In the U.S., the name brand camera company wanted me to send my zoom lens to their facility in California to clean mildew from the elements. Their charge would be $550, a little less than half the cost of a new lens. That lens 
was only a year old. The camera company and I got in a big wrangle over that situation. In Penang, Malaysia, I recently took two mildewed lenses, and my camera, in for cleaning. Two hours later I got them back in great condition. The total charge was $65.
A third lens they did not want to clean as it was old enough they could no longer get parts for it if needed for reassembly. I had nothing to lose by attempting the work myself. On You Tube, people show how to take a similar lens apart but they never show how to reassemble it. I took it apart, and fortunately, took some still pictures along the way and used various colored Magic Markers to help with orientation of parts upon reassembly. I was able to get to all the elements deep inside and clean away the mildew. As a first timer, it took hours but I was able to get everything reassembled. Left over was only one plastic washer and surprisingly there were no spare screws laying on the table. Everything looked great……but mounted on the camera, nothing worked automatically. Into the trash it went. I was not going to spend more hours on the lens since I just bought a good used one for $75. But now I know that it is not that terribly difficult for an experienced repair man to clean deep inside a camera lens, and certainly, no where in the world should the charge be $550!
The Ships Rat Trap
Lily turns 4 years old this weekend...For her birthday, in preparation to cross the Indian Ocean next month, she raked in
a lot of good presents:
-60 cans of wet food
-6 bags of dry food
– 2 new balls to chase
-A beautiful diamond necklace
In this picture she is gazing in to the mirror thinking she looks pretty darn beautiful with her new necklace!
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Malaysia New Year
How adventurous, years ago, “First Night” celebrations were in Boston and again in Providence….well below freezing weather drove most people indoors to a bar or restaurant rather than revel with the outdoor events with frozen fingers and feet. But at Straits Quay, in Penang, Malaysia, there was little room for the crowds to move along the waterfront. All of us cruisers tied to the docks had the best seats and easy access to our boats to refill our glasses with ice and whatever. It was a free show of dancers, pop singers, light twirlers, etc. Incredible the high decibel announcer and music. All night Rebecca and I had our ear plugs securely screwed in. This all lead up to the midnight fireworks.
These were presented as “Brazilian” dancers. Without their masks, they were clearly Chinese heritage.
Ra
ther than twirling burning sticks, now they twirl LED sticks. When twirled at the right speed they can spell out or picture nearly anything.
I thi
nk these two are well known in Malaysia. They did fine and had a wide range of pop music. Certainly a lot of the crowd lost some decibels of hearing.
Opp
osite the stage over the water, the crowd continued around in both directions to form a big horseshoe around the marina. There were large screens on the sides showing the performances.
Behind Brick House. Nope, nothing caught on fire. The stage would be 4 boats to our left in this picture.
Intense fireworks for about 10 minutes. Good show on a nice warm night! 
