Hello everybody,

All is we

Hello everyone,

all is well with us.It has been another good week at Matang.I think we are really adapting to our new surroundings rather well now.We cant really imagine doing anything else apart from this now.Its amazing how people adapt to change so quickly.

We have achieved quite a lot this week.We finished the mural which everyone is really pleased with.It is now being decked out with various climbing apparatus, ladders and ropes so that a psychologically damaged monkey can move in. He really needs a new space and hopefully this will help to sort out his state of mind.

We were taught the art of splicing which you can see in the photos.Its quite textiley so we thoroughly enjoyed it.Id did take 3 of us about an hour to do one but we will practise and improve.The art of knotting is what we want to learn next, and there is an expert here to teach us. 

We have also finished Amans climbing structure.Its about 25 foot high so that was quite an achievement.Anyone fancy 2 beautiful ladies to build a climbing frame in their garden you know who to ask.

Another excellent thing we did was to make 2 woven hammocks out of firemans hose.These are for the bears to allow them to get off the ground in their sleeping quaters.Its incredible how you have to make everything so heavy duty, otherwise they will just rip it apart.

There has been a lot of rain this week. Some of it has stopped play, you cant use power tools in the wet. There has been talk of a Tsunami in the north of the island of Borneo, but no need to worry about us because it is miles away and we are 100 ft above sea level here which apparently means we are safe from any big waves.

 Its the weekend and we are in Kuching for a bit of luxury, hot showers and clean sheets.We even had our clothes laundered for a real treat.  On Friday we went to a restaurant run by a mancunian to celebrate Burns night where we ate haggis with mashed potatoes and turnip. Yummy. Apparently the haggis had come all the way from Fortnum and Masons and was a month out of date! We didin't seem to suffer from it though. The Whiskey flowed and everyone had a jolly good time. There was a scottish man there who recited some Burns, including the one that goes ' Some hae meat that canne eat....". It made me think of you Dad. The triffle for pudding was interesting and left a lot to be desired. Stayed up til the early hours chatting to other travellers as we seem to do a lot. It's very easy to meet people here.

Yesterday we went to a textiles museum where Lucynda learnt a lot about local textiles, dying and weaving. Emma didn't retain much information but enjoyed it all the same. In the evening we went to a night market, selling everything from all sorts of strange fruit and veg (including the smelly durian that's everywhere) to goldfish in plastic bags, clothes and tools. We bought some baby fern and needle mushrooms to experiment with back at the ranch.

To sum up, we are both having a really brilliant time and don't have any regrets. Though we are already feeling sad about having to move on, we know we'll have a ball wherever we go.

Thanks again for all the comments. Hope you're enjoying the blog.

Lots of love from Emma and Lucynda. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ll with us.Its the weekend and we are in Kuching

for a bit