Rest in Peace, Gus

 Augustus "Gus" McCrae Rucker

March 2009 - February 2010

Gus Pictures

It's a sad day in Malaysia. We just learned that our sweet puppy, Gus, passed away back home in Texas at the tender age of just 11 months. Will and I of course are devastated by this news, and making matters even worse is the fact that Will is in Indonesia for business all week and I'm in Kuala Lumpur, meaning that we're both having to grieve over Gus separately right now, missing him terribly and missing each other desperately. We were supposed to be bringing both Boo and Gus over here next month for their Malaysia debut but sadly Gus won't be making the trip. For those of you that knew Gus, you know that goofy puppy crammed a whole lotta livin' into those short little 11 months he managed to squeeze out of his happy-go-lucky life. A furball of energy, Gus had a zest for life unlike any dog we've ever known. Gus had 3 major loves in his life: His love for the water was evident from the get-go with his many a nose-dive into the bathtub whenever the water was running (and sometimes even when it wasn't). His love for fetching was something that kept me and Will entertained for hours on end back home in Houston. We'd sit on the couch in the evenings and place bets on what Gus would sniff out, dig up, and bring back to us....socks, shoes, and blankets were among his favorites, but trust me when I tell you that dog would fetch anything.....ANYTHING. Rarely could we take a step out into the backyard without him running full steam ahead into our leg with a toy, stick, rock, or other random piece of debris wanting us to play fetch with him. And he would fetch....and fetch.....and fetch.....and fetch until our arm fell off or until we distracted him with food. His love for his family was the other main love of Gus's short life. And I would love to be able to sit here and say that by "family" I mean that Gus's love was limited to just me and Will.....however, that just would not be the case. You see, Gus is what one would call a people dog. He loved anyone and everyone he ever met, saw, sniffed, and licked. The dog never met a stranger. The second he laid those big, sweet, green ol' puppy dog eyes on you, he was hooked....and most of the time that person was hooked right back. It was impossible not to love Gus, all 80 pounds of him. It's sad to know he'll never grow into those big goofy legs of his or fill out that big furry coat, but I guess the silver lining here, if there has to be one, is that he will live in our hearts as a puppy forever. A big, goofy, friendly, happy go lucky puppy. He came running into our lives as quickly as he went running out of it, and we will always be grateful to him  for all the love and laughter he brought to our family and the lessons he taught us about how to live for the moment, how to eat like there's no tomorrow, how to cause a splash wherever you go, and how to fetch like nobody's watching (and hope that sometimes they really aren't watching because you just might get in trouble for what you fetch). We love you, Gus. We miss you more than you'll ever know.

Painting the Town Red...

We couldn't have arrived on this side of the world at a more exciting time....the time of Chinese New Year (also known as Lunar New Year and Spring Festival). This is the most important of traditional Chinese Holidays so people go all out to celebrate in style. The entire town has been decked out in red. Red lanterns and globes and streamers and flowers adorn the streets, sides of buildings, billboards, etc. Everywhere you turn, something new and something red has been hung, strung, or flung on anything that will stand still. Popular themes surrounding this holiday include happiness, wealth, and longevity, and it is an ancient Chinese tradition that every family thoroughly cleans the house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes to make way for good incoming luck. So get to cleaning people, and here's to a lucky year ahead for each of you, or as they say in these parts, "Gong Xi Fa Cai!"

Special Side Note: This is the year of the Tiger, a sign of bravery. This courageous and fiery fighter is admired by the ancient Chinese as the sign that keeps away the three main tragedies of a household. These are fire, thieves and ghosts.

Chinatown

So one of the many great things about moving to Malaysia is the number of different cultures and customs we'll get to learn about in a real-life setting.  We have now turned off the Discovery Channel we were so comfortable watching from our humble home back in Houston and have tuned into the real life Discovery Channel playing out before our eyes here in KL. Just last week I took a tour of Chinatown and learned about the history of the Early Chinese and the famous Kapitan Yap Ah Loy, the founder of Kuala Lumpur.  We stopped in an old shop selling expensive herbal and dried food items including shark fin, bird nest and ginseng (just don't ask me what any of them are used for other than as good material for including in a blog).  I also got to visit the “See Ya” Temple, the oldest temple in KL, and watch as many local Chinese men and women made offerings to the various gods, spirits and ancestors with incense sticks. The tour concluded with a non-halal lunch served in an old Chinese restaurant where the food was still cooked in old iron cast pots. Menu items included sweet and spicy everything, from pork to chicken to fish to beef....and I'm sure hoping that's all...and for those of you who know me well, you know that this kind of lunch has to rank towards the top of my all-time biggest adventure list. :) I've come a long way since my plain ol' peanut butter sandwich days and eating salads without dressing, but no matter how far I travel or what kind of meal I try next, my heart will always beat (and my stomach always growl) for a nice jar of extra crunchy Jif. 

 

Sunlight shining through the windows of See Ya Temple in Chinatown

Home Sweet Temporary Home

We spent the first week and a half here in the beautiful Crowne Plaza Kutiara, living off of hotel breakfasts, hotel lunches, hotel toiletries, and hotel beds. It was a great ten days at the hotel, but we were quite excited when it came time to move into our new temporary housing residence called Fraser Place, conveniently located between two of KL's biggest malls, and probably even more importantly, right next door to Will's office. His daily commute to the office consists of an elevator ride down from our 16th-story room and a short little walk around the corner. And as for me, my commute calls for a trip up two flights of stairs to the gym each (ok, most) morning(s) and then immediately proceeding to the infinity pool located on the same level overlooking downtown KL. After a few peaceful little moments in the sun and an occasional steam in the sauna, I'm finally ready to start my day....and that's where being conveniently located between KL's two biggest malls comes in to play! I make the almost daily walks to the mall for nothing glitzy or glamorous really.....unless of course you're someone like me who considers the 3 gallon jugs of mineral water I tote back with me as precious and pretty a purchase as any!!!

 

Here's where we are calling "home" for now. View from kitchen to living room. 

We're Here!

So it's taken me a little while to get this blog up and going again, but when you move to a new country (from what I've learned in my limited experience anyway) there's just a lot to see, smell, do, taste, and ultimately digest right off the bat that tends to take one's attention away from sitting down and typing it all out. Not only that, but what do people back home want to know about? Or sometimes more importantly, NOT know about? Well, we're going on about 3 weeks here now, and all I really know to say at this point is that it's been a fun and exciting ride so far. The very first night we landed in KL, our two new friends Courtney and JJ that we had been in touch with prior to our move, were kind enough to take us to dinner and ease us into our brand new lives here. What a comfort it was being able to share that first night with a couple that had just gone through the same exact thing a few months earlier (moving from Houston to KL sight unseen) and hearing first-hand the great advice they had for Malaysia's two newest expats. This is only the beginning....

First night in KL at Tarbush Restaurant (Lebanese)

Up, Up, and Away

                                          Room with a View...Flight 869
We left the morning of Saturday, January 23, 2010. Just me, Will, and a couple of suitcases boarded the flight(s) from Houston...to San Francisco...to Hong Kong...to Singapore...and finally to Kuala Lumpur. We managed to take in a couple of DVDs, an episode of Lost, and some great scenery along the way.

 

                       Making some last minute phone calls in the U.S.

 

                                   Somewhere between here and there

                                     Going through Customs in Singapore                              

Off Our Rockers...

    Will, Sarah and dog Gus - Rocking on our

    deck in Houston.

OK, so call us crazy. Some of you might be thinking we're a little out of our minds, or "off our rockers" if you will, to just pack up our things and move sight unseen to Malaysia. That's right.....MALAYSIA.  But off our rockers or not, we decided to take the ultimate leap of faith and just go for it. Let's move to Malaysia....to the other side of the world....to a country we know nothing about with languages we don't speak, currencies we don't have, and cars that drive on the opposite side of the road. And despite all the practical reasons and all the logical arguments and even the understandable objections one might have to us making a move such as this, the only defense we can come up with at the moment is....."Why not?!?!" We'd rather be off our Rockers in Malaysia than on our Rockers missing out on a great adventure!!

That's our story and we're stickin' to it.