A taste of Durian

Felicity went off the Universal Studios today for a birthday party so Alice had her devoted parents to herself. We decided to make her dreams come true and take her to a Durian Shop. Alice was in her wonderland. She's begged us to take for about a year to Simply Durian after first trying it at a market. Up until now we had avoided this moment. We spent a small fortune on the delicacy known as "The King of Fruits"and then took it to a nearby park to eat. We all had a taste. Alice had about a quarter of the fruit before we convinced her to stop or she might make herself sick. Matt and I had a mouthful each. Durians have a bad reputation for smelling so pungent they are banned from taxis and public transport - some liken the smell to gym socks with a hint of stale vomit. Yes the smell is overwhelming, however the texture is pleasantly creamy like custard, the taste is strong and flavoursome ...and you do get value for money. Nine hours after eating it I can still taste it and I believe I can still smell it...

Back from Oz

The last few weeks in Oz were fantastic catching up with family and friends. Highlights included

* Seeing the outdoor play Alice in Wonderland at Ripponlea with Tamsin, Kim and Chrissy and families

* Hanging out at the Children's Garden with Sarah, Henry and Ned and then playing in the Botanic Gardens with the Huddarts and Brittany.

* Simply messing about with the Bearsleys doing kids things - dress ups, concerts, "the "Sports with Anna" Carnival, swimming, trampolining, catching boatmen in the pool, games nights, beauty salon night, camping in the backyard, selling Anna's stuff from a shop in the frontyard and even cream pie fights!!

* Being a volunteer on the day to help Rohan and Katrina organise the Two Bays Trail Run. There was the choice of running 28K or 56K ...or watching others run 28K and 56k and handing out water - so that's what I did. Well done - a great event!

* Heading off to Fieldstone House in Neerim North with Tamsin and her kids. An idyllic historic house with a country view out every window. Thanks to the visitors who came out so see us - Chrissy & co, Kim & kids and Rene and family. And Andrew who arrived midnight on the last night.

* Mum and I sweating it out at the Australian Open. Thanks Roh for giving Mum two tickets, thanks Mum for giving one to me and thanks Dad for looking after the kids.

*Meeting up with the Day family cousins and Debbie and Liz and co at Braeside Park the morning before we boarded the plane. It was a nice way to finish off a great holiday.

Now we are back to normal in Singapore. Back at work and school and I seem to be signing lots of forms for activities. Both kids tried out for the Avondale swim team very early this morning before dressing up as a "helper" to raise money for the flood victims. Alice went as a vet and Felicity went as ...well..the Fashion Police! - helping people look stylish with a limited wardrobe perhaps??? Happy Australia Day to all. We celebrated Australia Day on Saturday by going to the Australia Day Ball. It was great fun. Maybe we'll have a Vegemite sandwich for afternoon tea in honour of this moment. Lots of photos below because at the moment this is basically my photo album.

Adventure Geocaching in Malaysia

The HP planets aligned last week to arrange for Andy and myself to both be in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, and no need to be back in Singapore until Monday.  With the twins and kids all in Australia we decided to stay on in KL for a boys weekend.  While it was rather tame by some measures (no drinking or partying, back at the hotel by 11 each night) we managed to find some adventure in the jungle surrounding KL.  On Saturday we set off to find My River Cache.  Hidden in November it had yet to be found which was a big attraction to us.  We rented a car from the airport and headed off.  The cache location was north of the city, past a dam and along a beautiful river with jungle on either side.  We walked down from road past some falls to what is obviously a popular swimming spot.  Walking upstream it didn't take long for us to leave civilization (and any semblance of a path) behind.  We leaped over boulders, pushed through vines, fought off giant leeches and made our way to the cache location which we found after a bit of searching.  It was really great fun pushing our way up river with no-one else around and being the first to find this cache.  I managed to defeat all the leeches that were climbing my shoes and jeans.  Andy had to remove one from his ankle during the walk and then a second from his toe that was discovered back at the hotel!

If you follow the link to the cache above and scroll down you can read our accounts of what went in to making the find.

On saturday night we met up with friends of ours for dinner, Glenn and Paquita, and Lauren, Ethan and Noah, who live in KL.  We enjoyed some good conversation over a dinner of Vietnamese food, finished off by gelati and coffee at an Italian restaurant.  It was good to see another part of the city that I hadn't been to before.

Sunday morning and it was time for another adventure cache: The Kanching Falls.  This one was located at the top of some very high falls in the mountains north of KL.  At levels 1 and 2 of the falls there were many people swimming and picnicking in the waterholes.  When we reached the cache location at the top of level 7 we were the only ones there.  The path was reasonably well marked but got progressively steeper as we climbed and it was very hot going.  Finding this cache took a little while as it was buried under some tree roots - it had last been found 7 months ago and a lot of mud and leaf litter had built up.  We then enjoyed a dip in the small pool at the top of the falls before journeying back down.  On the way down we met some engineering students from Libya who were very friendly and shared food and drink with us.