Anthony's Diary...

I mentioned in my previous blog about my trip to Borneo and the many photographs I have taken of wild life. One of the most evasive creatures to try to capture on film was the simple kingfisher.  There are many varieties of kingfisher in Borneo and the only photographs I managed to get whilst I was there was late in the evening when the bird was asleep. The photographs were of poor quality, even using night vision equipment on my high definition camera.  Little did I know what was to happen when I returned home!

Meet Elvis the King(fisher)!  This little chap was brought home by my wife when she found him in the middle of the road in a nearby lane.  He wasn’t in very good shape (to say the least) but there was no physical sign of injury.  I have only seen one other kingfisher in the wild in this area in the last 20 years so it came as quite a shock. The normal advice when finding a wild bird would be to leave it alone, however, as many of you will know the kingfisher is a protected bird. Therefore I decided to intervene and contact the RSPCA for some further advice.  Whilst all this was going on Elvis seemed to perk up considerably and he started to respond to me.  Some swift internet research confirmed that he was a young adult male.  The next part of his adventure was a 30 mile trip from Lincolnshire to Norfolk to the RSPCA animal hospital at East Winch. 

On the way there he seemed to settle in quite well, the sun was shining on him and his coloured feathers were fantastic!  It was then that I noticed something I hadn’t realised before.  Kingfisher’s eyelids close from the bottom up!  I can only presume that this is better for diving into the water!  Upon arrival at the hospital they were also shocked to learn where he had been found.  We can only presume that strong winds had caused the problem.  We were told that the team would rehabilitate him back into the wild at the exact point he was found in case he had a family nearby.  I have a card to send back to the hospital so that we can find out what happened to Elvis but as yet have not plucked up the courage to ask.  I can only say that when we left him he was full of fighting spirit. And just like his namesake I hope he has left the building!

The 48th scale house kit launch at Spring Miniatura went extremely well and we sold out of houses on the first day of the show and had to take orders on Sunday!  Thankfully before Kensington we were able to complete the orders and replenish our stock levels. 

Kensington was, as usual, a very good show for us but we did find that this time a lot of our business was from European visitors.

After Kensington I took out the whole of June for my holiday.  This time we travelled to Malaysian Borneo.  Since I was a young boy of 10 years old I have always wanted to visit this country and it exceeded all my expectations!  After flying with Emirates to Kuala Lumpur we flew out to Borneo to Kuching in Sarawak, we moved on to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah and then spent some time in Turtle Island National Park on the island of Selingan which lies off the East coast of Borneo.  We finally travelled to Dubai where we stayed at the new Atlantis Hotel on the Palm before returning home.  I am now actively searching through the hundreds of photographs I have taken and I can promise any wild life enthusiast that they are in for a treat!  From tracking a herd of around 20 wild pygmy elephants, to watching a green turtle (which measured approximately 1 metre from head to tail!) laying a clutch of 82 eggs, to being chased by an adult male wild orang-utan on our last day, it really was a fabulous trip.  I intend to go into greater detail over the next few weeks about my adventures.

On the miniatures side of things we went to Holt on 4th July and had a very pleasant day at the show.  The homemade cakes and the free flowing tea that the dolls house club members provided for us made us feel even more at home.  I collected a long awaited 24th scale ledge wagon kit that had been created by Bernard & Lynne of McQueenie

After having a busier than expected autumn Miniatura we set our sights on the first Christmas Festival at Kensington on December 6th.  Other than getting a ticket for accidentally driving in a bus lane (!) this was also a success.

At the beginning of November I started a ten week course at my local gym.  As, since my trip to Vietnam, I have struggled with weight gain which I associated with my new medication for diabetes.  The results have been promising (albeit a little slow!) and I have now signed up for a further twelve week course.

We then had company for Christmas of the four legged variety.  Christmas morning was like having another child in the house.

As I write the cold spell is still amongst us.  Other than the inconvenience it has given some great photo opportunities.  I took this photograph on the 3rd February a few miles from where we live.

As the recession takes hold we are actively trying to introduce less expensive items in our range of miniatures whilst maintaining our usual high standard.  As in real life I do know that most people are trying to do as much as they can for themselves.  It is for this reason that we have introduced the first in the range of 48th scale, affordable dolls house kits that offer a blank canvas for your own creative ideas.