A while ago, my brother dispatched to me a calendar with pictures from the Isle of Man, the land of my birth. Well, it's been en route for weeks, and still hasn't arrived (most likely because fewer planes are flying, and those that do are more interested in carrying cargo than carrying mail).

I'm still hopeful it will eventually wend its way to us, but in the meantime, we've had to buy an alternative.

And the first available, from one of those wonderful traditional shops in Jalan Carpenter, was an almanac.


I don't know if I'm already being influenced by Ross Gay's Book of Delights, but for some reason I've taken a great fancy to this little publication.

I love that we have the Islamic and Chinese progression of days, as well as the "English" scheme. And I love that the celebrations of so many religions and cultures are inscribed in here. (Our motto -- and actually a good Sarawakian principle -- is to celebrate the lot...)

And, of course, as an almanac should, it tells us not only the days, but the phases of the moon, the times of sunrise and sunset, and the ebb and flow of the tides. In this era of dislocation and lack of predictability, it's somehow good to be reminded of the patterns that go on regardless of us humans.



Included as well is a comprehensive chronology of Sarawak. It ends with the opening ceremony for a solar project in October 2020, and begins with the arrival of James Brooke in 1839 (perhaps a controversial place to start, but I guess the argument is that this event heralded the creation of a "sovereign" Sarawak). Be that as it may, the chronology is full of fascinating little snippets of information, and may answer some of the many questions about Kuching's history that I still have pending.

The almanac does not include Twelfth Night, which we will be celebrating this evening.

But I can tell you that the sun will set at 1845, and we'll have a king tide at 2139...