We have stayed at home since Monday, when we had our first experience of the Conditional Movement Control Order.

It's not been bad at all. Aside from our Korean extravaganza, all our usual pursuits continue (dancing, reading, researching, language-learning, cooking, chocolate-eating...).

At the top you can see the view from our balcony, as the light arrives back during the time we're eating our breakfast. While we were still out there yesterday, we had one of our fairly rare rainbows:


Today our big treat was ayam pansuh from Indah, one of our favourite Kuching cafes/food delivery services. Ayam pansuh is chicken cooked with torch ginger flower, red gingerwort, and tapioca leaves. To borrow Indah's words, it's truly Sarawak's "chicken soup for the soul".




Our evening TV viewing has turned to Spain. Hierro, set in the Canaries, to be precise. Of course, it does have the disadvantage of making you long to go there (we've never been to any of the Canary Islands), but the story is gripping, the characters are interesting, and the photography is gorgeous. Plus, of course, I warm to anything that has an island setting...

I don't know if it's because so much of the world is under restrictions again, but some really heart-warming videos have been doing the rounds on Facebook recently. It's as though we're all craving things that touch our emotions in a positive, uplifting way.

There was the music from Swan Lake that briefly lifted the blanket of Alzheimer's from a former ballerina, and enabled her to recall the arm motions and facial expressions she'd perfected when dancing the role back in the 1960s.

There was the moment when street musician Borja Catanesi was joined by some professional dancers, whose fluid movements just light up the streetscape.

And there was the group of Russian grannies singing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah... I love that song...

“There’s a blaze of light in every word; it doesn’t matter which you heard, the holy, or the broken Hallelujah!... And even though it all went wrong, I’ll stand before the Lord of Song, with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah!"

With a central premise that highlights "the value, even the necessity, of the song of praise in the face of confusion, doubt, or dread", it's truly the anthem for our era...