We end another month with no good news on the covid front. Numbers have been trending upwards again for a while in Malaysia, and the last two days have each registered over 3,000 new cases, of which Sarawak makes up a disproportionate number.

And India... Wednesday this week marked seven consecutive days of a caseload more than 100 times Malaysia's figure (and very likely underestimated). Everyone has seen that graph where the April line goes up like the side of a house.

In Sarawak, the CMCO, in force since 13 January, has been extended at least until 17 May.



No wonder so many of us are "languishing", a state that represents, we're told, "the vast, meh-coloured desert between flourishing and depression, a general condition of non-thriving".

There have been bright spots to the month, of course: the Easter celebrations; Nigel's extended birthday... And we've actually walked further this month than any other month this year (the CMCO badly dents walking totals).



But the overall tenor of our lives is reflected in the fact that Purple Turn had the lowest number of posts ever this month (just six), whereas The Velvet Cushion had its highest (in fact, at eight posts, it equalled the whole of the first year's output...). Check them out. What I currently read and watch is much more interesting than what I actually do... In addition to three posts on memorable movies/serials, we have the opening post in a series on songs, plus posts on four books: The Light Years; The Guardians; The Book of Shanghai; and Insurrecto. New on Vintage Travel are some recollections of Samoa.

This month also saw the end of my 1 Second Everyday film project. I would like to do some more filming, but at the moment I don't know what to say...




I heard informally yesterday that foreigners here, regardless of their age cohort, will be in the last group to be vaccinated. I don't know if that's true, and if it is, I'm torn between feeling that's only fair (governments always look after their own first, after all) and feeling it's very unfair (vaccination ought to be based on clinical need rather than ethnicity). Any which way, it's extremely discouraging, especially as vaccination is not exactly proceeding at breakneck speed in this part of the world...

I don't know what to say... Read the review of last year's April. Nothing much has changed, except that I'm less optimistic.


This week I read this meditation by Richard Rohr:

"What apocalyptic means is to pull back the veil, to reveal the underbelly of reality. It uses hyperbolic images, stars falling from the sky, the moon turning to blood. The closest thing would be contemporary science fiction, where suddenly you’re placed in an utterly different world, where what you used to call 'normal' doesn’t apply anymore. That perfectly describes this COVID-19 event.

"So hear this word rightly -- it is meant to shock: this is an apocalypse, hap­pening to us in our lifetime, that’s leaving us utterly out of control. We’re grasping to retake control... But I think we now know in a new way that we can’t totally take control...

"In the book of Revelation..., John is trying to describe what it feels like when everything falls apart. It’s not a threat. It’s an invitation to depth. It’s what it takes to wake people up to the real, to the lasting, to what matters. It presents the serious reader with a great 'What if?'

"Our best response is to end our fight with reality-as-it-is. We will benefit from anything that approaches a welcoming prayer -- diving into the change positively, preemptively, saying, 'Come, what is; teach me your good lessons.' Saying yes to 'What is' ironically sets us up for 'What if?' Otherwise, we get trapped in the negative past."

So true. So difficult. I don't know what to say, because I don't know how to stop fighting with "What is" long enough to get to "What if?"