Tuesday, September 30, 2008

RUN NO. 2091

Date: 16 Sept 2008
Site: Lucky Gardens
Hares: Sue/Cheryl/Alison
Hens: 40 Chicks: 9
Front Horn: Peewee
Back Horn: Trailblazer

We arrived at the boy's Hash headquarters and those carrying, bins, eskys and drinks were glad to have someone willingly load them on to a trolley and move them.

The run in good weather began up through the dirt which was thankfully not too muddy into the jungle and along the ridge through a well cleared track; till we came to a split with yellow paper to the left for an easy short run for those feeling tired and white paper to the right for a much longer run.The long run proceeded further along to first check. The check was an on check which turned left into the valley through a winding, steep and slippery trail making the run longer than estimated by the hares.

Everyone made their way running or walking through the valley then turned right and down, then left along the edge of the lake, while keeping a eye out for sun bears till they came to another up and down and several log bridges to cross. There were I am told two more checks but sorry I cannot give credit to those who found them.
No sunbears were sighted but Jan and Ellin did spot Molly who had been missing since a Recce on Friday. Alison was relieved and happy to be able to take her home.

The shout up began in earnest and once again there were first time guests to be introduced and a new member Gill was welcomed. Lee celebrated her 250th hash and Sue her 400th.

Quite a lot of discussion followed when calls for the Hashit was announced. Claire's mobile went off so she was an obvious candidate and Tina I was accused of not introducing a guest properly. Madmarg's hubby had arrived with supplies for the hash shop and stayed but pleaded that he was an invited guest, so the decision was made to wet all three of them, though I think marg made sure Mark received most of the water.

The Hares provided nourishing rolls and salads.

Next Run: Salambigar Link
Hares: Jane W/Sarah H/Never Wrong

RUN NO. 2092

Date: 23 Sep 2008
Site: Salambigar Link
Hens: 34
Hares: Sarah H/Jane W/Never Wrong
Front Horn: Carol
Back Horn: Naj

Another Tuesday, another Hash... We were quite a small group of hens this week due to the public school holiday. But also maybe, because some hens got lost around Jln Muara and Sungai Akar trying to find Salambigar Link..? Tricky for some, as there was no (as Madam Sin kindly pointed out) green sign saying "Salambigar Link"!

The run started promptly at 17.15 by the sound of the... rooster?! Yes, no horns today, so there was some imaginative improvisations and imitations of horns along the track. We set off along some quite muddy and mucky trails; it was a nice and flat start up until the first check, found by Magic Roundabout. Then it got worse, with hill after hill, one worse than the other, and one even almost neverending, or so it felt. Don't forget though girls, it's good exercise climbing up those hills! And if it gets hard, keep saying the mantra: "I will get a butt like Kylie's, I will get a butt like Kylie's!"

It was a very nice and scenic route indeed, and some of us even managed to spot those boats along the way! We enjoyed jumping over a few streams, saw a beautiful waterfall and had a good trek through a bit that felt a bit like the woods back home, with lots of fallen leaves on the ground making noise as we came trotting along.

There were two more checks, one found by Trish and the last one by Anna S - both hidden behind huge fallen trees, little bit tricky and well thought out.

Most of us were out before or just at dusk, but two hashers were still in the jungle after almost 2 hours, and a few of their fellow hens started to express some concerns. SO, for the first time in a very long time (as I understood it), there was launched a little "rescue-mission" - three hens equipped with some 100plus, water and torches. The hens going back in did so the back way, and soon met up with the two missing hens - who had taken it easy but were still in good spirits.

Later we all went on to Sarah's house at Jln Muara for the on-on. It all started a bit late due to the dramatic end to the run. We thanked the hares, the horns, celebrated two birthdays (Jane's & Bettina's), gave a down-down to Boel who is taken over the Hash Words while Ah Struth is away - and also gave a down-down to four hens who celebrated 100, 150, 200 and 300 runs! It was certainly Jane's night, cause here she had her 3rd down-down, as she had done her 150th run.

Carol introduced us to two new members by saying "we are on a roll!" which is so true - for the 3rd week in a row the Hash has welcomed new guests! This week's two new hens were Sarah Thornton (like the chocolate) and Sharon Kidman (like Nicole!).
Carol also warned us that next week she will be testing us on our knowledge of the Hash rules! She prompted us to go home and study our rule book a little bit closer, something we should do every now and then anyway - but next week, there will be hashit for those getting their questions wrong!

The hashit got a new, reluctant, holder with Not Yet - who had failed to come to the site with the horns on time. She tried to protest, but there was no mercy as it is an HONOR to receive the hashit!

The hares had provided some gorgeous rĂ´ti that we all enjoyed, and there was plenty of food so noone had to go home hungry. Thank you hares! On-on!


NEXT RUN: 30 September
SITE: Morley Movers
HARES: Boel/Anna S

Monday, September 15, 2008

RUN NO. 2090

DATE: 2 Sept 2008
SITE: Subok 378 (Water tower)
HARES: Madmarg & sister, Paula/Gordon
HENS: 35 CHICKS: 10
FRONT HORN: Anna BACK HORN: Naj

With good weather and plenty of time on hand, I arrived on site and decided to park down the bottom of the hill because Alison was bringing the 100+ this week and I only had the bin to carry up. Heather had arrived even earlier and reluctantly taken on the role of car park attendant, making sure cars didn’t block the way for the tent truck to go up. I spotted Alison and Cheryl and walked down the hill again to help lug the 100+ and softies up. She was busy telling Cheryl tales of her brave encounter with a sun bear in Lucky Gardens – which by the way, is where you will be walking this week, so keep your eyes peeled. One of her dogs decided to try it on, making the bear rear up and growl. Then it saw Alison and her second dog and fortunately thought better of it and ran off. Plenty of time to see the huge claws at close hand though.

It was soon time to head off up the slope past the water tower and along familiar trails. After taking a left hand fork, I was just settling into a very pleasant walk along lovely trails, when I managed to spike myself on a very sharp log that was jutting out into the track – not so pleasant after all! A bit further along I spotted a bit of old paper heading left, with the fresh paper going to the right. I was just thinking the hares had failed in their duties to pick up old paper, when the two tracks converged, so it mattered not. There was one tricky bank to slither down before crossing a stream to get to a nice waterfall. There were also a few other slippery bits to negotiate across other streams, plenty of logs and trips to avoid and of course, ups and downs, but nothing major. I can remember thinking how amazingly quiet it was, except for the occasional call of ‘on – on’ heard in the distance. The track came out onto a more open ridge which I knew to be fairly close to the out. The in and the out paper converged, and a ‘way out’ sign was spotted, making sure fellow hashers didn’t head back into the jungle. But apparently, a few hashers missed seeing the sign and turned the wrong way. They were called back and all were out safely before dark. I never even heard any checking, so the front runners must have been really speedy. I hear from a good source, our friendly JM, that she was the one to find all the checks – only 2 checks this week, but Carol was very pleased with herself that she managed to find them both. She was trying for the hat trick, but none to be had.

The shout up began with Nellie being welcomed back, and the hares given their well deserved down down. We had 3 first time guests – Claire from London, who has been in Brunei for 2 years, but has only just decided to try the hash; Eva, an artist, also from London, who has only been here for 2 weeks; and Lyn from Suffolk. There were a few vocal hashers at this point, so I hope I heard the names right. All 3 elected to drink water for their down down – what is the world coming to? Or is it just the new generation of Brits going soft?

Sarah was welcomed as a new member and Nancy was also given a down down for taking her duties as hashit holder seriously and taking her new friend, the hashit hen, all the way around the hash with her – well done you for great hashit spirit. Our JM gave a serious talk about how we should all be respectful of the religious ideals associated with the month of Ramadhan .ie. love thy neighbour. Everybody was asked to go and introduce themselves to a fellow hasher they didn’t know, which resulted in a raucous few minutes of ‘hash bonding’. There were a lot of announcements: Alice saying pay up by the end of September if you want your freebies for Founder’s Day and to think about signing up for the new committee; Sarah about the 350th Kid’s Hash this Sunday (29 years of hashing, the oldest Kid’s hash in the world); Claire (Pee Wee) giving instructions for the Hillathon; Ruth (Ah Struth) asking for somebody to take over Hash Words for 3 months; Alice saying to give advance notice if you want the tent. Greetings were passed on from Rosie Moten in Adelaide. No hashit was awarded this week because everybody was far too well behaved. And then it was time for lots of different pasta dishes and other delights - thank you hares for an excellent run and the yummy food.

The rain had squeezed us all together under the shelter of the tent, which certainly made for a very amicable shout up. The chin wags continued on into the night…

Next run: Lucky Gardens, Jln Muara
Keep an eye out for sun bears! Sun bear, Malay bear, honey bear, dog bear
Despite being the smallest of all the bears, the sun bear is probably the most aggressive, and will attack without provocation.
Body length: 120-150cm, Weight: female 27-50kg, male 27-65kg. They are the smallest species of bear.

Sun bears have short black/dark brown water-repellent fur, with a yellow crescent on their chest. They have strong paws with naked soles and long sickle-shaped claws. They have flexible snouts and very long tongues, which are an adaptation for extracting termites from nests. Relatively, they have the largest canines of all the bear species. Canine teeth are specialised for tearing meat, but sun bears are not particularly carnivorous. They may use their sharp canines as weapons or as tools for tearing at trees to get at insects. Sun bears feed on fruits, berries, insects, termites, eggs and small vertebrates. They will readily climb trees, using their long tongue to raid beehives of honey.

Sun bears live in south east Asia: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao Peoples Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Sun bears inhabit lowland tropical rainforests

Saturday, September 06, 2008

RUN NO. 2089

DATE: 2 SEPT 2008
SITE: DST
HARES: MAGIC ROUDABOUT/TANIA
FRONT HORN: CAROL
BACK HORN: JANE

It was a beautiful evening (no rain clouds visible) as I set off for my weekly exercise being the hash. Having arrived at the site fairly early, I was able to enjoy a bit of a chin wag and browse through the items for sale at our hash shop. So engrossed was I with some new items of clothing that the horn suddenly sounded catching me unawares (where does the time go!) and everyone was dashing off into the jungle at the back of the tent.

So off I dashed trying to make up for lost time, thinking to myself “I am going to engage my brain and try to remember as much as I could of the run”. I started off quite well but failed to remember half way round what I had done! Sorry that’s age for you. We set off through a very pleasant part of the jungle, in fact I could almost say forest, which I believe was a loop as we came out onto the road. We went along the road for a while to head back into the jungle on the right, up a slight incline, and then along a shallow ridge for a while to drop back down (I may be wrong but believe this was where 2nd check was). Now I have a blank spot. I think we carried on for a while in the jungle until we came out onto the road again, but by now I had lost my bearings. Fortunately for me I was with Ready Mix who was explaining exactly where we were (god she is so knowledgeable), one had the feeling that you would not get lost if you stuck to her side! Unfortunately for both Ready Mix and I, as we were talking geography along the road some spiteful bee’s or whatever decided to shake us up a bit by stinging Ready Mix on the left cheek of her bottom and one on each of the top of my legs just under my bottom. This certainly woke us up and as you can imagine, we were running and jumping all over the place. We both felt why, we did not deserve this we had not disturbed anything (how could we, we were walking down the middle of the road). I believe we then went back into the jungle, walked a long a fairly wide dirt track for some while, then off to the right to which we came to a small, reasonably deep bit of a pool. Too wide to be able to jump across so did an obstacle course across it with a balancing act on rather narrow logs and a stick to aide us across. Although I personally did not witness this, I would not be surprised that a few hens may have ended up in the pool. We eventually came out onto the road again not far from the hash site. Because I’m not an FRB, although I couldn’t have been too far back as I heard 1st and 2nd check, I really don’t know who found the three checks, sorry girls. I for once to my surprise was soooo enjoying this run (maybe that’s because I didn’t have to climb ex amount of MOUNTAINS), that I could have continued on an on and on.

Excellent run girls, thoroughly pleasant and enjoyable, and for once we had no mountains to climb!! Thanks also for the scrummy salad and rolls (one of my favorites).

The shout up. Well what can I say such a number of things going on. We had two first time guest, Charlotte from London and Sharon from Australia. Carol brought to our attention that we had 12 guests; longest list of guests ever on the hash (would be nice if we get a few members out of that lot). Hashit. We had a dilemma as there were two misdemeanors – Carol forgot – or rather late to mention her own guest and Madmarg/Nancy for taking a first time guest on a longer run and off paper. It turned into a vote and unfortunately Madmarg/Nancy lost so the hashit they had.

NEXT RUN: SPG 378 SUBOK
HARES: MADMARG/GORDON

RUN NO. 2088

DATE: 26 AUGUST 2008
SITE: Salambigar Link
HARES: MADMARG/NAJ (as a lion tonight)
HENS: 33 CHICKS: 4
Front Horn: Trish
Back Horn: Alice

Never having been to this site before I was a little worried about the “it’s just by the dump” directions, but not to worry, there was not a whiff of foul air all night! When we arrived there was already a gathering of giggling youths, intent on frolicking in the waterhole, and not at all put off by the presence of so many hens.

The new roster came into effect with Madam Sin delighted to be off on the trail and Never Wrong babysitting the supplies. The run started up a hill and then just kept on going up! An awesome workout for the calves. I am reliably informed that there were checks, but have no idea where they were or who found them – someone much fitter than me! The forest was beautiful, pigs grunted in the valleys, the trail was dry, the bridges were balancing acts and the last bracken hill was punishing. All in all, a great hash.

Back in our ‘enchanted glade’, the waterhole looked particularly inviting, but Lady of the Lake Maria was the only one brave enough to get in. (She informed us the water was cold)

At the shout up chairs unfolded (great selling technique!) and candles and mosquito coils were lit. We welcomed Claire as a new member and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Veronica. There were four guests, including returning hasher Erin aka Trips, and Maggie aka Miss Spain.

Thanks must go to the Hares for the delicious curry puffs, and also to Maria for her carrot and lemon muffins brought in as a pre-Ramadan treat.

Torches were mandatory on the trail back to the roadside!

NEXT RUN: DST
HARES: MAGIC ROUNDABOUT/TANIA