We're all pretty fed up with this year, right? So the Terns are probably not alone in going a bit overboard on the seasonal celebrations this time round.

The week started with great rejoicing, because the Big Padungan Cat has donned his Christmas outfit!

He's a careful cat, so he's not going to renounce his mask, but he's now wearing his Christmas jerkin and cap, and this really matters because he's not worn any festive costumes since our return.

We're kind of hoping his decision is a herald of more festive days ahead, but we won't get too excited yet.


Then Monday was the winter solstice. I talked last year about the importance of this event. And this year, too, the temples were extra-busy, with smoke rising, and sacks of joss paper waiting in line to be consigned to the flames.


We celebrated with a special dinner. You might not think this humble cauliflower casserole is particularly much to write home about, but believe me, anything that contains bacon and Brie is pretty special as far as we're concerned, as neither item is that easy/cheap to come by in Kuching.


Nigel was out for lunch the day after that, so PT took the opportunity to indulge in a post-solstice rice cake. Peanuts, chicken, mushrooms, sticky rice, wrapped up in leaves and steamed -- heaven...


Yesterday was our engagement anniversary, so that gave us a good excuse to ask Indah to deliver one of their decadent log cakes. We don't normally eat cake these days, so this was an extra-extra-extra-special treat:




We indulged in a bit more of the cake today, and then boxed up the rest for the freezer, so we can retrieve it for other special occasions in the future.

Yesterday was also chili preparation day. I didn't regard this as a particularly festive activity until I saw the colours:


Anyway, the sambal oelek I made back in October proved so phenomenally successful that I made another batch, and as some green chilies had happened along as well, I also tried my hand at a version of sambal ijo (green chili paste).

The latter featured very nicely today in my awesome new invention: cauliflower with tuna and coconut. (Roast some cauliflower and chopped red onion with peanut oil and a little salt. Ten minutes from the end of the roasting time, add a handful of peanuts and a couple of tablespoonfuls of coconut cream, and roast some more. Meanwhile, mix a can of tuna with a peeled, diced cucumber, another couple of tablespoonfuls of coconut cream, and two or three teaspoons of sambal ijo. I ended up serving the two mixtures alongside each other, but the flavours blend really well, so they could equally well be layered. Really nice.)


Looking forward to the next round of celebrations now...