Hello!

This is Jono and this is my first ever blog entry!

We spent our first weekend in KL looking for somewhere to live. We knew we wanted to live in an area called Mont Kiara close to our school, Garden International School, so we arranged viewings and off we went. Mont Kiara is a hilly area full of many condo towers and apartments that soar over the areas of dense jungle, just 15 min north west from the city centre. In the suburban areas of KL it's like the people have built a city on top of a tropical rainforest, its very different from anything I've seen - a combination of urban concrete and thick green rain forest. Anyway we managed to find a nice 2 bedroom apartment in the Verve Suites opposite the school, literally across the road, and we are moving in this weekend! We are very excited as this is definitely a step up in lifestyle for us both. The Verve Suites is a very modern condo complex with some of the best facilities in Mont Kiara. For example on the top of D tower there is a beach pool area with a panoramic view of the city. When we move in we will post some pictures and you will see exactly what we mean. We are also pleased as it seems a number of our new friends and colleagues are moving in there to, so we will always have someone we know knocking about.

So 'work' officially started on Sunday with brunch next to the pool, an introduction to the new staff and Principle. There are so many new starters with us...48 to be exact!! and that doesnt include a few 'trailing spouses' and children. During the week we have met most of them and everyone is really nice and friendly, we reckon we will be able to make some great friends amongst them.

On Sunday night I managed to distract myself from the jetlag to drag sarah to go and watch Liverpool v Southampton in a sports bar in Bangsar Village. (She is very patient with me hope she reads this) First game of the season it needed to be done. Fortunately it was an early Kick off in England meaning that it was 8.25pm kick off here, UNFORTUNATELY any night games for Liverpool in the Champions League here will be on at 3 AM! on a school night too, gutted. However, again fortunately Liverpool won 2-1 and the few Malaysian liverpool fans sitting behind us sang you'll never walk alone which was funny.

Every weekday morning we have got the coach at 8 from our hotel to school and have had a series of training, form filling, setting things up and meetings, and then in the afternoons staff have been looking for accomodation. We are so glad we got ours sorted first, it was a big relief and weight off our shoulders, and it also meant we have been free every afternoon which is always a bonus. We did do one school bus tour of all the expat communities in KL which was interesting but a nightmare for me as I was very ill that day with jetlag and an icky tummy. School have given us brand new Macbooks and Ipads to use for work! The school induction has been so smooth and well organised we feel really privileged.

We have eaten out at various places for all kinds of food and it's all been decent and in most cases YUMMY! On Tuesday the School paid for all of the new staff to go on a trip to China Town. That was great, the atmosphere was fantastic as there was a preview of the festival of the hungry ghosts in the streets with all kinds of strange and wonderful things going off! Chinese Dragons, drums, cymbals, blokes piercing themselves with steel rods, cutting themselves with knives, it was quite gruesome. Lots of market stalls with fake and dodgy goods that look exactly like the real thing. School paid for our delicious food and drinks all night .

That will do for know as I'm knackered ha. Bye for now

Jono and Sarah

xxx