Before we head off into the usual depressing covid stories, just feast your eyes on the deliciousness above. Hainanese noodles. Delivered from the Little Hainan Cafe. Bravo.

Apart from this (second breakfast on Sunday), the most notable thing about the week was our second vaccination on Monday.

The process took somewhat longer than last time, and you always worry a bit about so many people in a closed space, even if they're generally well separated. But the main thing is that it's done.

No side-effects worth speaking of this time. And now we're continuing to lie low while it takes effect.





I'm fully aware that vaccination doesn't make you bullet-proof, but I'm glad to have that second shot inside me, as things are NOT looking up round here.

Again, we've seen some horrible records. The number of daily deaths hit an all-time high on Sunday 8 (a very sad number of 360). On Thursday 12 we racked up 21,668 new cases nationwide, 1,216 of them in Sarawak (both, unfortunately, record highs). As of yesterday, our cumulative death toll stood at a whopping 11,691.


We're still longing for respite.

Other news...

Hungry Ghost month began on Sunday 8. This is the time of year when the gates of hell are opened, and the ghosts can roam the earth seeking food and entertainment.

And of course there are SOPs... The main festival will fall on 22 August this year, but will again take a restrained form, without the customary practice of Qiang Gu or "grappling with the ghosts".

Tuesday 10 was Awal Muharram, the beginning of the Muslim New Year.


And, this week, on our Thursday early-morning walk, we saw two scorpions! We've never seen scorpions here. In fact we've not seen scorpions since Morocco, 1993/4... But on Thursday we saw two. Not together. Separated by a kilometre or so. But both scuttling along the road. No photos, because jet black scorpions on tarmac in the dark don't make for great images. But anyway, scorpions!

Otherwise, it's been another week not so different from the many weeks that have gone before it... Walks. Balcony time. Nice food. Plenty to do at home (in fact, we're both drastically behind on our schedules at the moment). Cooler temperatures than we've had in recent weeks.

Life continues.

The gallery: