Durions and Simon

     As soon as I arrived in Ranau on Wednesday, I could smell the pungent scent of the durion fruit, which rather like Livarot cheese, once smelt never forgotten and you either love or hate it. The people of Sabah say that their durions are better than Sarawak's and the people of Ranau claim that their durions are the best in Sabah. So at this time of year there are stalls lining the roads entering Ranau selling the creme de la creme of durions and the odeur wafts through the air. January is the peak season and people do literally gorge themselves on this fruit and it appears to be quite addictive and difficult to satisfy the longing for it. As a great fruit lover and been known to eat kilos of grapes, tomatoes, plums, pineapples, mangoes..... to excess, I have still not found the secret to love this fruit and when my landlady presented me with a durion I had great difficulty in looking pleased! There are many durion trees in our garden but on a more positive note there are also rambutan and mangosteen trees which are both delicious and in season now.

Mangosteens

Fruit from the garden

Simon posing at Sabah Tea plantation

My drive to school

  I have sort of got back into the routine of things at school and it is lovely seeing everyone again. It does surprise me how genuinely pleased they seem to be on seeing me and I am reminded again at how warm and friendly these people are and how lucky I am to know them. I returned to my zumba class this evening and they were all commenting on my chubby cheeks ( don't ask which ones )- they also tend to be very direct - and my work skirts are definitely feeling tight! It is the rainy season but so far it hasn't been too bad although one of schools that has to be reached on a gravel road is more of a challenge.

 My first visitor of the year has arrived who is a friend since university days. Simon and I have kept in contact and seen one another nearly every year since then - be it in Bermuda, where we worked or France where we both live. Sabah is perhaps the one on the list we least expected but it doesn't seem that strange really. Simon is the intrepid traveller and it would be hard to find a country that he has not visited. He is on his way to Cambodia to volunteer in an orphanage and has taken a side trip to check up on me and verify that I am actually working! I have a lot of admiration for him as a few years ago he had an accident in the Pyrenees and broke his neck. He spent the next 6 months in hospitals in Spain and England and very gradually started to make progress and was able to "walk" out of the Spinal Unit in Salisbury with the aid of two crutches. He has defied all the pessimistic prognoses that he wouldn't be able to live an independent life and through determination and a lot of courage he has continued to live his life on his terms. I have boundless admiration for you , Simon.