A Weekend of Musicals

DS2 and I had a musical weekend. On Friday he had a curriculum day and we saw the movie version of Mamma Mia and yesterday, we tripped up to Melbourne to see GUYS and DOLLS at the gorgeous Princess Theatre.  DS2 and I share a love of musicals and to celebrate his 10th birthday we dressed up and trekked to the big smoke. What a show!  Singing, dancing and romance, what more could a girl ask for.?

 Garry McDonald and Marina Prior gave us the laughs and Lisa McCune and Ian Stenlake gave us the romance and it was all tied up with spectacular dancing and fine singing. 

The last time I had been to the Princess Theatre was to see the musical, Mamma Mia and DS2 had only been a pre-schooler.  He had to make do with the movie which was fun but lacked a bit in the singing department, however I forgave it for glorious Greek Island scenary and the the eye candy of Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth. DS2 just enjoyed it but give him a few years and I think he might have been crushing on Sophie!

I love it that I have a son who will sit with me and enjoy Annie Get Your Gun, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Singing in the Rain to mention a few of my faves. Recently we’ve moved into the noughties and discovered Hairspray and High School Musical 1 & 2 and we’re pretty excited we will get to see High School Musical Senior Year on the big screen!  I love the romance, he loves the dancing so we make a great musical viewing team!  What are your favourite muscials?

Titles and Covers

The postman delivered the UK paperbacks of The Playboy Doctor’s Marriage Proposal the other day whih gave me a real buzz!  This story  hits the shelf in the UK in September but I realised that means it’s available from Mills & Boon on- line from August 1st  

If you enjoyed A Wedding In Warragurra then I think you will love Emily and Linton’s story – I know I had a heap of fun writing it!

If you missed out on A Wedding IN Warragurra you can still buy it from eharlequin

 

I spent Tuesday doing copy edits for The Doctor Claims His Bride which will be out in March 2009.  I wrote this book last year and I found it really hard to copy edit because I kept reading it!  I have to say that Flynn is TOTALLY gorgeous and I fell in love with him all over again.

 

My 10th book, the surrogacy story finally has a title!  It will be The Surgeon’s Special Delivery and will be out in May 2009.

Now if I could just get back into writing my current story about Kirby and …..NICK! Yes I finally settled on a name.

Sandakan & Kota Kinabalu

Visiting Sandakan, we got a real sense of life in Borneo before and during second world war. Before WW2, the British controlled Sabah and high on a hill, overlooking the bay is Agnes Keith House. Agnes Keith was actually an American and her husband was Conservator of Forests.  When Agnes, a journalist, married Harry and moved to Borneo, she wrote three novels, describing her life there. “Land Below the Wind” is her most famous book and I plan to track it down now I am home.

The lovely home, a classic piece of colonial ‘tropical’ architecture was destroyed during WW2 but was rebuilt in 1946. In 2001 it was restored and opened as a museum to give a ’snap-shot’ of life before the world changed and also to pay hommage to the talent of Agnes Keith.

Agnes Keith House

More sobering was the visit to the Sandakan Memorial Park where  2700 Australian and British prisoners of

Australian War Memorial at Sandakan

war were held from 1942-1945. In early 1945, face with defeat the Japanese walked these prisoners on what became known as the “Sandakan-Ranau” death marches.  I walked in the jungle for two days with water, good shoes and good health and found it taxing. These men were malnourished, without much clothing and certainly no shoes. Only six men survived and they were the men who managed to escape.

The Australian Government has a very moving memorial and interpretive stations and I was moved to tears by the suffering  experienced in what is now a very tranquil park.

Memorial Window

After our reflections at the Memorial we experienced a bit of pre-war nostalgia and had lunch at the English Tea House.  Emerald Green lawns, the music of Bing Crosby, croquet and sipping Pimms while over looking Sandakan harbour it was easy to imagine ex-pat life.  The meal was delicious as well!

Croquet anyone?

 We then caught a plane to Kota Kinabalu and spent two days lazing by the pool, reading and napping during the heat of the day instead of being out in it like we had for the previous 11 days! BLISS

 

The Biggest and Smelliest Plant

 

Borneo is known for an amazing number of unique plants and many can be found  In Mt Kinabalu National Park, a world heritage site. The Rafflesia is one of them.  On the floor of the jungle, this non-descript plant flowers once every nine months and when it does, the flower is the size of a charger plate and  bigger.  It also has an aroma of rotting flesh! We were “lucky” enough to see a flowering rafflesia on day one ( a day before the stench). Insects, frogs and even snakes climb into the centre to eat all the insects and other small animals that are attraced by the scent

Rafflesia

We also saw lots of orchids, the pitcher plant and the lovely ‘elephant ear’ plant. 

 

An orchid that flowers once every five years

 In the cooler highlands of Sabah at the base of Mt Kinabalu they grow tea and coffee. We had a wonderful hour at the Fatt Choi coffee plantation where we were very well looked after by Mr Foong. We enjoyed fragrant coffee as well as ‘five in one coffee’ which included Ginseng. I recommend the iced coffee…loads of icecream  

 After a day of walking in Mt Kinabalu National Park we enjoyed soaking our muscles in the Poring Hot Springs.

Poring Hot Springs

Next up, the buildings of the Raj! Borneo, the British and WW2

Brunei

Nestled between Sabah and Sarawak is the small country of Brunei. Rich in oil and with pristine rainforest, Brunei is an Islamic country, goverened by the Sultan of Brunei. We spent three days there…two in the rainforest where we clamboured up a jungle path using ropes and then climbed the highest canopy walk…1400 steps!  We could see Mt Kinabalu in the distance!  We also did white water rafting as well as enjoying floating down the river in our PFDs The guest house we stayed at in Temburong was wonderful….they fed us so well, washed our jungle filthy clothes after our overnight hike on the Head hunter’s trail and took us on a fabulous mangrove boat trip, looking for monkeys.  We visited an Iban Long house. The Iban live in communities and there can be up to 100 houses all joined together in one big ‘longhouse’ with a huge communal verandah.  The Long house we visited had about 30 doors and no more room to extend. We were welcomed by the chief and invited to look around. Our guide was Iban and he lives in a long house and enjoys the social side that the lifestyle offers.

We spent a day in Bangar Seri Begawan (BSB), the capital of Brunei. We arrived by ‘fast boat’ and passed the water village which was the traditional way of life for Bruneians until engineering worked out how to deal with such soft soil. BSB is a modern city but with glimpses of its past.  The Royal Regalia Museum, displaying the Sultan’s Coronation chariot as well as a host of other “treasures” was fascinating. Trying to get your head around the wealth of one man is overwhemling! Here are some photos of Brunei to enjoy.

The Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque

The water village

The Sultan’s coronation carriage

The communal verandah of an Iban LongHouse

Getting Ready to go White Water Rafting

 

Ulu Temborong Canopy walk

 

 

 

Using a Long boat

The only way to get to Ulu Temborong National Park

In The Wild

There were many reasons to go to Borneo but a big driving force was to get there and plunge some money into the local econmy and hope in some small way I could perhaps help toward stopping the devastation of the rainforests, the world’s lungs. Tourism can help, especially when the focus on on wildlife. I wanted to see Orang-utans in the wild and I was lucky enough to see that and so much more. We saw Proboscis monkeys, macaques, snakes, orang-utans, fresh water crocodiles, rhinocerous hornbills, egrets, snake-neck divers and more birds than I can name.  Here are some photos!

This Orang-utan was five and his behaviour was just like a pre-schooler. He had moments of being totally gorgeous and then he’d throw a wobbly. It is hoped when he is older he will be rehabilitated to the wild.

we did see some wild orang-utans as well which was very exciting. We saw them in the Kinabatangin jungle in Sabah.There was a mother and child and this was the baby. 

We also saw Proboscis Monkeys. Unlike the Orang-utans, these animals live in harems with an alpha male. The male has the distinctive long nose, a very long tail and webbed feet. We were lucky enough to see this male bound into his harem and be particulary Alpha!

Then there were the mangrove snakes! 

We also saw water monitors and crocodiles but unfortunately the elephants had just moved up river the day before we arrived.

Next up will be photos of amazing flowers!

Borneo!

I’ve just got back from two weeks visiting Borneo! We had the most wonderful time and saw some amazing scenary and wildlife. We ate well, we were looked after very well and everyone we met was so friendly and helpful. I really recommend Borneo as a place to visit. We travelled by foot, by four-wheel drive,  by bus, by long boat, by fast boat, by train and by plane and along the way we absorbed the sights, sounds, the aromas and the taste of Borneo.

We started in Sarawak where we walked the Headhunters trail in Taman Negara Mulu (Gunung Mulu National Park).  Our guide, Mr Lim (walk2Mulu) looked after us very well as we slogged through the dense jungle in 99% humidity and 30C heat. I spent most of my time a dripping, soggy mess but it was so worth it as we watched three million bats fly out of a cave for their nightly forage for food,(kindly eating all the mosquitoes(!), as we gazed up at enormously tall rainforest trees, watched fire flies dart through the inky night, swam in crystal clear water that ran from the largest cave network in SW Asia and lay awake at midnight totally deafened by the sounds of the jungle. I even survived the munching of a Tiger Leech which really enjoyed my O+ blood. and kept it running for a good two hours afterwards. Thank goodness for Sard Wonder soap!

My husband took 700 photos and over the next week or so I will share some of them.  Here are a few of our adventures in Guning Mulu National Park and yes I really did manage to walk across that rope bridge with a backpack on and not fall in! Miracles do happen

 

These are not bees but bats! for 30 minutes there was a continuous trail of black like a carpet spiralling out of the cave. 

 

 

 

 

 

In Borneo, the Long boat is a vital part of transportation down very shallow rivers. A few times we had to hop out and do ‘portage’ over rocks.

 

 

 

The stunning limestone peaks of Mulu National Park, Sarawak.  We didn’t climb the Pinnacles but you can…2km and it takes you 8-12 hours there and back because it is a vertical climb!

 

 

So now I am dealing with a 25C temperature drop and feeling rather cold as I face a Victorian winter. If it ever stops raining I might just get all that jungle mud out of the clothes:-)

Next up is the wildlife…