The first few months we lived in Brisbane there was an ongoing joke about how I managed to align my visits back to New Zealand with when my hair was due for a cut and colour. In fact we had lived in Brisbane for ten months before I gave in and started visiting a local stylist (who also happened to be a New Zealander 🙂 )

It becomes glaringly obvious after the first 10 hour plus flight between Auckland and KL that you are not going to be able to make a quick jump across the ditch every few weeks. And while I managed to get a hair cut just before I left, I had also learnt from last time that getting a cut sooner rather than later gives a new stylist some chance of working out what the previous cut was if you want something similar.

Yesterday marked 6 weeks since my NZ cut and after a bit of research I had decided to try out Toni & Guy in Mont Kiara. In case you are not aware cutting (and colouring) European hair is different to cutting Asian hair, and it seemed a reasonable bet that a high end UK import franchise was more likely to have a stylist with European experience.

I was actually in a bit of a blue funk after saying goodbye to Jon on Wednesday and spending part of Thursday monitoring his flight transitions and pick up in NZ. While the idea of having a total blob out day at home had its attraction, ever since I got my license if I think I am not driving somewhere because I am nervous about it I have tended to pull myself up and deliberately choose to overcome the feeling. My driving nerves have been aggravated  by the fact that we have a replacement car at the moment. Our original lease car is being repaired after I managed to put a racing stripe down the side going down the the very narrow temporary ramp in the parking basement. For those of you familiar with the Jazz – yes like that. So  I wasn’t feeling overly confident about going anywhere.

After a bit of investigating and chatting with the guards I had discovered how to get to the standard ramps (you cant use the entrance at that point because they are redoing the driveway but you can detour over to that side of the building once you are in) so the apartment car park wasn’t such a big deal. But I was still a bit jittery about trying my hand at the mall car park. So I set off to Publika which is actually a smaller mall than most by KL terms, but very close to us. I had already been told to get there early if I wanted any hope of a car park so got there just after 10 (opening is 10am – 10pm) Used the TouchnGo card to get in the car park (another first) and found a park pretty easily at that time of morning.

Found the salon fairly easily and they could make an appointment with a senior stylist for 2pm. Having discussed my existing cut with the stylist I was handed over for to have my hair washed. I had been forewarned that hair washing practice in KL can be a little different (apparently they often shampoo you in the chair before moving you to a sink to rinse off) but being a European style salon it was a rather luxurious reclining couch experience.

Then it was the cut – after pretty much sixteen years of having someone who knows my hair, its movement and foibles very well, it seemed to take a lot longer than usual. And then I realised it was because she was getting  a sense of my hair movement as she cut. I was slightly disconcerted that having cut it they rinsed it again before blowdrying it. However it was a great cut and I felt confident enough to book a colour for Wednesday. My alternate plan had been not to colour it again until I was back in New Zealand in February. My only concern now is that being the northern hemisphere it is moving into winter when I would normally start darkening my colour but the temperatures will still be higher than the New Zealand summer when I would lighten it…

When you are a bit of a geek there is nothing like that rush of blood to the head which happens when you once again get access to a high speed, unlimited data connection. I feel alive again!

On the less geeky family relationships  side, other parents will appreciate the relief of finally having internet and cable TV while the teenage son is staying, not to mention the marital benefits of not having a husband moping because he hasn’t got access to his normal sports channels during the Rugby World Cup.

After two weeks of trying to get the internet/cable sorted we finally got an installation date of this afternoon. It being Jon’s second to last day we decided to head across to IKEA first thing to choose some things for his bedroom. We left reasonable early, as the second thing you learn here is to beat the queues aim to be there before 11 a.m. And of course the Astro installers decided to break the mould of the first thing you learn here – Malaysian delivery and installs are typically late. He rang me as we were in the taxi on the way to IKEA to ask if they could get it done in the morning!

We did a fairly rush shop and he met us as we arrived back (or they met us, there were four of them) The next hiccup in the saga of getting connected – we needed four power points for all the equipment so I had to race down to the supermarket to get an extension box.

Jon has used his IKEA construction skills and put together two side tables, and finally was hungry enough to go exploring for food by himself after the next appointment to swap the cars ran true to form and was late.  Having him here is a story of its own, particularly finding the balance between playing tourist while he is here versus him being home for the holiday. He hasn’t been impressed with the haze which has been ranged from very bad to extreme most of the time he is here, but like the rest of us he is getting used to it.