Another busy, busy week here in tropical paradise. It's been great having Joan visit and we have been tour-guiding our socks off doing several things we've been saving until she arrived. We're not sure if 'touristing' is a verb (yet). But it should be. Thursday 14th we started out with a walk along our beach (sea wall holding up amazingly way due to James's hard work... even starting to sprout little plants). We tried going out for lunch at a couple of our favourite Ikan Bakar buffets... but both were still shut. Like the Ramadan holiday and the Hari Raya holidays were so much fun... they're never opening again. But after a jaunt around Cenang Beach, a look at the souvenir and Duty Free stores we found a new Bakar in Padang Matsirat - lots of lovely vegetable dishes, our favourite - pineapple curry and, even better, still had food at 2 pm! Definitely heading back there. We have some unexpected guests taking the beach house for 5 nights arriving tomorrow, so we did a quick clean, made up the bed, put out the posh towels and turned on the fridge late in the afternoon. All set. Friday we actually had to do emergency toaster shopping. The owners don't eat toast... so the one toaster had to return to the guest house and we bought a new one for the main house. Not a lot open in Kuah on a Friday as it's the Muslim equivalent to Sunday. The guests had declined an airport pickup and ventured here on their own in a taxi. Against all the odds they turned up only 2 hours late, so were settled in just in time to join us at the Friday Night market just up the road. Finally up to full strength the market was awesome - loads of different food stalls. There was even a fruit & vege stall with the ripest and most luscious papayas we've ever seen... heavy too after we picked 4 large ones. Even a few jewellery stands - found a lovely blingy ring at one of them for about A$7/€5. Might even be real - has an 18K stamp on the inside. Will visit a jeweller in Dubai no doubt (and we know how that worked out last time). Hopefully he'll say it's the market find of the century. If not... it's still lovely and twinkly and sparkly - which I adore. Saturday 16th saw us venture into our fave Indian lunch joint in Kuah followed by some more souvenir shopping and our weekly trip to the movies... Ghostbusters! Suffice to say the cast did a cracking job with an average script/storyline, but it was a lovely and airconditioned outing... which is sometimes enough in the tropics. Sunday saw us head to Cenang Beach for a proper walk. A nice long jaunt along the ocean side (using the lovely paved path... so sensible), then a walk along the shops on the trip back. We entered Cenang Mall with the sole purpose of breathing as much air conditioned air as possible... even stayed to laze for a while in some upholstered arm chairs with a coffee from Starbucks. The highlight of the day (our halfway point into our 17 week stay) was Massage Time! We drove to Kuah to a little Thai / Local massage place we discovered a couple of weeks ago. I could say it was spotlessly clean... they gave wonderful massages... we enjoyed Chinese tea afterwards. And that would all be true. But guess what?! They also had phenomenal air conditioning. As I write this, I must admit it seems like it's been a very warm week that was. Monday morning we woke up just happy we woke up in the same place we fell asleep - there was an enormous storm overnight - gales, constant torrential rain, the works for hours and hours and hours. We mopped up a few leaks around the big house and noticed a small tree had come down on the drive near the guest house (thankfully guests safe & sound indoors). Turns out it was even bigger than we knew as the roof was ripped clear off the Scarborough Fish Restaurant just up the road. Again, luckily, around 5 am Monday morning when no one was around. New roof on order. Old roof on roadside in a heap. With the weather calm we eventually had lunch in Padang Matsirat at our new favourite Ikan Bakar. We took Joan for a look around Langkawi's craft complex and saw a wonderful group of gorgeous little spectacle monkeys on the driveway just outside. Perfect spot to stop and take photos. Way back last September I bought some chunky, black pearls at a little shop on the square in Fuengirola, Spain (aside from Ireland... our other spiritual home). We'd been wanting to find some inexpensive earrings to go with them for ages but invariably I didn't have the pearls with me when we'd find possibilities - and its jolly hard to match colours that way. Anyway - there weren't many customers in the complex and a girl was very insistent about selling us something... anything. So, finally, I remembered I'd stuck the pearls in my bag and pulled them out. "Can you find earrings to match these?" And of course, she could. The very first pair she pulled out were perfect. Tried showing us another 4-5 pairs, but it was the first pair for sure. There's a moral there somewhere about being careful what you wish for and giving retailers a challenge. Pretty sure. The storms held off long enough into the day to allow us a visit to Ulu Melaka and the Monday night market, but were back with a vengeance in the early hours of Tuesday morning. But another lovely cool night and morning as a result. It was so wet and grimy on Tuesday morning we offered to take our guests out on a multi-purpose excursion as it was too wet for their scooter and we didn't want them ending up in a ditch. Bad for business. After another visit to the craft complex (and a chance to do mending in the car in air-conditioned comfort while they shopped), we ended up in Padang Matsirat just in time to have Roti Cenai. (Always a morning food and the counter was due to close at 12.30 pm). We eventually dropped the guests off at a holistic massage/retreat place in the jungle and took ourselves for a scenic drive up the Datai Road to show Joan the glorious Els Club golf course and also see Skull Beach. Getting to the time of the week when an afternoon snooze is not only allowable... but encouraged. We finished our week off on Wednesday with a trip to the Ooki bundle store in Kuah - where I scored a warm and cosy pair of PJs for 4 RM / A$1.50. Not just for our forthcoming trip to Ireland, no sirree... these nights have been getting cool and we are very acclimatised now. That and there are no blankets or quilts here and sometimes the sheet is just not enough. We finished out the day with a trip to the Kuah night market and then got done up (put on an actual dress and everything) and went to Scarborough for a grilled mackerel dinner and an ooh/ahh at their lack of roof. We actually like it. Much breezier!