Third day with the juveniles today. It was an interesting morning, as we had two of the bigger semi-wild males, Ceria and Kala, and a semi-wild female all at the door waiting for us to head out. After an attempt to head out first with Beryl and a bucket of fruit, I decided to leave the fruit behind in order to concentrate on what was going on. We managed to slip past everyone and head around the corner before Ceria started to follow us – you don't want to turn your back on Ceria! So Beryl and I picked up the pace to get to the outdoor area- Beryl is just a treasure, she is always so well behaved.

Then on my way back, Kala had tried to snatch the fruit bucket from Jack and wasn't letting go. I was quite proud of myself, because with a lot of yelling and some hand hitting, I managed to get him to let go – otherwise he would have ran off with the whole thing!

Then we had a third encounter when April and I went to get Peanut off the ground and Kala decided to charge up behind – April made a dodge away and managed to hit her head on the outdoor climbing platform in the process – so I had to hit Kala quite a few times again to get him to stop. Hitting might sound mean, but they are so strong they barely feel it, and sometimes you need to be able to defend yourself. But we don't need to do it often, and you need to aim for the arms or torso, never the face.

We saw a hornbill fly over today and it was absolutely hilarious watching the macaques try to climb along the ropes. They like to sit with their legs dangling both sides, and have really poor balance, so if they try and walk they look like they are really struggling, wobbling all over the place and have to stick their legs out really far to stay on track.

The afternoon was nice and quiet – we tried some sugar cane. Victor removed the outside. It is very tough, but when you bite into it and suck it, it's surprising how much sweet liquid comes out – it's very nice.

I have also learnt that 'knackered' is a word Americans don't understand with my accent. I have said to the girls a few times that I feel knackered etc – and they have said - “why, what are you wearing?” It's a running joke now.