February 2020

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.

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.

The fence top is their rapid-rail system.

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.

 

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.

Asian Open-billed Storks

A family of White-throated Kingfishers

Yellow-bellied Prinia

A Carpenter Bee with the spectral wings

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.

Image from the media

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.

January 2020

January has very much been a transition month for us. We had some loose ends to tie up from the sale of the house and the delayed handover. As this month ends we have completed everything but still wait for deposits returned on utilities.

We love the ever-changing view with Mount Jerai on the mainland at the centre of the panorama.  

I also enjoy the pool on a daily basis. 

We have compared notes with other folk making house sales and the problems seem universal. They need to become more efficient and severely question slow Government processes.

Helen has successfully started her home tuition again and Coco escorts each person into the apartment.
Helen had some drama in the car last weekend when the from left tyre blew. Fortunately she was not traveling at any speed. I recovered the car with the help from a very nice Dutch man who helped me put the spare tyre on. The hardest part was getting it from under the car.

We had one bad night with Coco in the middle of the month. She was exuding both ends for 24 hours but after a trip to the vet and a whole pharmacy administered she made a good recovery. Two days later she was romping again on the beach. She continues to have fun with the big boys and has recent interests in stick-fetching and crab-hunting.

Conventional crab hunting

The dog method of crab-hunting

Coco really enjoys her hour on the beach each morning and she has two heros to copy.

We had some drama one morning when a camp fire had soldered during the night and then got very active in the early morning. The Bomba boys were soon had it under control.

The audience had strict instructions not to cross the line in the sand.

Coco now has a penchant to fetch sticks from the water.

The dogs have had two interactions with a trio of otters. It is very interesting to watch. The otters seem to have a game called 'dog-bating' and they seem to win.

We are enjoying the apartment and see a number of things we were not aware of before. There is a nearby boat club and waterskiing, yachting, para-sailing and wind surfing are popular activities.

There is a regular procession of cruise ships coming into the port of Penang (essentially one per day). The largest is ‘Quantum of the Sea’ and the smallest is a modern sailing ship that can take 72 passengers. 

Quantum of the Seas

Star Clipper

I read an article that said Quantum’s bigger sibling ‘Symphony of the Seas’ has a 1-million-dollar budget per week for food alone!! The general timetable for each ship is that it arrives before 7.30am and leaves about 11 hours later. If two arrive around the same time there could be 6-7000 passengers dumped on George Town for the day.

Genting Dreams

Costa Fortuna

Norwegian Jade

AIDAbella

Saphire Princess

Mein Schiff 6

Marella Discovery

Vasco da Gama

The nights at sea are also interesting. Local fishermen operate under white lights near shore whereas on the northerly horizon more and more green lights appear each night. (see separate blog).

The white lights just allow the fisherman to see the nets as they would in daylight. Lights seen on the boat below.

We had a visit by royalty as the Malaysian King and Queen and their large retinue drove 4-5 times along the adjacent road. There were two ambulances and a helicopter associated with the procession.

Gambling is strictly forbidden for Muslims but despite being a largely Muslim country Malaysia has complex and convoluted gambling allowances. Malaysia has one land-based casino and three turf clubs. There are also a number of off-track betting facilities. The gambling industry is dominated by five operators; The Genting Highlands Casino, Magnum 4D, Sports Toto. Da Mai Cai and the Malaysian Racing Association. The jewel of the Malaysian gambling industry is the Casino de Genting. It is the largest casino in the world and hosts millions of visitors each year. It has 10,000 guest rooms while the First World Hotel and Plaza has 7,351 rooms. The casino floor has more than 200,000 square feet and space to home 3,000 slot machines and 400 gaming tables.

Despite the official allowance of such gambling there were 22,000 people arrested for illegal gambling in a year and numerous illegal machines were destroyed. Tax revenue from legal outlets is large so there is a dilemma with religion v revenue.

Penang hosts up to three gambling ships that go out of Malaysian waters twice daily with gamblers on board. We can see these ships from our apartment.

This is the Oriental Dragon that is a gambling ship based in Hong Kong and registered in Panama. It was constructed in 1972 and has had 7 name changes over the years. It was one of Royal Caribbean’s first cruise ships. Like 'Leisure World' it operated as a gambling ship off Batam for the Singapore gambling trade until on-land casinos ruined that business.

The 'Leisure World' has also had a long history since 1969 and has had 5 name changes. It was the first ship built for the Norwegian Caribbean Line that has changed its name to Norwegian Cruise Line and has gone on to be the world's third biggest cruise line. The ship was originally called 'Sunward'. So this little ship was the prototype of most of the cruising monsters of today.  It was a casino ship off Singapore for a number of years but since 2000 it has been operating as a casino ship out of Penang. It is registered in Funafuti, In Tuvalu!!!!!.

In case you wonder what Funafuti looks like it is an atoll in the Pacific. The population of 6025 is around 60% of Tuvalu's population. It does have two football clubs and an international airport and it is sinking. The ship may last longer than the island. Surprisingly the Tuvalu Ship Registry is run from Singapore.

The third casino ship (the smallest) operating out of Penang is shown below in a size comparison with 'Quantum of the Seas'. The Taipan 64 passengers and 32 cabins compared with Quantum with 4,905 passengers and 1500 crew. 

I have been a little slow off the mark with my photographic excursions. There was the Asian Emerald Cuckoo pair at the botanic gardens and of course the White-bellied Sea Eagles that fly passed the lounge window. There was also an Asian Dollar Bird that was hawking from a branch near the swimming pool. I got out of the pool and went to get my camera. The bird gets its name by the round white patch on each wing (not very round in the picture) that resembles a silver dollar (apparently).

I had a trip across to the mainland where I like being when the sun rises. The moon was just on the wane and a plane was lit up by the sun that had not yet appeared over the horizon. A four-engined plane with a Singapore Airways logo on the tail could only be an Airbus A380 800. Checking later the flight was seen to be SQ 317 from London. It turns out the Dani and Rob would be on the same plane on the way to visit us in February.

The Yellow-bellied Prinias were singing their morning songs and a juvenile Crested Goshawk was relaxing after attacking a squirrel unsuccessfully. The Macaques were around in numbers as usual.

My main photographic trip this year will be to Ecuador with Joe and Maryann McDonald. I have been on various trips with them some years ago and they were all memorable and good fun. it will be mainly about hummingbirds but Toucans, Quetzals and the Cock of the Rock will hopefully be included. This will happen in the back half of April.

The quiz has started well with a third and two firsts. The team will suffer during the year as various members go on holiday.

The team went out for dinner on the bonus question winnings from last year. It was a great night.

 While Helen is the Masterchef....the sous chef is fully in business. Wholemeal bread, Raison/cinnamon bread, chicken sausages, burger patties and mince pies come off the production line. Kefir and Kombucha are also produced. Mr Weber has also recently been adopted.

Finally we wish all family all the best for the Year of the Rat..........although I am glad we have left them behind.

Festivities for Chinese New Year go on for most of the month.