Kate’s Winter Vacation

We spent the first afternoon snorkeling on the house reef, where Mum and Dad poo-poohed the coral but I was too busy being fascinated with all the fish to be unimpressed. Apparently I just don’t have enough taste. But I do have talent to spare, apparently, as I managed to cut my hands on the barnacles (or whatever) on the stairs as I was trying to exit the water. We had to hit up the doctor at the clinic to dig a piece of rock out of my hand so it wouldn’t get infected. Well done, me. We enjoyed a lovely buffet dinner (all of the meals were buffet style, and every lunch and dinner there was a create-your-own stir fry station, which I frequented for nearly every lunch and dinner, I am not ashamed to admit. And I have also purchased some of the local ingredients for use back home in my own stir fries), and played some Double Rummy, then went off to bed.

I was awakened the next morning who-knows-when by a munching noise in the walls. GOOD start to my day, let me tell you. As the light increased in the room I looked around for the source of the munching and saw that… oh dear… the banana in the fruit basket so thoughtfully laid out for us is MOVING… and looks a little eaten… ohcrapohcrapohcrap! There’s a hole in the wall! I’m SURE that wasn’t there the night before! “Daddyyyyyy… there’s something in the wall… I think it’s a mouse…” (Kate inspects the hole a little closer and a face pokes out) “ACK OH GOD DADDY IT’S BIGGER THAN A MOUSE!!!” (and Kate jumps back as far away as she can from the hole-in-the-wall). After I escaped the evil furry thing and went down for breakfast, Dad and a couple of nice young men in housekeeping determined that it was a local squirrel, as it jumped out of the hole, smeared banana all over the mirror, and got itself trapped in the bathroom, where Dad couldn’t chase it out because he would be between it and the door no matter what he tried, but the nice young men with brooms were able to shoo it out. Alright, so we can check off on our “Have you seen this wildlife?” card that yes, we have indeed met the Palawan squirrel, THANK YOU.