December 2017

I was not going to write a December blog as some of the month was already covered in the 2017 summary blog. Enough has happened not to have a gap in the records.

Nikki duly completed her 6 weeks medical stint here and by all accounts enjoyed it. She said the staff were really getting to know her when her time finished. Her mentor is perhaps the only foreign surgeon in Malaysia….certainly Penang……. so a white woman with the same ambition is indeed a rarity. Neal arrived and he and Nikki with Helen’s guidance saw a bit of Penang they hadn’t seen before. We went out for several memorable meals and each member of the household had several nights of preparing food for the others. Nikki and especially Neal put in a great shift preparing the Christmas dinner…of course with Helen highly involved. John and Baby and Mike joined us for Christmas dinner. On another night, we enjoyed dinner and different beers at a pop-up restaurant in George Town that was held in and old saw-mill. You can see from the picture the Mike gets highly involved in the tasting process. On Christmas morning we had, what has now become a tradition…. Pesto Pancakes with cream cheese and smoked salmon. ….with Prosecco…the current trendy drink. A nice trend too.

Coincidently Nikki enjoyed "The Long White Cloud'......hops from New Zealand and blended in Scotland.

Nikki and Neal are now in Los Angeles, staying with Neal’s relatives while Nikki prepares for another 6 week medical stint. It was great having Nikki home for so long and they are booked to return on their way back to New Zealand and Okinawa.

The weather has been a bit better over the last month….I even got out for a couple of shoots. My favourite Penanti seems to be only a shadow of its former self. The motocross riders have abandoned it. I did have a bit more luck at Byram in the lee of the state rubbish dump.

Black-capped Kingfisher

Pied Stilt

Sunda Woodpecker (very small)

Blue-tailed Bee-eater.... leaning into the wind

Courting Dollarbirds

White-throated Kingfisher

Greater Coucal

On the photo competition front it was the month for the entries to the BBC Wildlife Competition and the ANZANG one also. The latter being confined subject wise to pics taken in NZ, Oz and PNG. My best shot in both competitions would be the Brolga displaying. I have included the smoking Kingfisher is an applied section in the BBC.

I did not figure in the major prize list in the Comedy Wildlife competition. I have no issues with the winner but the organization was indeed very poor. The following images are the top 3 and my favourite.....if sex is a comedy act.

The crow is getting more independent. Some days I do not see it until nearly 2pm. I do see him at least once per day. I read where imprinted crows are not very successful in adapting to the ‘wild’. I would dispute this as my boy has twice beaten off larger crows in defending his food. I get the odd bite and boy he packs a punch. Raising him has been a novel experience and I have enjoyed it…even when he removes pegs from the washing and raids the kitchen. We hired a Uber car to go the pop-up restaurant and we left with a crow standing on the roof of the car…..but not for long. I now feed him cubes of pork (which is cheap) and I leave raisins out for him, which he enjoys.

The lawn had to be semi-replanted and it seems to be OK for now albeit a bit patchy where the old meets the new. I also append another shot of our orchid…..taken with a video camera.

We are about to dump our cable company after upgrading the internet speed. I have been spending some time this week looking for on-line providers of rugby, lawn bowling and sometimes cricket. We are enjoying some shows on Netflix….especially ‘The Crown”.

Helen and I with you all...a happy and healthy 2018