Four, five, six, seven, eight

Aren't we lucky! We are going to have all five grandchildren under one roof. Part of Sarah's travels was to visit her brother Nick and us in Malaysia. Just after arriving she popped off to Vietnam for ten days leaving Oscar with us and he and Joshua got to know each other all over again.having the pool downstairs meant lots of water fun and seeing Oscars swimming ability come on in leaps and bounds.

Poppie has become the official swimming coach!

Once Sarah returned from her travels we packed up and headed off to Australia. Joshua was so brave leaving home for the first time ever! The children could not wait to play together.

Having had lots of rain Christoper did not miss a beat and when he saw that the sun was shining he had us packed up and off to the beach.

 

We had such a lovely day with so much safe space for the children to play and have fun. At one point a wild turkey attacked our lunch box and this resulted in the boys having loads of fun getting sticks and "protecting" us. The three boys, Joshua, Oscar and Ben had the best time ever!

While playing, we spotted this little creature running along the beach. An echidna. What a little darling! He was totally unperturbed by all of us and just sniffed and nibbled his way through the rocks and grass and looking for his dinner. He is otherwise known as a spiny anteater! The children were fascinated and watched for ages.

The second good day we had there we waited for the girls to finish school, packed up both cars and headed for the river to go fishing. The adults took the rods with the children having "turns" and serious fishing began. Sarah was DETERMINED to catch a fish. She tried and tried and fell on the rocks and tried. Just as she was about to give up Christopher suggested she take Ben's cheap little rod and have one last try. VOILA, a pround moment indeed as Sarah pulled in her first big fish. A Bream it was. My oh my! The children cheered, she cheered, we all cheered , the taste of success.

 

A wonderful ending to our second and only sunny day.

Fortunately Christopher and Diana have a huge home and the most wonderful playroom stocked with every toy imaginable. Unfortunately, the weather turned and we had rain every day. When a break occurred the children would be out playing on bikes, climbing, chasing, fetching eggs from the chooks etc.

Ben teaching Oscar to ride.

A visit to the girls school was a must do. It happened to be book week and Molly chose to dress up as a warthog as her story was all about the Forest and warthogs and Miss Hannah went as(of course) the Princess from Frozen. There was a huge build up to this function. As luck would have it it Rained and rained and rained. The Book Parade went ahead in the hall but the picnic had to be cancelled.

The Frozen Princess!

Our little warthog!

Molly showing us her work in the classroom.

Thank you guys for a super visit!

 

Side trips.

My dear Blog and my few loyal readers! I know I last wrote in July and as the saying goes "a great deal of water has run under the bridge" since then. I have decided to start at the end and work my way backwards.

We have just been on a side trip to Kuching, which is in the state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. Kuching is known as the Cat island which has several stories attached to the derivation of its name. There is much evidence of cats all over the place, including a museum of cats and many statues of cats not forgetting all the cats roaming around. Joshua, a great lover of cats loved it when we came across a few REAL cats he could play with.

As this was our last weekend in Malaysia, after a two and a half month visit, mainly to take care of Joshua during his school summer vacation, Nick and his fiancé, Elaine treated us to this trip. They had a wedding to attend and extended an invitation to us to join them on this excursion.The atmosphere of the island is great and is my kind of place. It is a clean and interesting city with much of the activities taking place along the River Front. We took a cruise down the river just to get a perspective of the whole city from the river frontage.

Believe it or not these boats are really quite cool!

At the end of the boat trip, as an added extra, we stopped off at a "Kak Lapis" factory shop. This is where this multi layered colourful delicacy originates from. It is a cake with all sorts of delicios fillings. You simply can't visit Kuching without stocking up on Kak Lapis. Evidently after baking very thin pan cakes one uses a special device called a Presser, to flatten the cake.

 

Lapis cake always has more than one colour dough and is so pretty. There are all sorts of combinations of fillers and the best is one I read about on a blog called "Bitter Sweet Spicy". Nutella! The whole process is very fiddly but oh so worth it. Maybe I will get my sister to try this, as she is such a good baker.

 

The Presser. We may need one of these goodies to achieve the final product!

The first night Elaine and Nick treated us to the most amazing fish dishes ever. It was at a restaurant called Top Spot which is a food court with many outlets to choose food from, it is all very casual and child friendly so Joshua was very happy to be there. I love trying new foods and experienced many different dishes! The place is very popular and was buzzing!

(photo from Malaysian Travel Blog)

We also popped in to see Nick's rooms and to meet the staff. What a cheerful bunch and congrats to Nick on his super new Spine and Joint rooms!

Kuching has really looked after their history by preserving its buildings and along the river frontage one can visit several museums. I even found a Textile museum which highlights "Ikat " weaving procedures.

 

These "weavers" we're so lifelike and so eerie!

The city has beautiful trees. This one is eighty six years old! It is a silky cotton tree. (just older than us teased Nick.)

Joshie loved all the canons! It is such fun when the children can touch and climb all over the artifacts.

Thanks guys for a lovely weekend! I would love to return to Kuching one day.

Christmas in July

It's not exactly "Christmas in July" but it feels just like it. As you may know we are in Malaysia and being a predominantly Muslim country the last thirty days have been days of fasting and prayer for the majority. Imagine fasting from dawn till dusk. Hats off to all of the fasters. I do know that after prayers at seven in the evening, families gather and enjoy a really great meal together. Bukua Pasau it is called.

During the day the restaurants are often closed or not too full but finding a table at night is challenging.when we were on the islands the young fellows working at the restaurant attached to our hotel said the fasting wasn't so difficult but giving up smoking and seeing others smoke was the hard part.

Many malls are selling traditional food to break the fast including dates. It is believed that Muhammed broke his fast eating three dates thus Muslims tend to do the same. Now I know why I see dates for sale everywhere. The malls are decorated and looking very festive. There are sales on the go everywhere as Malaysians like to refurbish their homes and cupboards for the celebrations.

We live opposite a Kampung which is where some of the working class local folk live and last night the sky was lit up with firecrackers going off and the loud noises kept going to well after midnight. Indeed it is a joyful time as Families reunite and everyone enjoys the festivities!

We wish them "Salamat Hari "

 

On top of the world!

The night of July12 th, 2014, was the best time ever to visit the "Helipad" in K.L. City Centre. Moira said she had a surprise up her sleeve for us and we were to be ready by 5:30 to go out. We drove into the city centre and landed up in a bar lounge decorated with everything to do with helicopters. We ordered our rather expensive drinks, looked out at the view and then ..... The Surprise! We climbed up another three flights of stairs! Oh wow.....we were gobsmacked! There we were on top of a 36 storied building with a 360 degree view, on top of the world, sipping our g and t's! How cool was that. Maybe we couldn't see the whole world but we could see the whole of Kuala Lumpur. What a magnificent sight.

The area has a yellow painted strip right around the edges, past which NO one is allowed to step. Two men dressed in black stand guard, quick to chase anyone overstepping the mark!

A pop up bar has been created on this roof top so after carrying ones first drink up the stairs which is the entry fee, one can order drinks and snacks.

K.L. always has a bit of a haze hanging over it but it wasn't too bad tonight and we could see for miles. The Twin Towers felt so close, as if we could reach out and touch it.

What great timing to be in this spot as it is the night of the Super Moon. (I kept calling it the Power Moon! )

What is the Super Moon? Google explains it as follows:

• 

  
  

  The phenomenon happens when the moon becomes full on the same day as its perigee -- the point in the moon's orbit when it's closest to Earth.

  
  

  
  

As the sun set and the moon rose more and more people arrived. We watched three young Muslim men. They ordered their non alcoholic drinks at about six thirty. They didn't touch them. Then at about seven they ordered plates of snacks. Again they did not touch them. Warren want over to chat to them and as expected they were waiting for seven thirty, when it is permissible for Muslims to break the fast and eat and drink. What patience! What self discipline! We were in such admiration as we enjoyed our second round of drinks!

Everyone was so friendly with lots of Selfies being taken, everyone chatting, the music starting and generally just having the experience of a lifetime.

Thank you Moira for giving us the best time ever.

The evening was rounded off at a Tapas bar not far off.

Can you believe it.....KL. experiences traffic jams as late as ten at night! I love K.L.