As notified in last week's Gazette and in the end-of-May review, we're now operating under a full-on Movement Control Order:


For the first four days we weren't allowed out at all. Then on Tuesday 1 June came the notification that "light exercise" in one's "own neighbourhood" was permitted. We did the most obvious near-home circuit on Wednesday, and it's clear that it's going to get very old very quickly. Nevertheless, it's better than being totally stuck in.

Because we have a much diminished movement radius, I've reverted to the "survival diary" rubric I adopted last year for lockdown experiences -- although we actually had a lot more room for manoeuvre in the UK's first version of lockdown than we currently have here, it must be said.

Other lifestyle changes include moving our alarm to 4.30, to make the most of morning balcony time. And double-masking in all shops, which is hot and uncomfortable, and gives me Spock ears, but what do you do...?

There have been a lot of modifications to the categorizations and SOPs in the week since Sarawak's MCO was launched (West Malaysia's followed along a few days later). It gets really confusing, and the rationale for some of the adjustments is hard to fathom, frankly.

Still, inconvenience and frustration pale into nothing when you contemplate the magnitude of the problem we're still facing here. On 2 June a record 126 people died of covid in Malaysia. And it seems more people are dying before they get to hospital (there were 123 of these deaths in May). On 3 June the country's covid death toll punched through the 3,000 mark.

Our first vaccinations are scheduled for Monday. I am really looking forward to having those behind us (safely, I hope).


The main event of the week was Gawai, an important Bornean festival that gives thanks for the harvest and celebrates unity.

There's an account here of what it's traditionally all about.

And this is the version people were having to make do with this year.

How we hate this joy-killing pandemic...

Undaunted, though, various performers last year put together this beautiful composite of the famous song Liling.

Here's the description from the Youtube page:

"Liling is the unofficial Orang Ulu anthem, traditionally sung by hundreds to thousands of voices in the dim longhouse nights in Borneo, in celebration of an occasion. With Gawai (Harvest Festival) events being cancelled this year (Covid-19), Sarawak’s international sape' musician, Alena Murang, birthed the idea of bringing 'semangat' Gawai to Dayak households. 'Semangat, an inner fire from within an individual’s soul, multiplied when we come together as a community, is what we need right now to keep going,' shares Kuching-born Alena. Featuring Dayak singers singing in their own mother tongue, and famous Sarawakian artists, this video is in nine languages, five of which are listed as 'threatened' or 'endangered'."

Take a listen -- it's lovely.

I always find these virtual collaborations profoundly moving. They're part of humanity's way of refusing to give in.

(And you can hear more of Alena Murang's highly atmospheric music here.)

We celebrated Gawai with do-it-yourself ayam pansuh, courtesy of Indah, one of our favourite purveyors of food. (You might remember my raving about their ready-made version towards the end of last year.)

For the make-at-home one, they provide you with a vacuum pack of the requisite veges and herbs (tapioca leaves, red gingerwort, torch ginger flower, lemongrass, ginger, onion, garlic, and shallots), and you just add chicken, water, salt, and pepper.

While it is cooking, your living space will fill up with amazing aromas, and the end-result tasted really good.



Indah have been real stars this week, also coming up with sambal terung asam. Sambal is a spicy, tangy, relish-like product, which we adore, and terung assam (spellings of both these words vary, but they mean, respectively, "eggplant" and "sour") are those yellow veggies I talked about back here.

Delicious... I can foresee lots of uses for this.


Indah also make really nice kefir, we discovered. This is useful because we sometimes have to hunt far and wide for decent yogurt, and hunting far and wide is a bit off the agenda at the moment.

So, we soldier on.

I wish I was a solider soldier, though...