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Happy Easter everybody! Hope everyone is tucking into their chocolate eggs with gusto! Got another update for you lovely people on all the fun we've been having!
We've been busy bees the last few days despite intense DOMPs (Delayed Onset Muscle Pain - although Lee and I have renamed it DOMAs Delayed Onset Muscle Agony!) So, I'll start where I left off, somewhat sore but exhilarated in KK airport, now we had a long wait for the plane and each time we were required to move it was getting harder and harder to heave ourselves off our bottoms! Despite the pain we were cheerful little bees clutching our 'we reached the summit' certificates with pride and congratulating ourselves on our epic adventure. We had sadly had to leave our sticks at the national park despite me really, really wanting to bring it with me (I'll miss that stick - it got me through some tough times!) however Bee convinced me that it may not be sensible to drag it round the remaining countries we were visiting, as time wore on and we had to propel ourselves up from sitting position the absence of the stick was very sorely felt! Unfortunately, our plane was delayed and then we managed to get the slowest taxi driver in SE Asia so when we rocked up to our hotel in KL it was 2.30am - the exact time we had headed out for summit the previous morning! So, imagine, 2 daysdays' worth of climbing tiredness, no sleep in 26hrs and you can imagine how exhausted we were. Luckily my amazingist husband had predicted the need for a bit of pampering post mountain climb and booked us into the Renaissance - a fancy pants hotel in the golden triangle in KL. Never was a bed sooooo welcome than that very one we sank onto that morning. In some vain attempt to combat the increasing pain we decided to have showers and then layer up with tiger balm, a very intense vicks like substance which apparently helps with muscle pain. Now I am not sure if anyone has ever tried such a delight but when you put it on it feels like normal cream, then it cools very quickly into a tingly cool feeling which helps with the aches. I did warn Lee not to put it too far up his thighs as I can only imagine what it would feel like if it crept into more delicate areas! Suffice to say Lee said there was somewhat of a cool breeze around the undercrackers that night!
The next morning was Grand Prix day and I would like to say that we woke up to the alarm and leapt out of bed with the tiger balm having worked its magic in the night! Unfortunately, that was not so. I gingerly poked a foot out of bed, groaned at the creakiness and the tried to propel the rest of me in that general direction, all I can say is ow, ow, owwy! Lee creased up laughing at my old lady stumble as my legs wobbled and crumbled as I attempted to move - then I laughed at him when he tried the same! As the sun was beaming down, we headed to the pool hoping the sun and swim would warm our battered bodies. We shuffled, limped and hobbled into the sun and enjoyed the relaxation for about 90 minutes before we had to do the same hobble shuffle back to our rooms to get ready to see the qualifying stages at the Grand Prix. Now the racecourse in KL is at Sepang, which is near the airports about 1hr from KL centre, the fastest way to get there involved a convoluted journey including a monorail, train to the airport and shuttle to the racecourse. Once there it took a further shuttle to the main entrance and then another to our entrance! Sounds simple huh - well to be fair to them it was the slickest procedure and the organisation worked really well, we could just have done with a few less staircases and downhill slopes (which believe me are twenty times worse than going uphill!) When we arrived into the main entrance there was all the fanfare of the music and the stalls and it was all quite exciting! We headed to our section which was on the grassy hill which had some cover in case of rain. It was glorious sunshine, so we settled down a spot more sunbathing with a couple of tiger beers - bliss! 5 minutes before the cars came out there was a tell-tale rumble behind us which meant only one thing - thunder storm! A few raindrops fell and the stopped so we thought we'd gotten away with it (as did the drivers and out they came!) The familiar high keening sound of the engines began as they roared past and everyone stood up and cheered. Now I'm not much of a grand prix expert and I didn't have a clue what was going on, but I was excited! The atmosphere was fab, but the noise was deafening - unbelievably so! They thundered past and in response the thunder behind us competed and then as those of you watching would have seen the heavens opened! There was fork lightening and torrential rain - the works! In fact, I soon forgot about the cars, instead watching the storm! Now qualifying was a bit confusing and to be honest my attention did wane a little. I didn't really understand what was happening and the cars kept stopping and starting due to the weather - so when we hobbled off after it finished lee did a fair amount of explaining as we repeated our journey back to KL. After returning we decided that we should wander to KLCC, where Lee wanted pics of the Petronus towers at night. We managed this despite each step getting a little more of a challenge, but by then we were done in, so we went back to the hotel and got room service! I cannot describe the bliss of having a shower, being able to lay still and have them bring food to us, I could have kissed the room service guy when he wheeled his little trolley in I surely could!
So, we woke up today after repeating the tiger balm layering last night and hoping for some relief - no such luck - same hobbley walk and dislike of going down steps! The pain on our faces must have been visible as when Lee struggled down the three steps in the hotel foyer the doorman asked if he was OK! So, it was back to the Grand Prix, again in blistering sunshine but with promise of rain and storms. We set up camp in the sunshine determined to take advantage of the rays while they lasted and I peppered Lee with demented questions as the race began, (whose that, what are they doing, why is he doing that, is that Hamilton or is that Button?) Bless him he humoured me, and I soon got the hang of it! We'd wised up this time and got ear plugs to stop the sound being too deafening and shortly after the race started, we noticed a daft thing! Whenever one of us wanted to talk to the other we would take out our own earplugs and shout in the ear of the other who was still wearing their earplugs! Somewhat back to front don't you think! We also discovered that when you eat crisps with earplugs in that crunching is mighty loud!
Before we knew it, the race was over, and even as a non F1 fan it was fab, the atmosphere was great, and the sun stayed out and the Tiger beer kept flowing so all in all happy Bambrough's! The only downside was that as we went to the race, I said to Lee that it would be cool to see one spin off, as long as no one got hurt as it would be a bit of drama. Now where we were sat, we could see two corners clearly and few a bit further back, so I awaited eagerly for said drama as a few skidded a little on the corners. Then I got my wish - two spun off on two different occasions sending the little men in jumpsuits running to collect them. Unfortunately, both times I was watching the flaming other corner! Still they did hoist up the cars and drive them past us and I asked Lee whether it was F1 etiquette to use football type chants such as 'you don't know what you're doing' and 'who are you' as the failed drivers went past in a walk of shame- apparently not though.
After an exciting afternoon and a long journey back we are in KLCC again, ready for an early night as we have to be up at 2am to get to the airport for our flight to Vietnam, where we are dotting about for the next 2 weeks (can you believe we have only been away for 1 week and 2 days - it feels like forever!) We're using the net in the Petronus towers which is surrounded by you've guessed it a mall. It's tres western and boasts both a Topshop and a Marks and Sparks, so there is little choice to go local for foods. Therefore, tonight we are going out for a 'western' i.e. grabbing a burger king before we head back to try and get some sleep! I'll update again in a few days; we're flying into Hanoi and then we are going for a 2 day and 1-night cruise on a junk boat in Halong Bay so I'll update when we get back from that!
Thanks so much everyone for the kind messages, I'm glad you're all enjoying my demented ramblings - I like writing them as a record of the trip as we don't want to forget a second! With regard to pics, we're really struggling to put them up as the download speed here is really slow (We've put up 4 from the Kinabalu climb (and as you can all see one didn't load - I'm editing this from Hanoi!) and it's taken just under an hour to do them!) If we get anywhere quicker, we'll put more up - honest, if we can't we'll continue putting up a few at a time and the put loads on when we get back!
Hugest of chocolatey Easter hugs to you all!
Love Kat & Lee xxxx
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