Monday 25^th March

What a great couple of weeks we've had in Sutera Harbour in Kota Kinabalu (5:57.980N 116:03.374E) While staying in the marina we have access to two adjoining resorts and their facilities. Long hot gushing showers are the first highlight with towels provided and cheap laundry facilities. A choice of three pools has made us a little spoilt. Laps in the 50 metre pool have improved everyone’s technique and my fitness, while waterfalls and slides is a good incentive to swim the laps quickly. A bar in the pool nearby has brought back fond memories of our time at Peppers in Palm Cove with the same set up. Fresh juices certainly are a highlight!

Kids Club with ball house, colouring in and most importantly a TV has been fun for the girls and allowed us some time out. In Tango dancing it was fun to learn a few new steps and hits of tennis each morning means the girls have a little more success at hitting the ball. A chart room, air conditioned and quiet has been a relaxing place to read and play Numero, our new card game; fun and good for the maths skills. Weekend afternoon movies, with free popcorn have been a highlight for the girls and even I didn’t mind watching ‘Racing stripes’! Very hard to keep up the school work when there are so many distractions but at least there are incentives to get it done quickly!

The choice of food is amazing and if we don’t have many drinks, not too expensive for a resort. On Saturday night we all enjoyed a banquet of the most amazing array of dishes from soups, salads, main course, cheese and desserts. A chocolate fountain with marshmallows was a hit as was the choice of about ten cakes.

There is more to Kota Kinabalu than Sutera Harbour, but Jeremy has done most of the shopping and running around for computer stuff, boat and generator parts and food. The market was amazing with so much delicious fresh produce that we have been having a huge fruit and vegetable hit. Dip and raw vegetables are back on the snack menu and fruit salad for breakfast always has some interesting fruit in it. A day in town was useful for haircuts, new sand shoes and a few other necessities we haven’t seen for a while.

The Sunday Gaya Street Market was Jeremy’s idea of a nightmare but great to see all the pets from miniature turtles to dogs, cats, birds and rodents. We now have a new pet ‘Reepicheep’, a miniature hamster. The perfect pet on a boat, not taking up much room at two centimetres long! Some interesting mystery foods were good to try but not always tasting as you would imagine! Borneo crafts of beaded necklaces, sarongs and patterned bags were unfortunately swamped by Chinese junk. So many things the girls would love to buy of course!

Willow

I enjoy swimming and sliding down the big gushing water slide in the pool, playing in the ball pit at Kiddie Club and going to the movies. We had a circus and I was a clown. A ball chased me right across the park and back and it wouldn't stop following me. I had a clowns wig, I made a red nose and Phoebe painted my face. Phoebe was a dizzy acrobat and Hatty was a butterfly. James was a strong man, Joshua was a juggler and Jacob was the pet tamer. They bought a miniature hamster which he made walk in the exercise ring and climb through a hoop. I made cinnamon muffins, Phoebe made hedgehog and Hatty made lemonade for refreshments after the circus.

Phoebe

At Kota Kinabalu I liked swimming in the pool, reading in the quiet, cool chart room and playing in the ball pit at Kiddie Club. On my birthday we enjoyed having waffles up at the marina restaurant, looking at the marvelous view of the boats and the sea. My waffles had maple syrup drizzled and butter spread on top. We had my birthday pool party with Sea Glass and Muscat. We played limbo, pass the parcel, bobs and statues and balloons races where we popped the balloons to get the sweets out. We had party food and my decorated birthday cake in the park next to the pool. Afterwards we watched ‘Ice Princess’ in the theatre and ate bags of caramel popcorn.

Hatty

I liked swimming in the slide pool, watching movies in the theatre, playing in Kiddie Club and reading in the Chart room. In the morning we do our school work and also play Numero. It is a great game which we like and there is a movie about it, which I made on Facebook.

On Kelly’s birthday, who is from Sea Glass, we went to the Bowling Alley. I learned to bowl with the heavy balls. They turned all the lights off except the blues ones and the disco ball shone around the room. Afterwards we had Kelly’s creamy birthday cake.