Signing Off for the moment!!

  As I cuddle in my bed with a duvet cover and electric blanket on, it is hard to imagine the humid warmth of the Borneo that envelops you day and night. The way in which you can get out of bed without a thought of a dressing gown or slippers is a thing in my not too distant past now. Andrew has now returned from East Timor and is acclimatising  himself to the cold of a Normandie winter which I must say has not been very cold at all. We are still having clear blue skies and very mild weather for this time of year so the weather has been kind to us so far. I can hardly believe that time has been passing very quickly and it is over a month since I arrived on French soil. I have kept myself busy by sorting, looking at my bright Asian clothes and wondering if I'll wear them again, visits to the dump and decorating several rooms in the house that needed a freshen up. I have managed to catch up with most of my friends and I have managed to see four out of five children with a lovely visit to England last week. Tomorrow Andrew and I are off to Dublin to visit Gen, who started her new job in September and we are really looking forward to being tourists instead of rushing through on the way north which we have done for years.

The amazing beach at the Tip of Borneo

Bako Park

   So I haven't got a job yet or have any idea what I will be doing except that Andrew has accepted a job in London which starts in the new year and we are going to look at flats next week. It will be another chapter in our lives and hopefully some job will come up for me that I will enjoy and the farm will be our residence secondaire for a while. Based in London will mean that we will be nearer our children and lots of other advantages but we know it will be difficult getting used to small living spaces, crowds and living together too!!

Farewell to the mentors at my house

  Our project will not be continuing and at the moment the office and staff in Kuching are having their last few days of employment which is very sad after 5 years and they have all done a fantastic job. I said farewell to the mentors at the end of September and they are all over the world including Japan, China, Colombia, Java, Myanmar, Zambia......I feel that we will keep in touch and they were a wonderful group of people to work with. In October the management team met for a final couple of days meeting in my favourite Kuching. It was lovely and a few of us decided to go to Bako park for the weekend to extend our final few days together. It does seem like a dream now but I have the photos to remember and know I have made life-long friends.

  I will miss East Malaysia very much but mostly I'll miss the wonderful warm people and their smiling faces and their happy disposition and attitude to life. I will miss the cows and water buffaloes wandering along the roads; the monkeys and monitor lizards; the birds and geckos and the sound of the insects constantly humming. I will miss seeing the mystical Mount Kinabalu early in the morning just at sunrise, the amazing sunsets and of course the clear turquoise blue sea. I will return and this is not the end of my story with Borneo but for now it is and so this is going to be my last post ............ unless something amazing happens that I have to let you know about!
Thank you for reading my ramblings and I wish you all a very festive celebration and a very peaceful, healthy 2016 - whoever and wherever you are.