So over the last two days, Chris has gotten out of the house a little and is definitely getting stronger on his crutches. On Friday, we went back to the doctor for a check up. Now, doctor's here don't give you individual appointments. They have office hours and it's first come, first serve during those hours. After spending 5 days driving to the hospital at various hours, I learned enough to know that it would be impossible to find parking at 10:30 AM, so we cabbed it in and arrived at 10:39 AM. We were told to check in at the desk, where we were given a number and told to go to the 1st floor, room 13. We went upstairs to a giant waiting room and joined a few other folks outside our room. 1.5 hours later, we were still sitting there waiting for our number to come up, so I finally asked a nurse when we would be seen, only to learn that the front desk person never registered our number (not sure how that happens since it is printed by the computer she was operating). Anyway, they got us in and Chris' check up went well. Things seem to be healing nicely and the doctor was happy with the range of motion Chris has in his hip/ leg. Still, no weight bearing exercises at all, even for the upper body as the bones and blood vessels in the hip need time to heal. Chris was disappointed, but we will go back in 2 weeks for xrays to see how everything is coming along and see if the cast can come off the wrist.
So Friday night has traditionally been our eating out night (even before we came to Penang), so we decided to try crutching over to Gurney Plaza next door to eat at our favorite Chinese place. Brenna loves the crab rolls and we love the fried rice and various chicken or beef dishes. We decided to stop at the bookstore first to pick up some workbooks for Brenna to use over the summer (multiplication needs work!). I just love book stores and am so happy to see they are still very popular here. Chris made it through the whole adventure with just a few stops to rest. Once we got home, we had another visit from friends Andrew, Chun, Kelvin and Mei Ling (who brought another one of her fabulous cakes - this one chocolate mint - and some homemade jam). They also brought Chris' bike back....it's actually in good shape with the exception of the rear wheel, which resembles a figure 8. His body obviously took most of the impact... We had a good visit with the group - most of them were heading out early Saturday to KL for a night run on Saturday (which Chris had planned to do with them, but....). We hope they all do well and have a great time!
Saturday was exciting for Brenna - finally a play date with her friend Jade!! Jade and her family arrived at our place about 10:30 and we had a good visit. The girls spent some time playing Moshi and then went for a quick swim. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to feed them as it went by too fast. After lunch, we Neilsons headed up to Queensbay Mall on a mission to find a Wii! Our friend Thuan had offered to help us figure out which place to go to and met us there. Gaming systems here typically are "unlocked" or "cracked" so they can play the bootleg games that are common here. Our new Wii came preloaded with about 12 games of our choice and we can add about 18 more in the future. It will also play our discs from home, so we're all set. While we were there, we decided to spring for a PS3 as well since they have more games Chris likes. An expensive trip for us!! The other downside was that it took almost 2 hours to load all those games, so we had to kill some time in the least painful way for Chris. We ended up at the Ace Hardware store there, checking out BBQ grills. We really miss our grill, but were not prepared to spend another 2,000 RM (about $700) on a grill we would pay about $300 for at home. We may go back another time for a simple Weber grill, which will still cost us about $250...ouch! The real find was the aisle with all the cleaning supplies....they had EVERYTHING from home - Windex, Clorox Cleanup, Clorox wipes, Tide detergent, Comet, some of the new eco-friendly brands and, my favorite....Barkeeper's Friend!! I've never been so excited about cleaning supplies. Unfortunately, most cost about $8 US or more, so I did not splurge, but at least I know where to find stuff if I really need it! We ended up getting home pretty late, so it was a simple leftover dinner for us and a movie with Brenna Boo. It was a long, but good day in Penang!
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