2017

As usual on Penang Island the year got off to a spectacular start with a firework display on our estate.

The weather this year though has been unusually wet, even through the dry season in January and February. Twice later in the year the island has suffered from bad floods. We are pretty well safe where our house is located but others suffered twice in quick succession in October and November.

Helen has enjoyed a busy year and celebrated her 60^th birthday in May. Her sister Ann and her husband Gerry came to visit as did daughter Dani and her boyfriend Greg. 
We had a few days together in Phuket to celebrate. Dani continues to do very well with her sports and activities promotions in Cambridge, UK.
Helen's activities during the year include' Book group, boot-camp, yoga, working for several charities and teaching her private English classes....as well many household necessities.

Nikki completed her penultimate year of medical school and as part of her final year she has spent 6 weeks with us in while she gets experience in a local hospital. Helen and I have really enjoyed having her stay with us and get to realize the dedication the career needs. Nikki has spent 2 weeks with a general surgeon, 2 weeks with a neuro-surgeon and two weeks with a plastic surgeon. All three have been great mentors. Her boyfriend Neal arrives from Japan next week and they will go to the USA together where Nikki will spend another 6 weeks in Los Angeles where Nikki will work with a Cosmetic Plastic Surgeon.

\We also had visits from David and Lyn and John and Carolyn Gray.....John is a friend from Pharmacy School days.

We continue to enjoy our house here and have paved the backyard and re-laid the lawn (twice) this year. Our resident orchid has excelled itself for Christmas with 6 flowers. We continue to run the house as a B & B via AirBnB.

The star of most of the comments from guests is Coco who has been as loving as always.  She particularly enjoys the Saturday Pearl Hill walk with a sausage or bacon waiting for her at the end. She also has the insight to know who is family and who is a guest.

We also seemed to have acquired another pet. We rescued two small House Crow chicks several months back. One passed away on the first night but the other one survived. It was fed chopped chicken liver and thrived. It learnt to fly and became somewhat independent but calls in regularly for food. He is the naughtiest of the pets having stolen some steak cubes from the kitchen last week. He comes by before going to bed for a little head-scratch.  He has been time-consuming but educational.

As usual Penang has its share of colourful festivals. Each year we visit Thaipusan with its colour and activity. You could go 20 years and see something different each time. There is also the full-on Chinese New Year celebrations and Hindu festivals like Matu Ponggol where the cows that provide money and food are celebrated.

The wet weather has made 2017 a difficult year for nature photography. I was entertained a lot by a pair of White-throated Kingfishers going through a breeding cycle and had a good trip to Fraser’s Hill in April. The local Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters deserted one nesting site but were found to be using man-made drains in the grounds of a large Chinese temple.

I made two trips to Fraser’s Hill with one being rather wet and the second one producing images of some of the endemic colourful wildlife.

In late October I spent two weeks in Darwin and Kakadu with friends from Singapore and Adelaide. We flirted with the oncoming wet season but loved Kakadu.

On the major photographic competition front I was short-listed for the BBC wildlife exhibition and the Comedy Wildlife International but alas was not a major winner in either. I did however top the scores in the salons approved by the Photographic Society of America.

I was also mentioned in dispatches in an 0n-line NZ newspaper for a tourist image

Shortlisted for BBC wildlife

Shortlisted for Comedy Wildlife

With the wet weather and off-season, I had a bit more time to make some produce. Bread and Kefir are now routine and various fruit-flavoured Kombuchas have been added to the list. The sausages produced are now skinless and healthier with less fat and more herbs.

On the local scene the Monday evening Pub Quiz at Healy Mac’s has been as popular as ever   and for a number of times the highlight of the week. The Stratocasters team has done well with 26 wins during the year and accumulating enough funds from the bonus round to go out for dinner.

My brother David will not rest if I don’t mention the rugby. The Crusaders won the Super Rugby competition while the All Blacks ran hot and cold. The men in black lost two games, which is seemingly unforgivable. They drew the series with the Lions…thanks in large part to eccentric French refereeing and Sonny Bill forgetting which sport he was participating in.

2017 was a year of electronic gadget failures. I lost a desktop computer, a laptop, a watch and a bread-maker. I have been putting my camera very carefully to bed each night. We have however upgraded our internet by getting fibre-optic cable installed which is attached to a super-duper router..

I did get to photograph the secret life of some local animals who relax when they don't have to pretend to be cute (only 1 was photoshopped)

Lastly we salute some good friends who have left us and wish several others who have some pending health battles all the best for 2018. We are with you all the way.

Merry Christmas to all and all the best for 2018

October/November 2017

To get up-to-date with my blogs I have decided to make this one an October/ November combined summary. These two months have been dominated by three events; the raising of a now pet crow, my trip to Darwin and Kakadu and Nikki’s working visit to Penang. The first two events have been documented in two videos and a separate photographic blog, respectively. 

http://malaysianwildlifephotography.blogspot.my/2017/11/nature-photography-around-darwin-and.html

Cullen Bay sunset

In a recent blog I feature some flooding on Penang Island. Worse was to come when I was in Kakadu. A typhoon hit Vietnam and Penang caught the tail. Where our house is located is pretty immune from flooding. There were however some angry winds...but Helen said she slept through it and only one pot plant was overturned. The rest of the island however had a lot of flooding and a landslide killed a number of workers on a building site. The ferry that Lyn and David were on earlier in the year parked itself on the wharf.

We are in the longitudinal part below the Tanjung Bungah label.

It is reassuring that emergency services have the best modern rescue equipment.

Just an update on the progress of the crow. Helen and then Nikki fed him while I was away. I wondered how his memory was when I returned…..of course they are intelligent birds. I was greeted by tail wagging…such as a dog would do. Maybe this was his close connection with Coco. He has done well since I came back and we have a close session each morning where he feeds and has a ‘chat’. He likes his head gently rubbed but is forever on the alert…..a helicopter freaked him out a bit this morning. He does have a bit of a temper and when scolded one day…the voice and attitude changed completely.

Last week for two days I had a sick bird. He was mostly off his food and his poop was different. Crows clearly have a rugged constitution and he was back with a vengeance. Nikki said he visited her on the balcony outside he bedroom and landed on her arm. He can be rather demanding but I missed him when he was sick. There is something about getting to understand  a quasi-wild bird up close and personal. It is always a great sight when he puts on the airbrakes when coming to land on your outstretched arm.

It has been great for Helen and I to have Nikki be with us for 6 weeks. Helen organised the work she will do with a South African born plastic surgeon. So far the experience has been both an eye-opener and a very good learning opportunity. My admiration for what Nikki has achieved has gone up a few quanta when you realize the hard work and dedication needed to achieve desirable levels in medicine. The rest of your life takes a back seat for many years. Nikki’s time in the hospital is divided up into 3 lots of two weeks each. She spent the first two weeks with a general surgeon and assisted in a number of operations. Currently she is with a Neuro-surgeon and took part in a four-hour operation yesterday. She will spend the final two weeks with the plastic surgeon.

Helen has been busy with her teaching and has joined a Boot Camp group as an addition to her hiking in the exercise department. She is currently organizing the Christmas party for the orphan kids at Healy Mac’s in December. This is all on top of book group, pub quiz and attending live shows where she can.

On the greater family front Nathan has now left school and ponders his future. The whole family are off to the USA for a trip next week. Haley has a new camera and we will see some nice shots from the trip.

I had a buzz in the photography department when I was told I was short-listed for the Comedy Wildlife international competition. The final result was to be announced by the end of November and so far I have not had a phone call…but no ‘Dear John’ email either. I have seen most of the final selection and was not super impressed.

I am itching to get out and start the season locally but like most of the year rain and bad light is the order of the day.

There is two more subjects to comment on: politics and rugby. In politics New Zealand's ridiculous choice of the MMP election system was rudely exposed and earned headlines like the following from our antipodean neighbours.

Not counting the personalities involved or how Jacinda may run the show it is a lesson that some things are too important to trust to a referendum where the uninformed vote for the misunderstood....NB the Brexit vote. Germany........one of three other countries to retain the MMP system ......is in a greater mess as a coalition failed to eventuate.

In rugby there has been much analysis and stupid headlines about the All Blacks performance in 2017. They almost lost half of the team to injury or sabbatical but still only lost two games. They mostly likely would have won the Lions series but for a ridiculous decision by a misguided French referee. In my observation the team has been both superb and ordinary....even in the same match. If all injuries are overcome they may be embarrassed with riches in 2018.

We have had a good record in the Pub Quiz through the two months. 5 straight victories (including when I was away). We finished out of the money last week with a depleted team and last night clawed back to third plus a share of the money for answering the jackpot question correctly.

Lastly, I must make a comment about our other resident. Coco’s patience with being pestered by the feathered one has expired and she now chases her feathered sibling…. which the crow thinks is a great game. It is funny to watch Coco greeting her mates with her barking and the crow standing two feet away joining in in his own way. One thing I can’t fathom with certain dog reasoning is that Coco knows who is family……and often scratches on Nikki’s door to have a morning cuddle. AirBnB guests, despite being attentive do not get the same request.