Bargoed Picnic

The day before Christmas Eve we spent with Matt and Sharron's friends on the lake. We went to Bargoed a place reserved for workers in the local power company (I'm not sure why we were let in!) We had a fantastic day playing tennis, bouncing on trampolines, footy tennis, canoeing, spending time with he kids and eating and drinking. Still feels a bit strange doing the Xmas thing in our flip flops (thongs here!!!) and shorts but we'll get used to it.

We've also bought a car (no not an aircooled Volkswagen.... sorry!)we got a good price for it too... pictures to follow after we've had it all cleaned up on the 3rd January.

Enjoying some Summer Warmth

Beth took the opportunity to grab a well deserved rest up in the hammock after doing all the Christmas shopping during the week, she is doing really well with bump and looks fantastic!

At the bottom of the garden....

Found this little chap lurking at the bottom of the garden. In the shade of the bush and behind a house brick... I'm reliably informed that this is actually a lizard rather than a snake, although I was unable to confirm this from the safety of the house! Now less likely to retreive balls from bushes than before!

Messing about on the ...... lake!

You Doughnut...

After a fairly indifferent week weather wise (I know we won't get any sympathy!), including one day of solid rain, which according to the Aussies we brought with us, we decided to take Matt and Sharron's boat out on to the lake to take advantage of some more seasonal weather. The lake was calm and the water warm so it was good to take a dip, eat, drink beer (gotta fit in with the locals!), fish and hurtle around the lake at 35 knots clingling for all my life to an inflated doughnut, which I managed for about one minute... click on the link to see the end result!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bOfE6yPxiA

A great day!

Our First Baby Pictures

We had a scan at the Hospital today and thought you'd like to take your first look at Bruce/Sheila Ivey. Everything seems to be in the right place... we still didn't want to know the sex but I'm sure I saw something... like father like son? ...although it could have just been the cord!!!!! We also spotted a pointing finger and so it might be another Beth.... "go get me a ........." type girl!!!!!!!! Either way we are going to have our hands full as he/she seems to be a wriggler!!

Thunder bolts and lightning.... very very frightening!

I hear through the grapevine that the weather at home is fairly grim. Not to miss out on the action we thought we would post a picture taken on Monday night.

We had a really hot spell which ended with a crash, bang and whallop! The beach you see is Bar Beach close to the centre of town... we live on the headland in the darkness just to the left of the tallest street light pictured.

Getting Fit...

I'm going public with my desire to get fit in the hope that every so often you will ask me how the regime is going. A summer of camping in the camper, followed by weeks of coming to see all you people (partying, eating, drinking!) has taken its toll. Its hard to imagine that I once ran a Marathon and now running a bath is almost too much effort!I have taken action and started running every day although after my last two runs I need to think about what time of the day I go!!! ... mad dogs and Englishmen and all that!!

I have also registered for a Beach Bootcamp which involves circuit training on the beach at 6:30am! I'll keep you posted....

Where we live...

This is Newcastle (not the Upon Tyne version!) Basically Newcastle was a very industrial town and still is in some respects. More coal is shipped out of the port than at any other place on Earth... some 70 million tonnes were exported last year. Once famed for its steel works which bellowed smoke into the sky, it is now more likely to come into conversation because of its beaches, the vineyards and the lake. The building with the tower is the Brewery. In the name of Blog research I will visit and feedback!

When animals attack #2 Puffer Fish

The latest in the series is the Puffer Fish...

The puffer fish's unique and distinctive natural defenses are necessary due to their particular form of locomotion. Puffer fish use a combination of pectoral, dorsal, anal, and caudal fins for propulsion that make them highly maneuverable but very slow, and therefore comparatively easy targets for predators. As a defense mechanism, puffer fish have the ability to inflate rapidly, filling their extremely elastic stomachs with water (or air when outside the water) until they are almost spherical in shape. Thus, a hungry predator stalking the puffer fish may suddenly find itself facing what seems to be a much larger fish and pause, giving the puffer fish an opportunity to retreat to safety.

Some puffer fish also produce a powerful neurotoxin in their internal organs, making them an unpleasant, possibly lethal, meal for any predatory fish that eats one. This neurotoxin is found primarily in the ovaries and liver, although smaller amounts exist in the intestines and skin, as well as trace amounts in muscle tissue and in its blood. Many puffer fish have bright colors and distinctive markings and make no attempt to hide from predators. This is likely an example of aposematism, where the puffer fish advertises to potential predators that it is not safe to eat. Obviously being poisonous does not help the puffer fish once it has been eaten, so the evolutionary mechanism at work benefits the species, with predators learning that puffer fish are at least distasteful and probably sickening, and so avoided next time that predator encounters that species of puffer fish.

It should be noted that puffer fish toxin is not necessarily as toxic to other animals as it is to humans, and some species of fish routinely eat puffer fish, such as lizardfish [1] and tiger sharks [2]. Puffer fish toxin evolved as a response to aquatic predators such as larger fish, rather than for use against humans.

Boat Trip

Saturday started early with a 40minute drive around the lake to meet Les (and Jarvis) at his marina as he was moving his boat out through the Lake channel to sea and into Newcastle Harbour. It was really nice of him to invite us along and a great opportunity to see the Lake and Newcastle from the sea. We made good speed down the Lake (3o mins from end to end) and got to the swing bridge at Swansea in plenty of time for the bridge to open to let us out. We also took the opportunity to do some fishing and by looking at some of the gear we were using we were meaning business... having said that the catch was poor with me weighing in with the largest fish an aptly named Yellow Tail which we left live on the line to attact something bigger. There have been reports of Fishermen in Newcastle paddling off shore on surf boards through the surf with hooks and lines with 2ft fish on the end as bait for Great Whites before paddling in and using the winch on a 4X4 to pull the thing in!!! There are bigger fish to fry!

We are quickly getting into the Aussie way of life... first beer offered at 9:30am and remember take your cool box (esky!) everywhere!

Warners Bay

Despite being a coastal town it also has a very large large lake inshore. It seems that most people go out on the water during their leisure time. On Friday night we took a picnic to a free weekly concert at Warners Bay, lots of other people had the same idea.... not a BBQ in sight though... what's going on!?!

When animals attack #1: Blue Jellyfish

Hopefully the first of a very short series picturing the potentially hazzardous wildlife I've spotted! Firstly introducing the Blue Bottle...

The blue bottle feeds on small fish and other small ocean creatures. They envelope their prey with their tentacles, where a poison is released thus paralysing its prey before being consumed. The tentacles adhere extremely well to their prey. If a tentacle is put under the microscope you will see that it looks like a long string of barbed hooks, which explains the ability of the tentacle to attach.
If a tentacle attaches itself to a human, it releases a poison (through the use of nematocysts), and if you continue to rub the skin after the tentacle has been removed more poison or venom will be released. If you are stung, it is best to wash the area without touching. A cold pack should be used to relieve the pain. If stung, please consult a doctor immediately. No fatalities have ever been reported within Australia or New Zealand from the sting of a blue bottle.

Destination Sydney

After one hour flight, and a further seven and a half hour flight we eventually touched down in Sydney International. It was the end of a very long journey lasting nearly three years from first mentioning that we might go to sitting here typing this blog. We had our visas stamped and our passports marked "arrived." Liam and Joel ran up the ramp to give us garlands and flags. It was great to see Matt and Sharron there to greet us along with Beth's mum and dad having made the two hour round trip.

Further surprises followed at home with a huge banner! Known to Joel as "apple" due to always being tagged on the end of Beth "and paul" (say it quickly!) and of course being part of the family and having "our" as a prefix the sign obviously says R'apple!..... obviously not to the neighbours who think I'm called Rapple!

It was then back into the car for a trip down to the beach.... I'll only mention it this once but the weather is lovely!

Even more Malaysia

Still struggling with the sleeping timings we spent our final day in Malaysia as we had spent much of the previous three days. However with my ever increasing redness I had to seek shelter in the only shaded place the sunken poolbar! We took the pictures of both of us using the timer on the camera. Whilst leaning against the rock I managed to get a load of barnicles in my hand that swelled up nicely during the onward journey.

Yet more Malaysia

On Tuesday we walked out of the resort to the cable car. Apparently this was the steepest cable car in the world at 42 degrees. Beth didn’t really enjoy the trip up and insisted that I sit completely still so not to rock the cable car! We got a good view of the island from there although a sign warning us to get back down as soon as we saw a grey cloud or heard thunder meant that we didn’t hang about for too long. More drinks and Robbie in the evening!

More Malaysia

Monday saw us heading out through the mangroves and out to sea on a boat trip. We saw some amazing sights, fruit bats hanging from trees, monkeys, fish and eagles. We also visited a fish farm to see some of the fish and creatures that live in the swamp. The strangest was a Horseshoe Crab, which is apparently a living dinosaur. Beth was keen to get hands on, and so did I although I was somewhat more reluctant. We fed the fish with bread (Why is it that we feed all wild animals with bread?) One animal that we didn’t feed with bread were the brown Eagles. Our guide chucked out a load of chicken pieces and the Eagles swooped down to snatch the pieces before flying away eating as they went. The Island of Lankawi actually means “Land of the Eagle.”

In the evenings we would often spend the evening in the bar listening to a band consisting of one man on a keyboard accompanied by two women. They were quite amusing singing a selection of love songs and interesting cover versions. We were continually asked to give a request. We eventually gave up and asked for Robbie Williams (Didn’t think they would have Sancho Panzer!) For the next two evenings everytime we saw them they would bang out a Robbie number.

Malaysia

At waking up at ridiculous O’clock (6am) we slopped off to find out where we would have breakfast. We found the main restaurant but were then pointed off towards the beach. We had breakfast every morning in a beach side restaurant overlooking the sea. We had had a good choice of stuff to eat from cereals, full English, fruit, cakes and yoghurts… oh and curry! We spent much of the day at the pool lying around in the sunshine and sleeping! It quickly became apparent that our body clocks were a little messed up as we would get up at anytime between 4am and 6:30am only to spend most of the afternoon burning in the sun whilst sleeping. It would get to about 5pm and we’d wake up a little disorientated and shuffle off back to the bungalow! The water was nice and cool although we avoided it most of the time due to a risk of being stung by jellyfish! We later found out that the nastiest varieties of the jellyfish attach themselves to you and then hitch a ride in the ambulance to the hospital where they can be surgically removed!

Arrival in Malaysia

12 hours later we touched down in Malaysia, not feeling too bad despite leaving London at night before arriving in Malaysia at night. We then took another hours flight to Lankawi an island in the north. We arrived at the airport to see a man holding up a “Mr. Paul Ivey” sign… something that I’ve always wanted to happen! We took the shuttle across the island to the resort and discovered that we had been upgraded due to our rooms being unfinished. The resort consisted of lots of little bungalows up the hillside and out into the sea on stilts. Our bungalow stood on the water and was huge. The bed was vast, so big that we didn’t really see each other all night!!

Moving Madness...

Well the day finally came around and with some last ditch packing of things that we didn’t really need we headed off to Heathrow with Lou and Lloyd in a hired car with every inch of space taken up. The journey was uneventful other than spending time chatting about stuff old and new.

In the airport we had some lunch, realised that we didn’t have any Malaysian currency and got in the check in line. For fans of the TV show the apprentice we saw Said, I pointed him out to Lloyd and we proceeded to stalk him for the next hour or so!

At the front of the check in line we were confronted with Malaysian Airlines Gumpiest Employee of the month who insisted that we weren’t going to get our 40kg allowance despite our tickets clearly saying that we had. Anyway we were moved out of the line and moved to the “lack of” Customer Service desk. We quickly established that we did have a 40kg allowance each before establishing that we were still 20kg over!!! Not a problem we thought… a little excess baggage £20 , £50 or £100 you would think?..... no £780 to which we burst out laughing! Made all the funnier by the fact that that was more than our flight in the first place…. Would love to have bought a ticket for the bag and had it next to me wearing headphones, a little seatbelt and having inflight meals.