What a difference a month makes!

This time last month (end July) Papa T and I wee feeling pretty worried (complete understatement!) Papa T was admitted to hospital to have some stents inserted. After nearly 2 years of increasing pain when walking even very short distances the problem was finally diagnosed and the treatment advised. So many people have stents nowadays usually in the arteries of the heart but Papa T needed them inserted into his iliac arteries, a rather trickier procedure and one his consultant was not confidant would be possible as the blockages were so severe. Anyway to cut a long and scary ( to us) story short the procedure was thankfully a success and the day after the op Papa T was allowed to walk along the corridor of the ward

then the next day he was allowed to visit the hospital garden and finally he was allowed home

on the way out of the hospital we spotted this sign promoting robotic surgery- wow how things have changed since I last worked in the operating theatres

Once home the recuperation continued at a rapid rate and only 10 days later Papa T was keen to try a bike ride, on the way we stopped at an exercise area and used the different exercise stations

this one mimics the skiing action and to both our delight Papa T could do it, skiing is back on the menu!

Sadly Papa T's bike broke shortly after arriving back so in an effort to keep the fitness training going later that week we decided to walk around Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve again. We had enjoyed visiting here previously but had failed to see it's most scary visitor...not this spider, even though he was huge!

nor me..

we were very lucky and saw this enormous crocodile although a bit scary to think these creatures inhabit the local waters.

Two weeks post op and Papa T was now back at work. At the weekend we went for a 'gentle' sail with friends with Papa T banned from winching duties or anything too strenuous -one small beer was allowed

and he was allowed to helm

We  had a lovely sail around Pulau Ubin and stopped off for supper at a floating restaurant

 Papa T and KW's lovely daughter ready for supper

 I was put in charge of catching our supper, a big responsibility!

 My father would have proud of me, less than a minute after casting my hook I had caught a large golden grouper-he was delicious

 and we had a lovely sunset on our way back to the mooring

The other great news since Papa T's op is that he his dancing legs are back in commission, so we thoroughly enjoyed going to a ball

and last weekend we had a celebratory weekend away in lovely Langkawi

 We hired a car and drove to the highest point; Gunung Raya passing monkeys and cows along the way

unfortunately due to it being rainy season it was rather cloudy so the views from the top weren't as good as they might have been but we could still appreciate this lovely archipelago consisting of 99 islands

 with rivers and mangroves

we also visited Langkawi's tallest waterfall and Papa T climbed the steps with ease 

 In spite of it being the rainy season it hadn't actually rained much recently and there was only was a mere trickle of water dripping down

Langkawi is renowned for being full of nature, two-thirds of the island is dominated by forest-covered mountains, hills and natural vegetation. When we got back to our hotel there were some beautiful Dusky Langur's in the tree by the open plan reception area

 In fact the local population of Long Tail Macaques have become so brave that hotel guests are warned not to leave their balcony doors open or unlocked if no one is in the room as the monkeys will come in and take whatever they like including pillows, phones, food and books, they have even learned to how to open the minibar fridge and help themselves to the contents  

Early the next morning I spotted a small group of monkeys checking out each room presumably looking for an open door

 Walking along the beach outside the hotel was a treat, as the tide went out the outer fringes of the local coral reef become exposed

 through the clear water we could see fish swimming through the coral and rocks and a sea cucumber-yuck, I still can't bring myself to taste this 'delicacy'

 and on shore tiny crabs busily clear sand from their tunnels

 even the hotel pool has a resident monitor lizard!

So now nearly 5 weeks post op Papa T is well, he is trying to get fit, and trying to give up smoking and yesterday bought himself a lovely new mountain bike which he tried out today on a bike ride down the 'green corridor'

 We can at last resume exploring Singapore together again and plan some more active adventures around Asia.

 Happy Days!

Dairy Farm Nature Park

Always keen to explore new outdoor places in Singapore friends and I recently visited the Dairy Farm Nature Park and were curious as to how it got it's name, had there been a diary here once with real live cows!

  We first made a slight detour to visit a nearby disused quarry, now filled with water and fish and beautiful kingfishers and dragon flies flitting above

 It was very hot by the quarry with no protection from the sun so we were pleased to head back down the track and into the more shady jungle where we soon found the start of the Wallace trail

 we were delighted to be walking on "mud" again, something there is little opportunity to do in Singapore. 

Sadly the trail is not very long so we were soon back on a paved track. This led to what is now the Wallace Education Centre but in the 1930's had been a cowshed.  

 Inside there was an explanation as to who Wallace was. Alfred Russell Wallace was a contemporary of Charles Darwin and also came up with the idea of evolution by natural selection. He sent a letter to Darwin about his theory and this prompted Darwin into publishing his theory of natural selection, Darwin did however acknowledge Wallace's contribution. Wallace was a great naturalist and stopped over in Singapore many times and collected over 700 species of beetles in the Dairy Farm area.

There was also an exhibition about the usage of this area over the years starting with the 1800's when the surrounding jungle area had been cleared for gambier and pepper plantations. The gambier crop was used for tanning leather and dyeing. Then in the 1930 the world's first tropical dairy farm was established here with 24 Friesian cows imported from Holland and Australia. 

 The farm was apparently very successful and for many years produced high quality milk but it ceased operation in the 1970's and the land was then used for vegetable farming. This must have also come to an end some years ago as we could only see evidence of jungle in the area now. 

We were amused to see a plastic cow outside the 'cowshed' and tried hard to imagine a field full of cows on the land in front of us.

 I think this might have been the water trough for the cows, now filled with flowers

 It was fascinating to visit Dairy Farm Nature Park, so much of Singapore is built upon nowadays with 4 or 6 lane roads criss crossing the island so it is lovely to see glimpses of what had once been a much more rural and quieter place.