February has been a good month, especially because of the visit of Dani and Rob. They were very busy using the facilities of the condo and being ferried around to local sites by the best guide in town.
I don’t understand what dogs know but with Nikki and Dani, despite up to two years between visits Coco knows, they are family.
Thaipusam coincided with D and R’s visit and they enjoyed the spectacle.
Dani and Rob spent a couple of nights in Langkawi and we finished their visit with a nice restaurant dinner despite competition from the adjacent mosque.
Helen has almost got back into a normal program of English tutoring. She continues to enjoy the Saturday morning hill walks and the Art Society meetings.
Helen spent 4 days in Singapore over one weekend catching up with some old friends.
She continues to be the best chef in town.
We continue to enjoy the views from the apartment with the cruise ships coming and going and the many different weather and light patterns.
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| The patterns from shoals of surface-swimming fish |
The image below is rather a historical shot with the first cruise boat built for Royal Caribbean and one of the more recent ones (Quantum of the Seas), which was the third biggest in the world when built 4 years ago. There is 45 years between the construction of the two ships.
The King and Queen did not visit this month but the road below was closed for about 90 minutes one day for an around Malaysia bike race. The cyclists were in three groups so what you see below is not the full contingent.
The local wildlife keeps me amused at the moment. The White-bellied Sea eagles (who seem to have a nest up the hill behind) and the Spectacled Leaf Monkeys who make quite frequent appearances.
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| The fence top is their rapid-rail system. |
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| Clouded Monitor Lizard |
Coco continues to have great fun at the beach. The big boys were away for 2 periods and when that happens she amuses herself by fetching sticks from the sea. Poodles were originally bred as retrievers so it is perhaps in their DNA. She has not had a lot of opportunity to show this skill before. Although her breed is sometimes called French Poodles their origins were arguably in Germany.
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| Overly ambitious |
Because of various reasons I have not been hugely active with wildlife photography in the last month. Four out of five of my sites have been degraded to extinction. I have had a few visits to the remaining viable site and it usually produces something.
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| Asian Open-billed Storks |
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| A family of White-throated Kingfishers |
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| Yellow-bellied Prinia |
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| A Carpenter Bee with the spectral wings |
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| A Carpenter Bee that flew too close to a Blue-tailed Bee-eater |
I go to Thailand for 5 days at the beginning of March and to Ecuador in the second half of next month.........travel restrictions withstanding.
During the last week there were reports in the paper of a sandstorm along Gurney Drive. There was some speculation, amongst the bad and naive journalism as to the source or the cause. They only had to look over the fence at the extensive man-made sand dunes that are part of a by-pass scheme. it was windy for a few days....when Helen was in Singapore.
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| Image from the media |
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| The encroaching desert |
Malaysia does not generally look good in the eyes of onlookers, with disappearing planes and light-fingered prime ministers. The current political scene is a total shamble. The 94 year old Prime Minister wants to change the look of his cabinet and party-swapping is more popular than wife-swapping.
We have had a good start in the pub quiz for the year, albeit with different members, with 4 firsts and 3 thirds. Dani and Rob doing a good job one night.
This is Derek (below) who was standing in for Mike. We had tied for first and we sent him up for the tiebreak question......which was ' How many marriages in Las Vegas, on average, each day.
Derek has had three marriages and appeared to be the ideal man for the job....unfortunately he thought everyone else was cast from the same mould and over-estimated the number by 300%. hence the beer and not the spirits.
...and a final salute to the young lady who gives life everything.
