Rubenerd

Well after three days of relaxation my family and I are finally back from our mini holiday in Fraser's Hill. "I" in this case meaning myself and not the visual aids of which we have two in our heads collectilvely known as "eyes". Hope that cleared up the apparent confusion.

The main reason we went on this trip was to give my mum a break from her always fun chemo regeme. She literally lives her life in her bedroom and commuting from that aformentioned place to the Gleneagles Intan hospital, or medical centre, or hospital medical centre or whatever they're calling it now. Really not a fun thing in the slightest, so just a change of scenery does her the world of good.

Fraser's hill really is a beautiful place. From what I understand (and given its not computers or coffee, that phrase is even more pertenent) the town is a 1920s era mountain station built by the British as a cool place to escape to when the tropical heat of Kuala Lumpur got to their poor little temperate-climatised heads. The architecture is very European and it certainly has very cool – some would even say chilly* – weather.

* I never understood why you call cold weather "chilly". Aren't "chillis" really quite hot? No I'm not hitting on a chilli by saying it looks attractive, I'm referring to the intensity of it's flavour. Seriously.

From the obviously inpartial Tourism Pahang website:

Rising 1,500 meters above sea-level on the Titiwangsa mountain range of Peninsular Malaysia is Fraser's Hill. Named after a solitary Scottish pioneer, James Fraser, who set up a tin-ore trading post in the 1890s, it actually consists of seven hills. Fraser's Hill is truly an idyllic place for one to rest and to escape from not only the heat and humidity but also the hustle and bustle of city life. It is perhaps the prettiest of the Malaysian Hill resorts.

The other reason I'm sure my mum likes it is she gets breakfast in bed and it's extremely quiet and peaceful. Of course while she was enjoying the breakfast and the peacefullness (is that a word?) my dad and I managed to do some nature hiking and exploring around the waterfalls and rock formations through the forest. I'll try and post some pictures when I'm not sitting at my Mac at 01am typing and rudely waking up when my head hits the table after dozing off.

Anyway we're all back, so stay tuned for more posts and more Rubenerd Shows if not tomorrow then Thursday.

My parents and I are currently at a retreat in Pahang in eastern Malaysia to help my mum recover from her latest painful cycle of chemotherapy. The next Rubenerd Show will be available next week. There is limited internet access there so emails and posts probably won’t get replied to till then either. Thank you everyone – Ruben

- Rubenerd Show site as of yesterday, placed here for no reason other than to make the post appear longer than it actually is, that way I type less but it looks to the unsuspecting eye that I’ve typed more. Very clever technique if you ask me; feel free to implement this on your own blog. Don’t ask me for technical support when you need help implementing this though, I’m busy enough as it is.