2012; appreciating family and nature

Fireworks heralded 2012 over Gurney Drive near to our home in Penang. Although a few months after retirement this was to be the first calendar year with a new challenge.

Boys and Girls

Before Christmas Elisabeth had come to Penang and to interact with her aunts. I think a few of the local lads found some interest in the tall blonde too.

Dani left before Christmas to continue her first year at Cambridge. She did well throughout the year and was happy with her final results. In her long vacation she did not sit around watching the leaves fall and arranged projects in South Korea and Bolivia.  Her illustrated accounts of both of these adventures can be found in an adjacent listing under ‘Dani’s Travel Blog’. Nikki had a daunting year lined up to complete her honours year for her BSc. A lab project was on the menu plus a number of assignments. She worked hard and achieved some very good results graduating before proud parents and relatives in December. Nikki wishes to do post-graduate medicine and sat the infamous GAMSAT exam earlier in the year. Many medically-directed youngsters have their hopes dashed with this exam. Nikki was not too impressed with the exam but accrued enough marks to warrant an interview at Melbourne University in late September. Nikki has worked very hard in her honours year and deserves the high grades she gets. Both girls have made us very proud and our only wish os that they achieve their dreams and are happy with their lives.

Dani at Machu Picchu

         Son Paul and Marie purchased a new house and Paul continues to do well in his current job although other pastures beckon. Elisabeth has one more year at school while young Daniel has come along in leaps and bounds despite have some problems with a relatively common ear condition. Marie has directed operations for the family while hoping to get back into the workforce soon.

Second son Glen and Debbie also purchased a new house and their growing family is active in many sports and dancing. Glen has been assigned some mines in Mozambique to look after and plans are still afoot to relocate the family for a few years….possibly.

Hayley, Nathan and Phoebe

Daniel with Marie

Elisabeth

The Home

Most of the things the house required to make a home had been completed in the final months of last year. We have added more plants to the garden to provide more colour and of course to attract more birds……..the species list now stands at 12 for the compact section. There has also been the occasional appearance of a reptile or two. We also replaced an upstairs deck with some hardy tropical wood replacing what looked like balsa wood. A few sub-standard fittings aside we have been very happy with the house and what it offers and the value has apparently increased pleasingly. There are a number of larger houses in the vicinity still being constructed. Helen and I both enjoy the local walks along the promenade and looking out for otters, sea-birds and monitor lizards. Both of us have also joined a new gym at Straits Quay as well as enjoying the restaurant there.

The garden in bloom

Nearby Straits Quay marina

A tree snake waiting for the postman

A resident baby Monitor Lizard

The seaside promenade

Smooth-coated Otters fishing

Other family.

When we moved to a landed property in Singapore I was reluctantly ‘forced’ to purchase a dog. Mocha, the toy poodle was a constant source of amusement and love for all members of the family. He reached 12 years at the beginning of the year and had a few bad days with wobbly legs and an increasing number of fits. He was still a loveable dog when he passed away in April. Helen and I both felt Mochy left too bigger gap in our lives and despite saying we would not do it for a while we purchased a female Toy Poodle we called ‘Coco’…..not continuing the hot beverage connection but because of the French female name. Coco was quite young when she joined us and like her predecessor keeps us active and amused.

Visitors

Brother David and Lyn spent a pleasant week with us in June and we enjoyed their company. David had not long since broken his elbow and was well on the road to recovery. We had him on 'Tiger' lifting exercises to strengthen limbs.

Helen has twice hosted the members of her book group from Singapore making use of the relatively cheap flights in between the two islands. We have also met up with other friends passing through or new friends contemplating living on the island. Others friends from Langkawi have also stayed over while going to local hospitals for medical treatment.

Nature Photography

I had brief excursions away to Bukit Tinggi and Langkawi during the year. Driving the Fortuna down the highway was like journeying in the lounge….a joy to drive. The same faithful stead played a starring role in my local shooting, which was done mainly in mainland Penang.  I had a lot of fun shooting birds and Penanti and Byram, usually three mornings a week. My stories on observing two species of Bee-eaters go through their respective nesting cycles plus some images of a local pair of White-throated Kingfishers can be seen in accompanying blogs under Malaysian-wildlife-photography…to the right of this column or in my website, also appended in the right column. 

Website

I had to retire my old website because of style and programming advancements and it served me well with over 5,5000,000 hits since it was started. I was preparing to get assistance in designing a new site when I came across the ease of operations that Smugmug offered so I have launched a site in January with them. It has had over 6000,000 hits since then. I have continued to exhibit in a limited number of International Exhibitions as well as some National Exhibitions in New Zealand and Australia. Georgie and Ron McKie have continued to promote my cause in NZ and Christchurch in particular.

I get a few requests each year for images for various reasons. Earlier this year I had two artists contact me…..one wanted the iconic image of the Cheetah chasing the Thomson’s gazelle while the other specialized in large fine detail images. He wanted a head portrait of a Kruger Lion and I appended shots of the production of this work.

Photography Trips                                                               

The highlight of the photographic year was a trip back to Africa. Together with friends from Singapore we had just over two weeks split between the Maasai Mara and the Serengeti National Park in adjacent Tanzania. Details of the background of this trip can been seen in a separate blog and on my website. It was an enjoyable trip and the fulfillment of a boyhood dream to visit the Serengeti as it was a documentary on this great park that activated my interest in the  natural world.

I went north the the Malaysian Island of Langkawi earlier in the year to do some photography. I was later asked to present a workshop in there in November as part of an Ecotourism drive the island was having.  

A Colugo rests on a tree during the day

Helen
For six months Helen taught English as a second language on 2 or 3 mornings a week. There was quite a lot of preparation time and not a lot of Ringgit for the effort and after some differences with an insensitive boss decided there were other things to do. Some or her previous students have contacted her asking if she would teach them independently……which would be an ideal situation. She has done a course for guiding at the Botanical gardens and has continued her interest in heritage issues. In early October, together with some colleagues from Tanglin School she spent a week in Cambodia at the orphanage the school has adopted. Her cooking and organizational skills around the home as always greatly appreciated and the girls are often talking with her in the living room with a Skype connection.

Nikki's Graduation and Christmas

Dani arrived from the UK and several days later she and Helen and I travelled to Dunedin in New Zealand for Nikki's graduation. Nikki had put in a stellar performance and was awarded a first class honors in Neurobiology. There was more joy when we found out that Nikki was admitted to Otago Medical School. There occasions are milestone in lives and two parents were very proud. After the graduation we travelled up the West Coast of the South Island and stayed two nights with John and Caroline Grey in Hokitika. John was with me in Pharmacy School and later in Dunedin where we did our internship. We crossed the Alps and spent two nights with Ron and Georgie McKie in Christchurch before heading up the East coast to Kaikoura where we met brother David and Lyn. We enjoyed the aquatic wildlife of Kaikoura before traveling further north to the Marlborough Sounds where we spent 5 great days with our close family. The rented house we stayed in was in a brilliant location and well organized by Craig and Eve. We laughed together and hiked in the sunshine, fished in the waters of Queen Charlotte Sound and had our nights punctuated by the haunting calls of Moreporks.

To celebrate the year I present a Tanzanian Christmas tree. These Fischers  Lovebirds provide all the decorations needed.....even on a humble Acacia shrub.

Happy Christmas and all the best for 2013