No, this is not a blog post about Bon Jovi. Sorry to disappoint.

Today marks 6 months since leaving home and landing in Malaysia. It’s been an insane 6 months, you know all the adventures and stories so I won’t make you read them all again.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, Lyall and I treated ourselves to a Pizza Hut. Scandalous, I know!

I’ve got a few more insane and crazily busy months coming up.

A last minute decision means that Hannah will be coming out at the start of March, and she will be joining us for English Camp and Activity Week at school. I’ll have a week at school before I head off to Singapore and Bali with some of the other volunteers. I’ll have another week at school, and then I’ll be meeting mum, dad, and Emma in KL and travelling to Singapore, Chiang Mai and Penang with them. They’ll also be coming to Lenggong for a day. Then in June, we have booked to go to the Perenthian Islands and Borneo.

Project Trust have given us our return date. I will be landing in Edinburgh on 28 July so I expect to see you all there with balloons and banners!

I’m still surprised that I’ve lasted 6 months, especially when I lack cooking skills, and I’m surprised Lyall is still alive after 6 months! Hopefully we will be able to survive the next 160 days!

Looking back and reflecting on the last half year, I realise what an amazing opportunity I have been given and how I need to continue to make the most of it. Thank you all again for making this possible for me.

See you all soon!

Some of the new volunteers invited us all to meet them in KL for the weekend. Lyall and I were unsure if we would go since we haven’t been paid yet, but on Friday we decided to book anyway.

We arrived in KL on Friday evening and met the others in TGI Fridays! There were only 2 8 month volunteers that managed to make it, but it was nice meeting them and seeing the other 3 again nonetheless.

After going back to the hotel and getting changed, we decided to hit the bars. It was a great night until some guy on a motorbike decided to snatch my phone right out my hand as he drove by. Yup, the new phone that I just bought in Thailand! It seems that I have the worst luck possible when it comes to phones! No one was hurt though and there’s nothing we can do but move on.

Anyway, it was a fab night before that happened!

On Saturday, I dragged everyone to the IT mall so I could buy a new phone (thanks dad)! 

We got ready and went back to the clubs (the phone stayed in the hotel this time!). Lyall and I got our garlic bread which we have been going on about since the first time we had in October, and everyone else got more of their alcohol which they have been going on about since forever! Lyall and I stayed for a bit but once we were fed, we got bored and tired so said goodbye to everyone and went back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

Our train back to Kuala Kangsar was at 11:30 on Sunday morning. We got to KK, bought a couple of groceries and went back to school and straight to bed!

It was a fun, eventful, and unexpected weekend. It was great meeting Hannah and Erin and I’m looking forward to meeting the other volunteers. Hopefully our next holiday will go more smoothly! Heading off to Singapore and Bali in March for a much needed tan top-up!

We went and got new keys cut. Lyall has her own set which she can lose at her own free will. I have my own set, which Lyall will ‘borrow’ when she loses hers, and the guard has a set for when both mine and Lyalls go missing!

It cost only 9 ringgit (£1.62) for 3 sets of keys and only took 5 minutes to cut, so the next time you need keys cut, it’ll be cheaper and faster to come Malaysia that it will be to go to Timpsons!