Right, there’s the story. Just got back home after four days away. I went to join my husband in Yogyakarta in central southern Java, Indonesia. He flew in from Perth, and joined up with his university colleagues for a seminar at the Islamic University. I went basically to see Java for the first time – ridiculous, I know, but forty plus years based in Malaysia, and I had never been to Java. Yogya is just over two hours flight away.I was particularly interested in Borobudur (spelled, alike Yogyakarta, in numerous ways) and yesterday that was where I was. What I didn’t count on was being a sort of celebrity… Poor husband, he was ignored while I was feted.

It seems that having your photo taken with someone who is obviously exotic is a cool thing to do for a start, but just to make it even more imperative, at least one school – maybe more – sent their students off to interview native-English speakers for their exams. All this meant I was in great demand, which was enormous fun. At least the conversation was. Not so sure about all those photos…

The students were delightful and made me regret that I no longer teach teenagers…

And of course, there was the wonderful backdrop of Borobudur. More about that tomorrow…