The first two years here in Malaysia went by in a kind of blur. There was so much to learn, so many new projects and courses to get started, so much to see, so many new people to meet and cultures to understand. We are grateful to the folks at TWR Canada who have so supportive of Pam’s work here. But there was a lot to learn about her responsibilities, traveling, how to access reimbursement for expenses. Steve is still teaching new courses for which new lessons have to be prepared.

In addition there was a lot back in Canada that we had to learn to manage from afar. We are grateful to Sarah and Milan who look after our wee apartment, our friends who still drop by our website from time to time and especially our family who have been rock solid while we have been out galivanting around Asia. If we can ever get Canada Revenue sorted out we will consider ourselves to be well and truly adjusted to life on the other side of the planet.

In all that uproar, there was never much time for television. We would watch a show maybe once or twice a week, but we never subscribed to cable, and never saw Western news except when we were staying at a hotel. That changed this week when we got cable. I guess that is a measure of increased confidence in our ability to manage our responsibilities here that we feel that we finally have time to actually watch television in the evening.

This morning I watched the Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks play. What a treat. Especially as Toronto had an outstanding first period and were leading three-zip when I last looked. I even got to see Coach’s Corner. I can’t tell you how comforting it is to see a period of hockey when you haven’t watched a game in nearly three years.

The Olympics are coming up in just two weeks. It will be Chinese New Year here in Asia and we have a week off school. We can’t afford to go anywhere as we are still paying off our little jaunt to the Land of Oz, so we plan on seeing a lot of telly that week and soaking in all that gorgeous Canadian landscape. Go Canucks!