorated in all sorts of beautiful bright colours. Like many 18th and 19th century cities, George Town appears to be built on a grid, making it very easy to navigate the lively, colourful streets and make our way to the jetties which reach out into the Malaysian peninsula, their wooden boards populated with shacks which served as shops, stalls and restaurants. Our Tour Guide Tom™️ somewhat unreliably informed me that each jetty was traditionally owned by a clan, each of whose members were entitled to use of the jetty to load and unload their wares in times gone by. Then, as time went on, these shops and stalls sprung up to offer their hospitality to tourists and visitors. Later, when we were walking the bustling Armenian Street and surrounds, we saw the clan houses where they would have met and conducted their business. It was all incredibly interesting, even if it was couched in Tom’s admission that it may not be entirely accurate.

The rest of the weekend was a wonderful blur. There were (more) lubricated lunches, snacks and dinners as well as wandering and whiling away the time in the most pleasant manner and company.

As I sat in the airport with D’n’G and waited for the return flight, which we brought forward in order to (hopefully) get a good night’s rest before work, I reflected on previous plans for the imminent marking of the anniversary of another year on this glorious planet. It’s a bigger birthday than usual, in as much as it ends in a zero, and many dear friends back home are reaching the same milestone. At no point during our plans and conversations this time last year had my friends and I contemplated a trip to George Town or even if we’re honest continental Europe. And yet, here we are! …in the company of new, dear and delightful friends and with a happy heart- doing the previously unthinkable! And I just cannot describe how grateful I am for it.