May has been a diverse but wet month. Locally a
political tsunami took place early in the month when a coalition led by a 92
year-old ex-Prime-minister beat the party that has ruled Malaysia for 62 years.
The public were somewhat annoyed by the ex-PM seemingly stealing over 4 billion
$ from a public fund. The common folk also objected to GST which has now been
eliminated but has left a huge hole in the budget. The Chief Executive Minister
of Penang is now the Federal Government’s minister of finance……which should be
good for Penang. The ex-PM’s wife, by all accounts as avaricious at Imelda
Marcos, has had a zillion designer bags confiscated in police raids along with
suitcases full of jewelry and cash. She and her husband complained that the
police took some chocolates from their fridge!!!
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| Pakatan Harapan |
The Manchester United team.....oops I mean the Malaysia United team did not do too well
More importantly May saw Nikki’s and Helen’s
respective birthdays.
On the home front we have had a handful of folk
look through our house. There is some evidence that people were holding back in
the lead-up to the election. One wife was interested in the house but the
husband did not like living near Indians and middle Eastern people. I have not
seen anyone answering the latter description.
While we wait the Fantails are happy to come and swim and dance.
May should be a month at the sharp end for
action with the local fauna. It has been up there with the action but the
weather also has an input on various missions.
The temple Bee-eaters have been in full swing
feeding their broods in the plastic pipes. It is a big and very active colony. I
was delighted to record the forcible extraction of one dominant chick who was
hogging all the incoming food at the expense of its siblings.
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| The extraction of the chick that took 0.6 seconds |
Elsewhere I have got closer to the Kingfishers
at Penanti. It was a different pair from previous years and they were rather
camera shy. I thought stray dogs had destroyed their nest hole but was extremely
pleased to see three young chicks that had fledged and were being fed by the
parents. Three weeks later the chicks were still shadowing the parents….who
seem a bit annoyed sometimes at the close attention.
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| The kids |
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| Dad's dilemma...small bug and two hungry chicks |
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| Go away and stop annoying me |
The Blue-tailed Bee-eaters have arrived to do
their nesting but do not seem to be in a roaring hurry.
Overseas Dani has been busy running another marathon in
Edinburgh where boyfriend Rob was also subjected to the Gerry-test.
Nikki is currently doing her training in
Masterton and is staying with friends Gary and Di……they helped celebrate her
birthday.
On our pub quiz front my records show we have
had one win, two thirds and one 4th during May.
On the indoor construction front, I have been making bread for about 3-4 years now but it constantly needs tweaking to get consistency. One of the hardest parts is to get it cleanly out of the tins. Most home bakers do not have the ability to cut the bread evenly.....I have seen some real doorstops. I made up a simple cutting device that cuts evenly. We make up two loaves, cut them and freeze it for later use. We are not big bread eaters having a sandwich each for lunch. I only use the bread machine to mix the dough and do the first rise. They are hopeless at baking unless the element is on the top.
