Trutt's Travels

Keep up Troy!

rutttroy — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 02:28:00 GMT

I'm the worst blogger ever! I need to make more of an effort and give more details as my memory is terrible.

So....to summise;

1) Flew back to UK for a week for Nicky and Rachel's wedding - amaaazing!

2) Half-term trip to Koh Rong in Cambodia with Andy, Rachel M and Rachel B

3) Continuing to visit and adore the MB's baby Heidi

4) Planning trips for the next year lol!

5) Ah yes I am the new Head of Year 7 as of September

Tomorrow is the last day of term, marking one full academic year at Tenby and almost one full year in Malaysia. I cannot believe how quickly time has gone! It felt full circle with seeing some of the Y11 prom pics from my old school. Rajan, Milica, Abbie, Cameron and Tia..if you're reading this, you all looked amazing and I cannot believe how grown up you look - I was a little emotional and wish I could have been there lol!

So I am not coming home for the Summer but will be for 3 weeks in December - any ex-students who will still be at Brooke, I'll see you then. Friend and family I look forward to seeing you!

So what am I doing for the summer? Wellllll;

1) On Saturday flying to Hong Kong for a week - going by myself but have planned to see Scott and Alex who I haven' seen since Canada yearrrs ago! Keita will be there for a couple of days too so that will be fun

2) Mum and Dad are making the trip over for first two weeks of August so it will be fab to see them and I need to limit our activities so they don't get too tired lol. Mum was saying she can't wait for the heatwave to be over in the UK...I'm like errrr it's always hot in Malaysia (hotter too!)

3) 4 day trip to Bali alone - one-bed villa with a private pool. Cocktails and history books = re-charging bliss!

4) Ubaid's visiting at end of August

So the summer is pretty packed!

The plan is still to come home in Aug/Sept 2019 via trip to New Zealand (Rachel B), and I might be straight to London if the house-sitting for Dhiren and Simon is still on for Sept-Dec 2019...will be amazing if it is! Back to my spiritual home lol!

So I have already been thinking about where else I want to go before I leave (if I do leave!) and arranging visits in general...the list includes so far;

1) Oct - Myanmar with Dawn

2) Nov - Deepavali; visit by Kate, George and Rho-Rho

3) Dec - 3 weeks in UK and then Pedro visiting Boxing Day for week including New Year!

4) Feb/Mar - Philippines and a visit somewhere there from Spencer fingers crossed

5) April - Qatar to see Wifey (Christina) and visit from the Aurikkos'

6) May - Tioman Islands

7) June - South Korea...my spiritual food home ahah

So much planned and so much excitement on the horizon! Still plenty time to come and visit!

Full report of HK trip in just over a week - see you then ;)

Troy x

Ipoh Fun!

rutttroy — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 08:00:00 GMT

A couple of hours north of KL lies the city of Ipoh. I was reliably informed it is known for its beansprouts, which quite frankly did not sound that appealing. I eat my words (well beansprouts), they are delicious. Juicy and full of flavour served alongside some yummy soy sauce covered noodles - soooo good. The city was small and compact but full of gorgeous architechure. Remnants of its colonial past at the ornate railway station and clock tower alongside typical Chinese architecture in the old town's houses; dark woods and shutters aplenty. We explore 'Concubine Lane' where traders were selling their wares, delicious peanut candy and coconut buns, not to forget the refreshing ice pops that were well needed! Ipoh also has a lot of street art, not dissimiliar to Penang - beautifully painted and intricate tales they told. Had some delicious evening food in the evening - reminded me of the yummy Indian food from Leicester/South Londn ahaha! On the final day we explored the Sam Poh Pong Temple - a beautful Buddhist temple built into a cave where I burnt some incencese and made my wish for...it's a secret! Overall a fantastic weekend with Keita, Adduni and Justine...what adventures next!?

T x

Gong Xi Fa Cai! (Happy Chinese New Year)

rutttroy — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 03:43:00 GMT

Helloooooo!

It has been ages since I have updated my blog - sorry! So much has happened and I will attempt to let you know my latest escapades without boring you too much!

So we all returned safely from Port Dickson after a fun 'camp' albeit with 36 mosquito bites - those darn things love me!

We broke up for the Christmas holidays on November 30th and I was faced with a month off - hard right?! Ahahaha!

Firstly spent a week in Vietnam with Amy and Brad. So lovely to catch up with them, I wish we were neighbours - maybe a future placement!? Me and Amy did the PRISM run which was basically a cross between a rave and a colour run. If I needed further evidence to prove it, I am so out of shape lol. It was fun nonetheless and hung out with Brad in the day, getting important things down like mani/pedi ; ) Great to see the girls too and had lots of fun at a BOUNCE type like place with Delilah before heading to a French bakery for cupcakes - this is how you spend holidays my friends! The only down side was that I was rather poorly and was diagnosed with pharyngitis (throat infection) and was given a course of antibioitcs - 200 GBP to see the doctor and prescription...appreciate your NHS! Spent couple days in central HCM exploring the amazing War Remnants Museum - you should all go! I LOVE HCM - could definitely live there.

After this I went back to KL for the weekend and then on to UK for Christmas. Was so excited to come home and see everyone and it didn't dissapoint. Stayed with my lovely bestie Carrie and god-daughter Connie. So great to catch up. Managed to see loads of lovely friends over the break but was still ill so had to cut back on a few social gatherings lol. I was sooooo cold in UK, going from 30c to 3c in a day! I had no winter clothes in London so heavily borrowed haha! Headed back to Kettering after a week in London and just as there tried to see as many people as possible, highlights seeing school peeps, Mel's party, seeing my old tutor group (miiiis them!), work friends, family, annual uni meal and of course being reunited with my wifey xxx Still ill so saw the doctor and said I had tonsilities now and more antibiotics were given!

Back to KL on 27th after spending time with family on Xmas Day. A fab New Year at Desa City with work peeps accompanied with the hangover from hall/jet lag/illness...but I solidered on!

So back to work and it has been great. It feels super chilled and the time is just flying by. I have gone past 6 months now which seems crazy and have just signed off my probationary period. Have applied for Head of History so we will see how that goes. Been my sociable self of course and spending too much - trying to limit my outgoings with the high tax :(

So it was half term last week (Wed-Wed which seems strange) and I had such a lovely chilled time. Tried a wine buffet with Rachel, Rachel and Andy - never again. Greek wine is cheap for a reason, but always fun hanging out with them. Working on my tan as always! Ara Green 'bake off' where mine and Keita's AMAZING cupcakes were under appreciated, nonetheless a fun night had by all. On Monday went on a Segway tour of Putrajaya which was so much fun - who doesn't love a Segway! Putrajaya was surprisingly beautiful too! Caught up with an old school friend too (Simon) and his family which was lovely after 8 years! Back to work now and plodding along until the end of Term 2 (Easter - Thursday 29th March)

I am back for a FLYING visit from 29th March - 5th April for Nicky and Rachel's wedding. Very excited and I'm an usher too! Will be in Leicester Thu/Fri/Sat morning, Kettering Sat aft/evening, Sun-Tues and London on Wednesday before an early flight on Thursday! Busy busy but excited. Should be having Faye and family stay for a weekend in April, Dawn in May and Pedro for New Year.

Come visit soon! I am not planning on returning to the UK until Summer 2019 after my Easter visit so make the most of my spare room and relatively low airfares (500 GBP) and come stay!!! Off to CNY celebration on Friday at Suet Wei's house - fireworks and food await woo hoo!

Troy xxx

Camp - Fairthorne Flashbacks!

rutttroy — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 12:00:00 GMT

So I am off to camp tomorrow (Port Dickson) for three days. Now it does seem like a hotel with a pool and not quite a YMCA so all good...I just need to make sure there are no wasp nests nearby! I am glad that there is raft building on the agenda - I do like to sabotage them!

Wish me luck!

Troy :)

Weekend Jaunt in Thailand

rutttroy — Sun, 19 Nov 2017 16:31:00 GMT

So last weekend I flew to Thailand, as you do. I went to the island of Phuket for two days, which is only 1hr 30mins by plane (50 GBP - bargain!) I met up with my friend Xavier from London who is travelling around South-East Asia. We were really lucky to have good weather as it is low season at the moment - rain seems to follow me. The beaches were beautiful and I certainly saw a lot more westerners/tourists. I wanted to shout I'm an expat not a traveller - the complete snob in me ahaha!

Experience some fun nightlife - a restaurant with a Tiger theme where the seats were tiger print and strange models of Tigers leaping out of the sides of the walls, one clutching a fake deer in its teeth - charming! They tried to get us up to sing, I had not had enough 'adult grape juice' to do this. We then went and watched an excellent drag show. 'Such fun!'

Called it a night fairly early (midnight) as we had to leave at 8am for a boat trip to Phi Phi and surrounding islands. The weather was fantastic this day - sunny and hot all day. We went to Monkey Island where not surprisingly we saw lots of monkeys and then did some snorkelling. There were so many beautiful fish of different colours - reminded me of 'Finding Nemo'. A quick lunch stop and then we went to Maya Beach which is where they filmed the Leonardo de Caprio film 'The Beach'. It was stunning! Final stop at another island, more like an atoll. We sat at a bar on the beach with reggae music playing - it felt very Caribbean!

We arrived back to Phuket at 6pm where I had to get a taxi straight to the airport for my 9pm flight home. Back in KL by 1am - but so worth it.

In other news...just booked a trip to Cambodia for May (40GBP flight!), school 'camp' (hotel/beach) on Wednesday-Friday, Ara Green (my condo) Xmas Dinner on Saturday and finish work on Thursday 30th November. Off to Vietnam for a week then back to UK on 11-28 December. I am popping into Brooke (my old school) to see my friends and tutees on Monday 18th December (tutor time and lunchtime) - I can't wait!

Peace out!

Troy :)

Vietnam

rutttroy — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 12:51:00 GMT

I must update this more regularly!

Soooo it was Deepavali (Diwali) half-term back in October and I took myself off to Vietnam for a week. I met up with my mate Pedro (Pete) in Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon and we explored the city. I LOVE HCM! Such a beautiful, busy and bustling place! Stayed in a colonial style hotel where Graham Greene wrote his 'The Quiet American' - culture! I mainly wondered around the city taking in the sights, it was strange seeing U.S helicopters just on the corner of the road! Did the traditional rooftop bar which was great albeit with questionable entertainment. Some call it professional singing, I call it karoake (not as good as my Ricky Martin 'She Bangs' if I do say so myself).

We met up with an old friend (Brooke colleague and from Uni), Amy and her husband Brad (and their adorable girls). I had not seen her for over a year so it was wonderful to catch up. They took us to this great Craft Brewery - Pasteur Street Brewery Saigon...needless to say we were there a long time and memories became blurred. We then went back for a BBQ to eat ALL the meat in Vietnam I beleive lol!

On Tuesday, after realising I had booked the wrong flight and quickly booking another (bargain at 20GBP), we flew down to Phu Quoc island. Only an hour away and interesting cabin crew outfits from VietJet Air (think 'The High Life' from the 1990s) we arrived A fantastic hotel and because we were in low season, there were few customers. Nice little bungalow, pool and resort overlooking the ocean - bliss! We were lucky to have great weather too as it had not been predicted!

Dawn (Brooke) flew from UK to join us on Wednesday and we mainly sunbathed and made the most of those bars you can swim up to! We were there for hours and clearly entertained the locals with our drinking habits and photo posing lol! We went out for some nice meals and worked on topping that tan up. I am not coming back to the UK without a tan at Christmas!

We all left on Saturday and me and Dawn flew back to KL, before heading to Mantra Bar that night...this great rooftop bar.

In the last few days we went to an amazing crab restaurant (chilli crab - yum!) with Dawn's old work colleague, hawker centre opposite my condo and Korean BBQ - food much!? I was sad to see Dawn go, but a Christmas catch-up is planned!

I loved Vietnam so much that I am going back in the first week of December before coming home to UK for Xmas.

Troy :)

Birthday

rutttroy — Thu, 5 Oct 2017 09:00:00 GMT

Hello! Well it was a strange birthday - not used to celebrating without all my lovely friends...certainly missed you all! It's not a Troy Rutt birthday without me announcing it at least 3 months in advance, then a month, and a weekly update. I was very mature and only mentioned it at work in the days leading up to it ahaha!

About 15 of us went out for drinks last Friday to celebrate at the very Malaysian name 'Tom, Dick and Harry's Pub' ;) Still getting used to how expensive alcohol is - I paid 5 pound for a pint of cider. Thank goodness I took the wise decision to pack the gin lol. I had a lovely evening, I appreciated my new work peeps coming out to celebrate to distract me from missing everyone!

Unfortunately I woke up the next day really poorly (I thought it was a hangover lol). It appeared that I caught the cold that had been going round the school; sore throat, head ache, chills etc. So I spent my birthday weekend in bed/on the coach watching films and eating takeaway. Not really what I had in mind - had planned to go to Heli (rooftop bar in KL) for cocktails and join my friend Saleem for her birthday on Sunday at the Ritz-Carlton for aftgernoon tea...but heh ho I guess I needed the rest.

It also appears that Malaysian post is poor and things are taking 3 weeks to get here! I received my first UK birthday cards yesterday ahah! I did get some nice ones and pressies from work people too - so I am just dragging my birthday out which isn't a bad thing.

Only one more week at work and then it is half term (6 week term here). Looking forward to my week in Vietnam with Pete and Dawn, and then Dawn is coming back to KL for a week...then Jeet arrives for a week in November. Exciting times! I am flying home for Christmas from 11-28 December and I am spending five days in London and the remainder in Kettering...hope to see as many as you as possible. Also want to pop into school to see my old tutees if they will let me in!

Update you soon!

T xxx

Langkawi

rutttroy — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 11:47:00 GMT

So just back from another long weekend lol - I do love the number of public holidays in Malaysia!

An hours flight and we were on the island of Langkawi (me and the other teachers).

Not amazing weather sadly but warm as always and beautiful beaches. We went up the cable car and across the bridge to get panoramic views of the islands and saw some monkeys!

Dined on the beach and ate loads of food (as usual) - such a beauiful place and I will definitely be back!

Booked flights to Vietnam yesterday for my half term! Looking forward to seeing Pete and Dawn...just 3 weeks!

I actually have to teach a full week now...outrageous!

T x

Photos: Ara Green Residences

rutttroy — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 14:20:00 GMT

My Malaysian Home!

Absent Blogger

rutttroy — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 11:15:00 GMT

Hellooooooooo!

I've finally managed to get hold of some internet time at school to update my blog...being connected at home on Thursday (fingers crossed).

So much to report so I will probably forget some things.

I have a place to live! A lovely two-bed condo with great views of the pool. There are three pools on site, a gym, sauna, karoake room, rock-climbing wall and squash/badminton courts! Paying about RM2300 per month (which is approximately 480GBP). A lot of teachers at my school live there too which is great and I have already been to a BBQ there and out a few times with them.

I live opposite a hawker centre too so lots of great food at cheap prices. My fave is strangley (or not) marmite chicken - its soo good! Only RM7 for the dish (1.50GBP). I am eating out lots. My health kick (probably not to my old tutees surprise is not going that well ahaha!) I have been going to the gym and trying classes, but I always then eat out after aha!

They love a holiday here - we have so many public holidays. We were given an additional one last week as Malaysia did so well at the SEA Games (small version of the Olympics for south-east asian countries). I am all for it! We also have next Friday off - I couldn't tell you why. I am planning to go to Langkawi with the new teachers for a long weekend. It's a beautful island and I am determined to get tanned (I have already got burnt once - such an englishman!)

Nightlife here is good - KL is a bit pricey at times, especially for alcohol, but must other things are cheap. I got my face painted at a club at the weekend for some strange reason...I am all for it ahaha!

School is good - I find it strange to open my classroom door to the outside. Thank goodness for a/c - it is sooooo hot, well it is the humidity that is the killer! The kids are nice, mainly Chinese Malay. Very polite. They call me Mr Troy which makes me laugh so much - I don't think I will get used to that! They are very quite though, not contributing much in class and I do miss the 'bants' of the kids at my school - much more personality. I have a Y8 form group and learning names is the hardest.

Well I shall dash off for now but will update more regularly once I have internet.

Love to all!

Troy x

Photos: Eve Suites

rutttroy — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 02:14:00 GMT

Potential New KL Home! First viewing hopefully when I get there - keep your fingers crossed!

Almost time...

rutttroy — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 17:30:00 GMT

So I've sold my car, my cd's, dvds, earnt some extra money through exam marking and travelled all over the UK 'seeing you soon' to family and friends. Out for dinner tonight with my uni girls and on Thursday I will be off! I cannot believe the time is almost here. I read through some of my cards (particularly from the wonderful students I taught and my tutees (my kids!) which brought a tear to my eye again. I've been rushing through the hols not thinking too much about what may or may not happen in Malaysia, best to just go for it!

Under construction

rutttroy — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 08:24:00 GMT

Move to Malaysia on Thursday 17th August 2017

Flight EK002 LHR to Dubai

Flight EK346 Dubai to Kuala Lumpur