10 NOV 08

I'm exhausted and we've only been back for a fortnight!
Huge staff changes have brought a completely different cast to Danau Girang, with Zainal being the exception. We've finally begun to sort out our data for KOCP, so most of our time is spent sat infront of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets at the moment. I've also completed the latest edition of 'Jungle Times', our newsletter, and if you'd like to recieve a copy by email then please send a request to danaugirangfieldcentre@yahoo.com!

I returned to find that the ants had managed to out-smart my 'anti-ant-food-protection-measures'. A solitary packet of unopened, emergency, extra-strong, Trebor mints. I'd left them in a tied carrier bag, inside a second bag, pegged to a piece of string which was suspended between two walls. None of this proved a problem to the ants, but I should be proud that my measures had held them off for two months. I should also probably learn not to keep an emergency stash of sweets! Ants have actually sunk to the bottom of my favourite animal list, joining the mosquitoes in last place. In the last week they've invaded my guitar(!!!), eaten our bread and the fire ants that sometimes swarm across the path after heavy rain attacked me again the other day. Unfortunately, it's quite difficult to spot them at night and they happen to shoot a small amount of formic acid under the skin, so you experience something akin to walking into a nettle patch whilst wearing flip-flops. It really was the final straw of the day as earlier I'd been playing football and sustained an injury to my toe, thinking it was broken. Quite how you can hurt yourself playing with an inflatable ball and a six-year-old, I don't know, but I did, and I did it by accidentally kicking my boss. Oops. At least my toe's starting to get better now!

We had a bit of mid-week postal excitement after news arrived that a letter was awaiting me at Sabah Wildlife Department. We took the boat and the car out to collect it straight away, taking bets on who it could be from. Having gone to all the kaffuffle of retrieving said letter, I think only Basil Fawlty or Victor Meldrew could quite imagine my frustration to find that my first letter to the jungle was a proffessional training year handbook sent by Cardiff University. Not only is it exceptionally boring, but also completely irrelevant as it fails to mention crocodiles or leeches, only marking schemes and assessments! Grumble. Still, we used the trip as an excuse to stock up on supplies and I bought a Malaysian rock compilation CD. There's a guitarist on there which would appeal to my little bro called 'Man Kidal', who plays for a band called 'Lefthanded' and seems to be stuck somewhere between Guns N Roses and Aerosmith. I don't suppose Lefthanded have got as far as HMV in Poole yet though.

I heard on the radio that Mr Obama has won the USA presidential election, and whilst I don't want this little blog to get all political, the media coverage here made me chuckle so it's worth a mention. The newspapers have come out with some gems on the matter, such as "The whole world is amazed that a black man is a president." I'm not amazed. And I'm also pretty sure there are other black presidents in the world, but whatever. The one that amused me on the car radio yesterday though was the newsreader who stated that "British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, is hoping to be a good friend of Mr Obama's," which is nice! She then went on to quote him as saying "Any changes we make will have to be progressive to move forwards." Well I'm glad our PM's finally understood his role as a world leader. Our country's in safe hands! Nevermind, I'll stick to concentrating on orangutans as they seem much more sensible.