V.I.P'S at Sport's Day

      After what seems like weeks of marching and practising, the actual day of the Sport's Day arrived and I managed to persuade Andrew to come to the Opening Ceremony. Even though I tried my best to keep our arrival low key when you are an orang putih it is difficult to hide and to Andrew's horror we were brought up to the front and seated on cane sofas with the other V.I.P's of the Education Department. We were served cups of tea and bright green cakes and then had to watch the marching and saluting but fortunately didn't have to inspect the troops with the other V.I.P's. There was then the lighting of the torch and then running around the stadium and lighting a thing in the centre and if we don't make London 2012 we will have at least had our Ranau version. Before the final relays began we watched a karate display and a pompom dance in Malaysian colours. We decided to slip out discretely during one of the races and just as we were going, the loudspeaker burst out " We would like to thank Mr Wright and Miss Fiona for attending our Sport's Day. It is such an honour......"  What must have been like in the colonial days?!

    Andrew left on Thursday evening and so I'm back to being only Fiona in Borneo. The rice planting has been progressing very quickly with almost all of them planted now. We noticed that as soon as the fields are flooded the egrets descend and we saw over 40 on a small padi field. Can any wildlife experts tell me what they are feeding on? The durion season is in full swing and the price for a durion has dropped to 4 myr instead of 30 myr a few weeks ago. This area grows the best durions apparently in the world, so I'm told, or at least in Sabah. Today is  Eid-Ul-Adha  which is the day of pilgrimage for the muslims. There were lots of men wearing their very bright silk pyjamas around town and although not such a big celebration as Hari Raya there are a few fireworks going off and quite a few visitors at the Homestay as we have yet another holiday tomorrow. The photo is of my charming landlord, Dr Othsman, who was wearing his hat today but no silk pyjamas.