My lovely new friends T2 (sorry T2, there’s already a T) and HH (Chinese Malaysians get two initials) picked me up at lunchtime today. We drove along the coast to Batu Ferringhi, where we had lunch, and then on to Penang’s Tropical Spice Garden.

A sort of botanical garden-cum-jungle, the spice garden contained, among other things: herbs and spices in their wild habitat, rather like a zoo; the world’s largest leaves (possibly); the world’s coolest swing (definitely); a sign warning us not to shelter under trees, and to remain seated in the tractor; a cafe up on the hill which served massala tea; and a cat called Molly.

T2 and I sat on the huge swing and talked about our home towns, and school, and it was lovely. A truly calming, peaceful spot, where the breeze hit us and the swing swung with such smoothness.

And yet I felt a little lost.

I had an invitation to dinner tonight, too… But when I got back home (funny, I think that’s the first time I’ve called the hotel “home”), I showered off the day’s humidity (and anti-mosquito spray), called my parents on Skype - and was hit by a huge wave of home/friendsickness, and a desire for solitude and quiet. So I cancelled tonight’s dinner date (sorry, guys).

I’m sure that the vague sense of feeling ‘lost’, and the need for quiet tonight, are a hangover from last week’s events.

And thus, I suppose, it will go. Until it doesn’t go like this anymore.

And as the song says: along with the sunshine, there’s gotta be a little rain sometimes.

Here are a few pictures from the afternoon (with more here):

(Oh, and Tracy: you were right).

J came up with another much-loved, but seldom-heard, classic in the bar tonight (last night? Egads, it’s another late one).

This song.

I used to play ‘War Baby’ on loop when I was a teen. And yet I’ve barely heard it, and it had disappeared from my consciousness, ever since then. Until last night.

Admittedly, again, it’s not jazz. But it’s at least jazzier than Andrew Gold’s ‘Never Let Her Slip Away’. And it’s just such a wonderful song. With quite possibly one of the best opening-line lyrics in pop.

(Note: that first link is also a download. Tom Robinson, rather brilliantly, has put all his album tracks up for free on his website here. Another track I loved from Hope And Glory is this one. Listening to it again now, I’m struck that even as a 13-year-old, I seemed to be (a) a romantic and (b) a nascent jazz lover).

So, my Lost In Translation experience tonight was the scene where Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray go to a local club, invited by their local friends.

I would put up a screengrab, but my new Macbook won’t let me take screengrabs of DVDs. Poo!

Slightly less poo is the fact that, yes, I took delivery of that new Macbook. It’s a black one. Which feels both slightly corporate, and evil. Not unlike the Darth Vader of laptops.

Here’s a picture of me taken with it on the first day. (Aww, me and my Macbook - our first day! *Sigh*). Well, Rachel, you did ask for pictures of me enjoying my life out here:

Look! You can see my bed, and lamp, and everything. And I am actually enjoying life more than I may appear to be doing in that photo.