It's a Girl!

Hannah Grace Lessly, 9/28/10, 6 lbs. 10 oz.

Attention everyone, I have a new niece!! Congratulations to my sweet sister Rebecca and her dear husband Kevin on the birth of their second little girl. Miss Hannah Grace was born Tuesday night, September 28, weighing in at a respectable 6 pounds and 10 ounces and every bit as cute as I knew she would be! Not scheduled to arrive until early next week, little Hannah's big debut came as a bit of a surprise to say the least. After returning home from a typical night of grocery shopping, Rebecca's water decided to break and then the race was on! With Kevin speeding back from Ft. Worth after a night of working late, Rebecca called for back-up in the way of our other sister Angela who just so happened to be walking into a nearby restaurant just a few streets away. Angela immediately rerouted herself and scooped Rebecca up in her Expedition-Turned-Ambulance and frantically raced their way to the hospital, Rebecca screaming all the way (the contractions were coming full force at this point). They got there just in time for Rebecca to be wheeled into Labor and Delivery (after Angela made a few minor threats to the security guard out front) and to start pushing (too late for an epidural at this point). Fortunately Kevin had arrived at this time, and just a couple of minutes later, so did Hannah Grace Lessly! It was all a whirlwind of activity, and the entire process took less than an hour!It's times like these that reiterate the fact that we really are a half a world away over here. I desperately wanted to be there and to be a part of it all, but I had to settle for listening through the phone as my new niece made her first sweet little cries thousands of miles away from me. I just hope she wasn't listening to my sweet little cries on her end. They were definitely tears of joy though and tears of excitement for the newest addition to the family (well, along with a few tears of homesickness sprinkled in as I longed to be there too). I just hope she knows that someone in Malaysia loves her very much!!! Congratulations Rebecca, Kevin, Halie, and Hannah! My heart is right there with you!!!

Ready or Not, Here I Come

Speedy Delivery

Proud Papa Kevin and Big Sister Halie

Phuket...it's a Shore Thing

Just a Swingin' 

Thailand: Take-Two. So after getting to experience the exciting hustle and bustle of Bangkok a few weeks ago during one of Will's work trips, we couldn't wait to slow things down a bit and take another trip to a much tamer, much more tropical side of Thailand. This time we were flying off to the sunny shores of Phuket (pronounced Pooh-ket), an island in South Thailand. Although Will has been traveling pretty much nonstop since we moved over here at the end of January, most, all, of his trips have been business-related. Having accompanied him on a couple of these work trips so far, I can vouch for the fact that in between all of his meetings, classes, and presentations, there is very little time for him to do any significant sight-seeing (or relaxing for that matter). And then along came Phuket. This was a belated anniversary trip for us that we've been trying to reschedule since March and just now found a weekend that we could squeeze it in...and I have to say that it was well worth the wait! We actually stayed in a little hotel on a little beach even further south of Phuket on the very remote island of Racha Yai. After a quick two-hour flight into Phuket and a fun 40-minute speedboat ride out to Racha Yai, we found ourselves in a perfect little paradise all our own. Well, all our "own" plus the hotel staff and a few day-trippers that came out to snorkel and scuba in these crystal clear waters. Being that it was the "off-season," come to find out, the hotel was quieter than usual, and we took full advantage of the situation. We had the beach to ourselves, which meant having full control over the beach chairs and the bartender. The great staff there did a great job of catering to our every need. We learned early on to make fast friends with the restaurant crew, and so every meal and drink came served with personalized touches, compliments of our new friends! They showered us with undivided attention and made great suggestions on what to see and do around the island. Thanks to their advice, we rented a scooter to scoot around in for a couple of days whenever we felt like venturing out for a fun little island adventure. One of these little adventures of ours consisted of pulling over at one of the scenic look-out points, where we thought we would just take a couple quick pictures of the sea and shore below. One of the locals, however, had a completely different idea in mind. When he spotted us taking pictures of everything but each other, he stepped in an offered to take a picture of the two of us together.  We've never been great at getting other people to take pictures of the both of us, so we jumped at the chance to have him snap some picture proof that we were actually there! Little did we know that a quick picture would turn into a 30-minute photo shoot though, in which he insisted on making us pose in every gimmicky, prom-like pose imaginable. Will and I were laughing so hard through the entire "shoot" that we could hardly hold ourselves together enough to maintain the carefully choreographed poses he'd meticulously placed us in. He was obviously taking his self-appointed photographer job very seriously so we went along with it as long as we could possibly stand it before our cheeks starting to twitch from smiling and laughing so hard. Back at the hotel, our nice manager friend offered to take us snorkeling for our very first time ever, which we thoroughly enjoyed despite a somewhat leaky mask. The combination of crystal clear waters and bright, colorful fish made for some very successful snorkeling. I also got to enjoy my very own private fishing trip after shamelessly begging and pleading with one of the staff members that I just had to go! When asked if I should rent any equipment for the fishing trip, he smiled and said that everything we needed was already on the boat. This "equipment" that he had for us, was simply a spool of fishing line, a hook, and a plastic bag of squid to use for bait that he'd caught by hand earlier that morning. Apparently that's all we needed because just a few seconds after casting the reel out (I mean dropping the line in the water), the fish started biting! I reeled in, ahem, spooled in my first catch in years! After a couple more little catches, we decided to turn back with the tide and head for the hotel where Will and I enjoyed the rest of the day relaxing on the beach, playing cards while the afternoon shower passed through, and ordering specialty drinks and eats from our restaurant buddies. There's just something to be said for getting an authentic Thai massage on an authentic Thai beach and  then eating authentic Pad Thai from an authentic Thai Chef. It was definitely an amazing experience for us both, and if any of you ever find yourself on this side of the world, we highly recommend making a pit stop in Phuket while you're here! 

A Room with a View

 

Taking it all in 

Our Snorkeling Spot

You get a line, I get a....spool???

Catch of the Day

Our Ship's Come In

The Photo Shoot

That's Right

Our Photographer

All Thai'd Up...

Street Performer at Chatuchak

It's been a while since the last post, but I have a good excuse. Well, kind of. Will and I have been lucky enough to take a couple of trips to Thailand recently....one for business one for pleasure. Oh who am I kidding? They've both been for pleasure (well, for me anyway). On the first trip, Will spent 12 hard-working days conducting a training class in Bangkok, and I got to fly up over the weekend to help make sure he got his fill of sight-seeing and souvenir shopping on his days off. Because really, when all you've been doing is working nonstop for two weeks in a row all you want to do is hit the town and brave the Bangkok battlegrounds of cross-dressers, street peddlers, and tuk tuk drivers, right?!? It was definitely quite an experience to say the least. I dragged him to the famous Chatachak Weekend Market first thing Saturday morning where we did our best to navigate the thousands of stalls looking for some kind of Bangkok bargain to bring home with us. After roaming around aimlessly for a bit and feeling completely overwhelmed by all of the sights, sounds and smells of this fabulous and frightening display of market madness, we decided the best thing to do was to just belly up to the nearest hawker stall (outdoor street food station) and order the best local dish that Bangkok has to offer...pad thai. After all, no person should try to tackle this place on an empty stomach. It's dangerous. Bangkok Dangerous. So after fueling up and devising some sort of a game plan, we hit the outdoor outlets once again with reckless abandon and finally ended up haggling our way to some seriously discounted prices on an elephant t-shirt and chopsticks. That's right. We are master negotiators. Ok, ok, so you have to start somewhere. We figured we'd start with the little things (like chopsticks) and then see what other kind of bargaining skills we could "pick up" after a little more practice. After the market, we took a much needed trip to the cleverly named "Pickled Liver Pub" to pickle our livers a bit and gear up for a big night out on the town. Having been to Bangkok on a previous work trip, Will had already been informed by all of the other American, or more specifically, Cajun, expats over here, that there was an incredible Cajun restaurant named Bourbon Street (appropriately enough). We couldn't wait to sink our teeth into a bowl of spicy gumbo, a piled-high po-boy and some of the other Louisiana favorites served up by their native Louisianan chef. What's even better is that this place sells to-go boxes of Andouille Sausage and Boudin (something NOT found in KL with it being a Muslim country and all). We had him load us up with a cooler of Andouille to tote back on the plane with us so we could freeze it for future batches of gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans 'n rice whenever the mood strikes, and I have a feeling the mood is going to be striking again very soon now that football season  is here! We finished up the weekend by taking a fun little tour of the Jim Thompson House on Sunday, buying some of his famous silk napkins and placemats, and then making one last lunch run back to Bourbon Street before flying back "home." It was a perfect trip that combined the best of Asian Culture, Cajun Cuisine, and Souvenir Success Stories. Bangkok, we'll be back!

One of Chatuchak's Many Food Stalls

Bourbon Street, Thailand Style

Our very animated "Tuk Tuk" Driver 

Pulling Teh Tarik....This Guy Has Nothing on Me

Bangkok's Got Talent

Because Who Doesn't Need a Set of Elephant Napkins???

What's Cookin'...

The scalloped edge curry puff

So last week I decided to up the ante on Adventure Day a bit and join forces with 10 other expat wives for an all day cooking class at a local Malaysian bungalow led by local Malaysian chefs. It was, dare I say, very "local." On the menu for the day was Beef Rendang, Curry Puffs, and Teh Tarik (which I suppose with enough imagination and wishful thinking is the Malaysian equivalent of beef stew, pot pies, and sweet tea.). A far cry from my beloved Luby's LuAnn Platter from yesteryear, but as they say, when in Malaysia....

 So anyway, we all met up at one of the girl's houses and then caravaned our way up to this cute little cooking bungalow outside of town where we were met with the most gracious of Malaysian hostesses who seemed to be just as entertained by all of us "expats" as we were by them! Cooking with all local ingredients very common to these parts, we found ourselves drowning in a combination of our own sweat and the buckets of palm oil used for frying up all of these local "delicacies," but we had a blast diving in to all of these Asian flavors. The beef rendang is simply beef  that's been slow cooked/fried in oil with a tasty spice mixture of fresh ginger, galangal, turmeric, lemon grass, Thai chilies, and a few other ingredients I've either forgotten, can't pronounce, or decided to omit from my own personal pot of rendang. As fare as the curry puffs go, well you can just get as creative with them as you want to be. They're a lot of fun to play with. To form the "puff" part of the dish, you basically just start with a mound of butter, a couple handfuls of flour and then form the dough into nice, thin little circles. Next you saute whatever you're stuffing your puff with (we used diced onions and potatoes seasoned with....well...curry...in our class, but the puff possibilities are endless). Then you pile a spoonful of the stuffing onto the middle of the pastry rounds, flap it over, seal up the sides, and then make a lovely little scalloped edge using the part of your thumb and forefinger that I apparently have absolutely no control over because my "scalloped" edges looked more like, well, the exact opposite of scalloped edges whatever that's called. The very sweet, very patient chefs at the school noticed that I was in obvious need of some professional puff pointers because they came to my rescue and worked with me until I got it right....well, as close to right as they decided I was going to get it anyway. After shaping them into "perfect" little puffs, we dunked those little guys into the sauce pans and just let the palm oil work their magic until they were nice and crispy. Finally, it was teh tarik time....my favorite part of the glass. "Teh tarik" literally means pulled tea (and pulling tea around here is a serious art form). Workers in coffee stands all over town actually compete for bragging rights (and tarik trophies) over who can pull the best tea. It works like this: You have to pour piping hot tea from one jug into the other. The higher the pour, the thicker (and better) the froth. And tea here isn't just tea. It's 1 part tea, 1 part boiling water, and 10 parts sugar and condensed milk. Pulling the tea this way helps to bring out all the flavors in the milk and also helps cool the beverage at the same time, making it ready to drink as soon as it's served (how silly of me for serving mine over ice all this time when I could have been pulling it to cool it off instead)! I feel a competition coming on at the next family reunion!!

Beef Rendang - Before 

Beef Rendang - After

My not-so-perfect puffs 

Pulling Teh Tarik...an accident just waiting to happen