Dec 23 - Getting the heck out out of here and away from nature.

 So we have packed up all of our stuff in the Peranakan semi wooden style house.  Now we are waiting for our 1pm check out with Robert.  It is around 10:30am and Michael is napping.  

We will need to get some lunch before we grab a "Grab" to take us and all our stuff to the new apartment.  While I wait here I will regale you with nature stories from our current home.  

The first morning I was here I went down to the wet kitchen for breakfast.  I moved the cutting board on the counter - and screamed as I startled a gecko who launched at me before trying to make a mad escape through the openings between the slats just above the counter.  I'm not sure who was more surprised.

A couple of nights later as I was shutting off all the lights downstairs in the kitchen area and making my way upstairs I had another surprise.  I started up the white tile staircase leading to the lounge when I stopped short.  There a couple of steps ahead of me sat a toad.  He was about an inch and a half tall - and not moving.  Rather than scaring him - and who knows - having the toad jump on me - I turned around and headed back down.  And took the other staircase up to my bedroom.  I never saw the toad again.  Hopefully he made it back outside.

But the worst has been the bugs.  There are many kinds.  We dare not leave any food item uncovered on a counter.  Ants are everywhere.  Then there are the "dancing bugs" at least that is what I call them.  They fly; then flit and run around on counters and desks.  They are extremely fast.  I am swatting at them all the time trying to get them off the desk even now while I am writing this.  At first I had my open backpack right next to the desk - until I realized I was probably swatting them right into the backpack!  Then there is a third kind of bug that flies slowly around and bites you.  I have been bitten so many time - but usually do not get a red welt from them.  Michael seems to especially attract them and is miserable most evenings.  I have learned that I do not put the light on in my bedroom over the bed at night when I want to read before going to sleep.  If I do I will share my bed with those bugs.  We had been warned that there were mosquitoes and other pests on the lower level of the garden.  So we have stayed away from there.  There are many more kinds of bugs - but these are the ones that irritate us the most.

Our next apartment is on the 24th floor of a high rise building near Melaka Town.  I am hoping for a lot less nature there!