And once again, 'tis the season to communicate!

Wherever you are, we hope you're well and happy and healthy.

The A-Z of our year goes something like this:

A is for Abbreviated Account, the TL;DR version: In Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia, where we normally reside, we were under quite strict movement restrictions for most of the year. From mid-January right through to the end of September, we were unable to move out of our home district without good reason, and banned from undertaking "tourism". We anxiously awaited vaccination (we were double-jabbed by mid-August), but just as we thought things might be easing, Delta started to rip round Kuching, and we went to ground again. It was really not until early October that local movement restrictions were relaxed. By that time we were planning a trip to the British Isles to see family. We set out on that in early November, and at the moment we're in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, England, which is where we're planning to be based for the next couple of months.


B, very sadly, is for Bereavement. Nigel's dad passed away in February at the age of 88. His wit, fund of stories, astute grasp of UK politics, quirkiness, and capacity for appreciating the simple gifts of life combined to make him a unique and irreplaceable figure, and he is very much missed. It was impossible for us to attend the funeral. But the rest of the family went to great lengths to ensure we were included in all the arrangements, and Nigel recorded a video-tribute to be played at the service (which we were able to follow via a web link). May he rest in peace.

C is for Compensations. I won't pretend it hasn't been a tough year. My spirits have often flagged. When 2021 dawned, we all felt it MUST be the beginning of somewhat better times, after the horrors of 2020. But in many ways it was worse. Full of restrictions, full of anxiety, full of that wearying need to be careful, endlessly, endlessly -- and then just when you think you're turning the corner, along comes Omicron... (And, of course, there's a lot of blame to be apportioned for this ongoing nightmare. If only the world's richer countries had prioritized vaccine equity right from the start...) All that notwithstanding, there have been very palpable Compensations, and those are the things I want to highlight in this letter.


D is for Doing Travel Differently. Our retirement plan (travel more, but travel more slowly and sustainably) has been blown out of the water by the events of the last two years. But I guess our aspirations have evolved along with the health restrictions and the ever-more-depressing environmental news. We've never been "bucket-list", "must-see-this-big-ticket-item" kind of people, but we've now moved even further towards the low-key, local, and long-term end of the travel spectrum. I don't know if travel will ever get back to pre-covid "normal" (and for various reasons it probably shouldn't), but I feel our approach to the whole idea of mobility has changed, probably irrevocably.


E is for Excursions. Once we were finally let off the leash in Sarawak, we did some great day trips. Things like visiting your favourite orangutans, or finding a new place of worship (or several), or enjoying a big bowl of noodles on a historic high street, or walking a breezy beach -- all such experiences fall into the category of low-key, local, but also very enjoyable.







F is for Food. Which in Kuching is F for Fantastic. Dine-in restrictions made us more adventurous with our Grab food explorations, and we ended up with a huge new range of favourite outlets. We're particularly keen on Foochow food, of which there's a wide choice in Kuching. But really, there's so much that's just excellent.

G is for Going With the Flow... We have become incredibly adaptable... Masking regulations making walking uncomfortable? Get up earlier, and walk in the dark. Decent cheese becoming unavailable because of lockdown supply issues? Strike a deal with La Boca Ria, your local Spanish restaurant. Yogurt unobtainable? Switch to the kefir made by your good friends at Indah. Main-room air-con unusable during the height of the restrictions? Move into the back bedroom, and set up your workspace on the spare bed (me) or at the ironing-board (Nigel). (Not long after writing these light-heartedly self-congratulatory thoughts, though, I was sobered all over again by this. The problem for so many is that the never-ending pandemic has robbed them of the wherewithal to be adaptable, and going with the flow means spiralling downwards...)

H is for the Hive of Activity that surrounds Nigel day by day. That jazzy purple ironing-board runs hot as he writes software and manages our finances (while still finding time to keep up with the motor sport and follow the progress of Breaking Cat News).

I is for the Isle of Man, which (covid permitting) is our post-Newark family destination (in February next year).


J is for Journey (the one from Kuching to Newark, that is). It's a bit of a mission getting from A to B at the moment. All the dull details are here.

K, for the third year running, is for Kuching. No locality wants to be the place where people get stuck for months, but cuddly Kuching stood up to the challenge really well. It's a very lovable city, always green, always friendly, always interesting, and always gastronomically excellent (see F).



L is for Language-Learning, which is one of my two big indoor hobbies. (When I was working, I used to say I wanted more time for reading and language-learning. Be careful what you wish for...) But seriously, this is a golden age for language enthusiasts. There is a treasure trove of really fabulous material out there, much of it free, and in accessing it, you learn so much aside from the language itself. I've been documenting some of the journey on The Velvet Cushion (by far the busiest of the blogs this year).


M is for Movies. We love watching films and serials from around the world, and 2021 has given us plenty of time to indulge this interest. Again, The Velvet Cushion is the place to find out more...


N is for Newark-on-Trent, where we're currently berthed. I've always liked this little town, and nearby you can find a multitude of pretty villages and waterways and places to walk.





O is for Outdoor Living-Space. In Kuching we still really appreciate our morning balcony-time, as the soundscape shifts from crickets, frogs, and strangely-scheduled roosters to early-rising birds and quarrelling cats; from the mosques' call to prayer to the bell from the nearby monastery; from the surveyor guys setting off from the house down the road to the woman opposite firing up the Carpenters medley that accompanies her daily balcony exercise routine (always our signal to stop lounging, and Do Stuff...).


P is for Purple Tern. It's been a thin old blog this year, down sometimes to just one unexciting post a week. I persisted, though. Perhaps it will be a useful record of what (I hope) we will one day look back on as an extraordinary time that will then be far behind us.

R is for Reading. All sorts of reading (fiction, history, biography, memoir). All sorts of formats (real books, e-books, audio-books). All sorts of languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Indonesian). Everything I read turns into a little research project, and in this area, too, I feel I've learned a huge amount this year. (And again, if you want to know more, tune into The Velvet Cushion.) Very little International Relations reading, though... After 24 years in the field, I'm still on a break. It's just too depressing at the moment...


S is for Sunshine. Sometimes there's a tiny bit too much of it where we live... But there's nothing like an English winter to make you appreciate that big yellow ball...




T is for Tau. How long do you think it will be, on the basis of current international practice, before we reach the Tau variant of covid...?

U is for Unpredictability. You might as well enjoy the spontaneous and unscripted. Because it's impossible to plan anything at the moment, right?


V is for Vintage Travel. It's the Cinderella of our blogs, as even recalling travel has been quite painful this year. But it does offer the opportunity to reflect on journeys past (and to repent of a few things).

W is for Waterways. One of Nigel's lockdown hobbies saw him following some of the many boaters making their way around the UK's canal network. One day we'll try it out for ourselves...

X is for Xercise, primarily walking. Early in the year, we flagged a little, when the restrictions really started to get depressing. But we plugged on, and picked up the pace, even when walking circuits were limited to our neighbourhood for several weeks. We remain pretty healthy, all things considered.


Y, as always, is for You. And, as always, we'd LOVE to hear from you!


And finally -- Z is for Zest, Zing, and pZAZZ, which is how we're going to tackle 2022. Ready? Onwards and upwards...