Just what I needed!
P: Kinabatangan Tribulations (long!)
It cost me something to be out there in the jungle. I didn’t know it until after we were back in Singapore, but I was using reserves I didn’t know I had.
The Kinabatangan is the longest river in Sabah, Borneo. It is a wildlife haven and home to endangered Orangutans and Proboscis Monkeys. The forest is in massive decline due to deforestation from logging, mining, and palm plantations. The animals are in a losing battle for habitat. Heading up to Uncle Tan’s camp felt like we were traveling backwards to a time and place where Nature, not people, was in power of the planet.
Living on the river, it seemed humans were the interlopers, permitted to exist at the whim of nature. I was pretty low on the totem pole—down at the bottom was Me, and then above were the mosquitos, then bigger insects (massive spiders, stinging ants, giant venomous millipedes), then further up various birds (songbirds, cranes, hornbills, eagles), then the sizable reptiles (red banded snake, python, monitor lizards, crocodiles) and then higher were the bigger mammals (civet cats and wild pigs and pygmy elephants)
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Marshmallow-fellow Elf: Make your elf appear to be roasting marshmallows by seating your elf next to your stove or in the kitchen next to a small tea light candle. Take a small stick from outside place a mini marshmallow on the end of it and place the stick in your elf's arms. Scatter some marshmallows around the Elf. Bookworm Elf: Leave your elf under your tree or on a table with a favorite Christmas book opened. You could surround him by other stuffed animals and toys to make it look like he was reading to the other toys. Sweet Elf: Hang candy canes on your light fixtures and place the elf near one (maybe hanging from one?) with a candy cane in his arms too. Just “Elfing Around” Elf: Hang your elf from a curtain rod. Using a roll of toilet paper toilet paper the room leaving one end in the Elf’s hands. Couch Potato Elf: Place your Elf in your living room with a remote control near...
