Sheared!

It was the time of the month again to all troop into the hairdressers. Jack was very proud to be first up and there was a struggle from Ayden but he did let Helen use the electric shears. And the rest of the day we had proud boys with their smart haircuts! It's getting easier and fingers crossed no tears next month.

More birthday cakes

May is a busy month for birthdays for the "At Taiyib" family. On Friday Hazim turned 12 and blew out his candles together with cousin Nadiana who is visiting from KK. 

Great action by the birthday boy

Post dinner and cakes the younger ones including Jack did a dance which was cool. When I get the clip from Fatin I will try upload it. The kids them mucked around together which was fun to see and considering the age range of 2-16yrs, they probably won't be doing this altogether for much longer. 

A PSP half-term

Last year we bought Jack and Iman PSPs as presents when we went away for a weekend without them. Their older cousins have them so they were very excited. Much to our relief they weren't really into them as we expected and lost interest pretty quickly. That was until this week.... 

Iman got mail!

Several weeks ago Iman came home with an envelope which she had to write her name and her home address. This week the envelope came back through the post with a lovely letter in it. 

Selirong Island

Being half-term, our Monday morning walk today was a special one. We were altogether 25 adults and 17 children and our destination was Selirong Island which is a mangrove forest with a board walk across it. It took about 45 minutes to be there by boat and is very close to the Malaysian border.

I only had Iman and Jack with me - poor Ayden still too young for such a trip had to stay home :(

Our first stop was the ranger lodge where we had to sign in. It also serves as lodging for a couple of rangers and several policemen who are on a weekly rotation basis. Bet even these guys get tired of fishing! To go into the park we were accompanied by a ranger and two armed policemen because of the close proximity to the border.

 

Just Jack and the jungle

It was high tide and we were ok until we got to this. Some were determined not to get their feet wet.

But some just waded in - though some had bright ideas and took their shoes off before wading in *I didn't* 

The whole group at the end of the walk. The walk actually only took us over 10 mins each way. We were initially disappointed with this when we got there as more than half of the walk is being renovated but it was actually just right for the kids and the full walk of one and a half hours would have been too much for them.

Iman and Jack with the much photographed policeman

Some amazing trees there

The highlight for the kids on the way back was a chance to drive the boat. The boatman let every single child have a turn to drive.

Digging up Serasa

It's half term week and I'm trying to entertain the kids with more than their PSPs! We did start it with a fantastic weekend. On Saturday night our friends the Donnelly family came for a sleepover (minus Daddy Donnelly). Us adults went out and the kids had such great fun sleeping together and were full of excitement the next morning. And even better we spent the beautiful day at the Yacht Club. We started off at the pool side but as the tide started to drift out the kids could not resist the temptation of the sand. They dug up plenty of shells and starfish and I got to practice my photography.

Amin is 16!!!

Amin is the oldest amongst the cousins and it's hard to believe that he is 16 already. Luckily for him his birthday fell during the break of his GCSEs so he was able to sit back and enjoy his steak (and boy can he eat) followed by a very rich and decadent hazelnut chocolate cake which was so good. (And well done to Fatin for taking the pictures).

(not so) Lucky Gardens

These are the trails of Lucky Gardens - they're wide, well used and always a pleasure to walk or run. I fell in love with these trails when I started hashing - the feel of being in an old and well loved jungle - it was unlike any other. And when I started leading the Monday walks, Lucky Gardens was the first walk I marked and with it's friendly trails I learnt to recognize areas and it quickly became my favourite. Early last year we lost much of the jungle of neighbouring Simpang 370 and it was a relief when the bulldozers stopped but it wasn't to be as they moved into a section of Lucky a couple of weeks ago.

This was all jungle last week. A beautiful green jungle with amazing trees, plants, spiders, snakes, ants, butterflies and even monkeys.

And now all that's left is a map showing us what used to be here - note the Nepali names - these trails were cut by Gurkhas soldiers.

WHAT A SAD SIGHT!