Once again Jon, Nic and Tatum have touched down in Subang Jaya, and once again they are off again, this time in different directions; Tatum to Vietnam to visit a missionary family there, and Jon and Nic up the coast for a little beach time. I’ll get my own holiday soon, so I am not complaining. Then again I do get to live in Malaysia, so I should never complain (but if I didn’t, who would recognize me??).

If you are thinking as I am “Um, didn’t they just get back there from Phnom Penh,” you would be right. In fact it was at 7.30 last night that I picked them up from the airport. By the time Jon and Nic had skyped their kids, and Tatum had skyped her parents, and I had skyped my Mom – who was definitely getting lost in the shuffle here – and Nic had got a load of wash in and then hung up to dry, it was getting close to midnight. I had opportunity to reflect on this as the alarm went off at 3 am so I could begin my day by getting Tatum off to the airport to catch her flight to Hanoi.

To their credit, Jon and Nic were up as well seeing that Tatum got safely away. By now I should have the route to the airport entered into autopilot. We got Tatum’s bags checked in and headed to the Coffee Bean for our lattes. Then once Tatum had gone through the gate the three of us headed back into KL, this time going through Petra Jaya. It was nice and a little bit magical watching the sun come up over new administrative centre of Malaysia with its distinctive building and bridges. We snapped some pictures and were on our way snaking through the new expressway that heads north.

Unfortunately, despite having plotted and even driven this route just days ago, I missed the turn to Subang Jaya, and we ended up practically circumnavigating the city to get back on track. That is the price you pay for the smallest navigational error in this city of serpentine asphalt. We did get to Sunway Pyramid, and by then we had worked up a bit of an appetite, so the breakfast brunch at the Sunway Resort hotel fit the bill quite nicely. I have promised myself I will go on a fruit and fluid diet for the next  three days in penance!

Having dropped Jon and Nic at the condo for a wee kip, I headed up to the school to catch the last staff meeting of the year. Despite having my principal’s permission to be absent (thank you Jim, you are a most considerate man!) I just couldn’t leave this one critical task undone. It is at this meeting that final adjustments to marks are made. Although the adjustments are minimal and never exceed the bounds of professional judgment, the one or two marks afforded here can mean the difference of thousands of dollars to these students, or even the loss of their scholarship. We all take this task very seriously.

Mercifully the meeting was brief and I got back in time to get in a swim with Jon and Nic at the lovely pool in our condo, and after a quick change we headed back to the school to show off the facility and meet the few folks that were still around. Then it was on to Asia Cafe for claypot of rice and curried chicken for them and some Vietnamese noodles for me (Honest; nothing but fruit for three days!).  That gave us just enough time to get back to the condo, repack, and get Jon and Nic back to the airport for their flight up the coast to Langkawi. This time there were no wrong turns, and I got the rental car back under the 24 hour deadline. Please don’t call me dear, I’m going to sleep until noon. I remember now what it was like raising this kid. No wonder I was always exhausted!