Thank You Julie Andrews

Tuaran Pagoda with Mount Kinabalu as a backdrop

Before you all think I've gone a bit mad in the tropics and senility has come early as I clocked up another year last week, there is a reason for my gratitude to this heroine of mine. Admittedly I'd rather be able to sing like Annie Lennox or Adele but my devotion to Julie Andrews has endured practically all my life. When  I was 2 years old  my father went to the States to work at the Mayo Clinic for 6 weeks. He went to see My Fair Lady on Broadway with the young Julie Andrews starring in the leading role. The LP was bought and I don't remember at what age I started to play it but I knew it off by heart long before in 1964 Mary Poppins was released. I remember distinctly going to the afternoon matinee in Belfast with Katy and the queues being very long and the two of us being mortified as my mother skipped the queues and left us with the doorman of the cinema.(Looking back she probably played the Dr. card!) If I start reminiscing about all my childhood memories this post will never be finished, however I know that the first time I watched The Sound of Music, I was transported to another world in the big screen of Austria and longed to be one of the Von Trapp children or at least be starring in the film. Of course in those days there were no videos or DVDs to watch it at home and the only alternative was to listen to the LP which I got for Christmas, which was played endlessly until I knew every nuance and note of the songs.

Tuaran fish market

Live crabs

    I wouldn't like to say that Julie Andrews had influenced the number of children I had but when we moved to our lovely farm in France, I could see that this was my chance of pretending to be Maria and I could train my children to be the Von Trapp singers. From an early age my children were indoctrinated by large doses of the videos of Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music and Lisa and Tanya could sing most of the songs before they were 3. More children came along and even though Patrick preferred to watch Black Beauty I bet he could sing Edelweiss if asked. We would have Sound of Music sing songs in the garden, going for walks, drives, everywhere... until Andrew finally put his foot down and decreed "No singing at the table!" I'm afraid, as the years went by, Julie Andrews was usurped by Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and many others but whenever all the "girls"are together on a wet day, we have been known to have a "Sound of Music"sing along (much to the boys' horror) I have a feeling that the next generation of Wrights might also be introduced to those films and I'm hoping that they too will fall under their spell.

Bougainvillea near my house 

   Anyway that very long winded way of getting to the relevance of this post is that I went back to Ranau last week and stayed at Slagon Homestay for 2 nights as my replacement mentor has arrived. As always it is very sociable and we met a gentleman and his 8 year old daughter from Kuala Lumpur who were on holiday. Sadly his wife had died last year of a chest infection. She believed in Chinese medicine and wouldn't take antibiotics and tragically left this bright, lovely girl to be brought up alone. On Thursday evening he was telling us how obsessed Erin was about watching The Sound of Music and how it had brought them closer together as they watched it most evening when he got home from work. "Shall we watch it now?" he said and before we could answer he had got his computer down and the first notes of "The hills are alive .. " were playing and we had fallen under the spell.

Squid

Herbal remedies

If you can imagine the scene there were 2 middle-aged white women, a 60 + Japanese man , a Malayan man and 8 year old Erin huddled round a computer screen. Erin was able to sing along with every song, not to mention the actions of Do, re , mi but what amazed her was how well I could too! I told her that the song " I have confidence" is a song that I still sing today when I am off to face things I am not sure I'll be able to face and she confided in me that the song that she sings when things are bad is "My Favourite Things". We didn't watch until the end as it is long but I'm amazed that after so many years Julie Andrews and her singing still touches the hearts of young and old. Thanks Julie.

An Address and House At Last!

Yes, I am now installed in my lovely house and yesterday was only the first day that I started unpacking and make it feel like mine. In between I have been in KK in hotel land running another small induction with 3 lovely people. However on Friday I headed back to Tuaran with much anticipation holding my door key. I've started rearranging things and my plan is to paint the house inside - but not sure when I will get the time at the moment. Today I had my first visitors on their way up to the Tip of Borneo and I was able to provide lunch , seats and my hospitality which felt good instead of accepting everyone elses.

A huge black and white kitchen

A dining room!

One of the lovely things about working on this project has been meeting so many interesting, great people with varied backgrounds and from all ages. Today at lunch we ranged from 27 to 57 and I think the 27 year old seemed more mature than a few of us in our 50's! Anyway, I am nearly ready to fall asleep now. I hope the municipal elections are going well in France. I will write a longer post later on this week.

The view from the sitting room out to the garden

Pulau Sepanggar and feeling a Fool

Hooray, this is my last night in the backpackers and tomorrow I will be installed in my house until I leave Sabah! It has been an interesting week visiting being based in KK amongst travellers and then going off to work during the day and attempting to use my bunk bed as my office when I returned. As always I have met some lovely people and thank you my various room mates for being so understanding and quiet when I was conducting phone interviews from my bed.

A mentor going to work

The unfinished computer lab.

 This week I visited a few schools around KK and one of highlights was to the lovely island of Sepanggar which is about 5 km from the coast and near the Naval Base. Strangely most of the pupils are boated out from a water village on the mainland to the island for schooling. The population on the island consists of a few houses on stilts on the beach and the only income to be gained is by fishing. The small school is built over sand and surrounded by virgin jungle. In the school grounds I saw goats, monkeys, chickens and a monitor lizard sauntering by oblivious to the surroundings. There are a few solar panels to give the island and school electricity but there appears to be no way of saving the electricity in batteries so when it is cloudy there is no electricity. There are 2 boats, one for the teachers and the other for the pupils and fortunately it was a beautiful calm day when I visited but it can be very rough sometimes and the result being that attendance depends very much on the weather. The pupils and staff were all very welcoming and it was so nice to be in a school again.

The teachers'boat

A farewell from the jetty

 The downside of my week was that I was ripped off on internet trying to buy my plane ticket back to France in May. CHEAP FlIGHTS AIR came up when I was comparing prices on the usual sites. They were slightly cheaper but they had the times that suited me better. So I went ahead and booked with them and received several emails and my flight itinerary etc. They said they only accepted danish credit cards which should have been a warning sign but I still went ahead and stupidly made a bank transfer and the result is I have no tickets and no more contact with the site. So be warned!! I have booked many flights over internet and this is the first time I've been stung but ouch does it hurt!!

Congratulations to Ireland and happy St. Patrick's Day!

 

Mentor Land

I feel that I have been in Mentor Land and for 2 solid weeks and although in that land there are many interesting, great people, it is nice to be in another world for a change and talk about things that aren't related to Education, phonics, literacy, team self review, KPIs (don't ask!?) blah blah... I am installed in Masada Backpackers, my favourite backpackers in KK where Peter and Kelly treat me like their family - well not quite, as I still pay!. It is so nice to have that homely feel where people of all ages chat about their life and travel experiences in the communal living room and since Friday night I have met a lovely German couple, a charming Irish teacher, a Canadian teacher and an English Insurance salesman etc.... I seem to be in demand for my knowledge of places to visit and tours around Sabah and the best places to stay and even my car has been of use for lifts to bus stations.

Manana paradise

Since I last wrote I have been up to the Tip of Borneo and back and then spent the weekend at Manana with lots of other mentors which was great fun. Nothing had changed since my last visit in September 2013 and Awi and Ali G are still the men in charge who somehow manage to do everything. There were no jellyfish stings this time and I took the kayak out for a couple of hours and sadly did not see the turtle who popped his head up to look at my fellow kayakist who was behind me. On the Sunday afternoon we went straight off to Kuching where, (no I'm not complaining,) I have been installed in the very nice Hilton once again. It was the first phase overview of the mentors who arrived 5 weeks previously who I got to know quite well so it was really nice to see them all again. Kuching has,as always, a charm which I would like to enjoy more but the day was a long one from 9 am until nearly 6 pm every day and we all felt saturated with things to remember.

Local vegetables

However, I survived, as did the rest, and this week coming I will be based at the Backpackers in KK in preparation for moving in finally to my new house in Tuaran next weekend. I am still leading a nomadic lifestyle wearing random clothes and am looking forward to the day I can really unpack. Andrew has arrived safely in Papua New Guinea from the Solomon Islands and our time zones are getting closer. My thoughts are very much with all the families who are waiting for news of the Malaysian Airlines aircraft that is missing and let us all hope that they will be found.