Apart from yummy Sarawakian food, which you can read about here, the week has revolved around two things: Chinese New Year (CNY), which is coming up next week, and rain... We were told last year that the latter will stop when the former arrives. We'll see...

There's not a huge amount to say about the rain.

But CNY means that the Cat -- the one and only Big Padungan Cat -- is dressed up again!




And CNY brings PRESENTS. A friend rolled up on Monday with a huge bag of goodies, which really helped to cheer me up after my Sunday funk.

Below we have acar (a kind of pickle) and keropok (prawn crackers).



The quality of both is excellent; they go spectacularly well together; and they complement a glass of beer beautifully. What's not to like?

There were also oranges and tiny cookies, which we're rationing out (one a day):


And finally, here are the highlights of this week's 18.50 shots (this is the last week of these, so make the most of them):