The house was about 35 years old and hadn´t been touched for over 10 years when we arrived. I spent ages trying to clean the nicotine off the light fittings. After 4 months they told us the house was made from asbestos - so "not to work on it" - (all a bit late). We spent ages on the garden and patio - knowing they would drive trucks over it when we left and pull down the sun-shade (so I fastened it to the main roof-joist with an 8" screw in the hope that they´d pull it all down). A neighbour who was leaving "gave" me the sunshade and Alan and I spent many weekends trying to rebuild it without any new material (it <em>was</em> that boring there). 

We had security lights outside and every morning I swept up the poor insects that had flown too close, too often. Sometimes if they were lucky (see bomber) I could throw them in the air and they´d fly away. Somehow I never got a photo of the cobra´s nest in the air-con or the huge ants nest which suddenly bulged through a bathroom wall, but I´m sure I´ve got a photo of a toucan somewhere (I have, see below).

I spent an age creating the name-post (and it was GUR all the time we were there). The neat looking palm trees on the front drive were coconuts in old scooter tyres (left by the previous occupant with the tyres to hold the nuts upright) -  we just made them look good and tried to help them grow. The front door was rotten and jammed from the heat of the sun - so it didn´t get used much (if at all).

The beach may look idyllic, but the sandflies were so bad it wasn´t used much (that and all the washed-up teak logs from the illegal logging in Malaysia and Indonesia). 

Pantai Mentiri was a golf club for the "government" in Banda Seri Bagawan and we had a reciprocal arrangement (but it was over an hour´s drive on a <em>very</em> dangerous road).