After spending most of last week inside, I was forced out this week to do a few unavoidable tasks, and this morning we also opted to walk to the Botanic Garden.

So, by current standards, this counts as a Very Busy Week.

It's probably best told in pictures:





The above needs a quick note of explanation. It came from Indah, the provider of last week's delicious ayam pansuh. It's a distinctively Sarawakian and very flavourful way of preparing beef. We wondered whether the sweet notes in the sauce might mean it was bad for Nigel, but it turned out there was no problem. Excellent. We can order more.

In fact, in general, we eat really well. No complaints on that score:






Anyway, moving on...


When life is very constrained, you make the most of all photogenic opportunities, including those offered by the mosquito-eradication team:




Dwindling supplies of yogurt and wine drove us out to the supermarket yesterday, where the annual tropical snowstorm has already struck:





And today, in the relative cool of the morning, we walked to the Taman Botani, an outing that we enjoyed, masks notwithstanding:



Our evening TV viewing took us from Hierro to Hillary. No, not Hillary Clinton, but rather NZ's Hillary. Sir Ed. We really enjoyed this very moving dramatization. And it continues to awe me that we have personally seen the mountain that first made him famous...


So, it's been quite a good week. We're still not sure if the CMCO will be extended in our state beyond Sunday, but we're not holding our breath for good news... Sarawak's numbers have not been too bad, but cases are definitely still emerging. And as of yesterday, the tally of active covid cases for Malaysia as a whole stood at 13,222, while the death toll had reached 326. Globally, the spiky menace has now clocked up more than 1.35 million deaths...

With a long, long road still to travel, we need to celebrate all the tiny bright spots along the way.