KL and several parts of the mainland have reverted to a full-scale Movement Control Order... 

No surprise, really.

A quick covid snapshot of yesterday: Malaysia registered 3,551 new cases (of which 391 were in Sarawak), 19 deaths (of which five were in Sarawak), and record numbers of covid patients in intensive care; the number of active cases stood at 33,762, and the overall death toll at 1,610.

Of course, this is chicken feed compared with the catastrophe unfolding on the Indian subcontinent. Yesterday alone, 3,980 Indians lost their lives to this virus. Tragic doesn't describe it.

Still, Malaysia's situation is not improving, and that's a worry.

In Kuching we're still under the Conditional Movement Control Order (as we have been since mid-January). Its provisions had been relaxed somewhat over recent months, but it has now reverted to its original degree of toughness.

To be honest, it's difficult keeping up with the regulations. I reread the SOPs a week or so ago, for example, and thought: "Oh, we've actually had more freedom that we realized or have been making use of."

Well, now we haven't again. We're back to Square 1.

But we can still eat out and exercise, which the poor folks in KL no longer can.

Jeez, when will this EVER be over...?

Anyway... Enough of that. Let's turn to other news.

If you've become accustomed to just tuning in once a week (understandable), you might want to just flip back to this heritage story from a couple of days ago.

Aside from that little bit of excitement (all things being relative, of course, at the moment), the skies have been another theme this week. That's because it has been notably thundery and rainy. In fact, we've had quite a bit of this weather lately, which is because we're in another monsoon transition phase (the one that lasts from mid-March to mid-May).

Weather-wise, we're kind of on unknown territory in Sarawak now, as until this year we'd never been here in May, June, or most of July.

Of course, it won't be unknown for much longer, as we'll certainly not be going anywhere over that space of time...

Thunder in the night is a nuisance, because it wakes us up. And currently, there seems to be some rain angel on duty who spots us emerging from the building, and gives the order: "Here they come. Hoses on! Yay!"

But the current weather certainly makes for good sunrise skies:




It's also blossom season again. The trees by the park turned pink, white, and mauve back in September, and they're currently doing some more flowering, so they're obviously twice-a-year trees. The ones on the main road nearest us we don't actually recall seeing in bloom, but maybe we're misremembering. 





Meanwhile, noodles are always cheering:



And, miscellaneously: