Since my last entry, on Tuesday 6, it has very much been a week of two halves. I was originally going to write two posts, but the two threads are inextricable, so I'll do it chronologically instead.

Wednesday 7. Back to the hospital.

We have two things to do. The first is have the medicals that are one of the requirements for our MM2H extension. This takes ages. But as part of the CNY celebrations, we are apparently entitled not only to free coffee and lunch in the hospital canteen (which produced surprisingly good kuay teow), but also pineapple tarts:


The next job is the scary one. I had a ton of tests the previous day, in an effort to determine whether the thing we all got worried about last August had worsened or stayed the same. Well, it has not gone away. But they've downgraded their assessment of the risk. I need to monitor it every four months, until they're confident things have stabilized. But there's no immediate cause for alarm. Of course, the optimum would have been complete disappearance ("Thing? What thing?"). But as that was always unlikely to happen, this outcome is pretty much as good as it gets.

We're pretty bushed by now. All we want to do is go home. But it's the run-up to Chinese New Year, and Grabs are not only expensive but also few and far between. We try and try, but there's nothing doing.

OK, we thought, we'll just head off down the road to the nearest cafe, have a coffee, and have another go a bit later. Which is how we found Violette. This lovely little cafe/bakery really ticks all the boxes. Pleasant surroundings, nice staff, good coffee, excellent cakes:





Anyway, our trick worked. By the time we'd powered our way through all this, a Grab had become available.

In many ways, all we wanted to do that evening was kick back. But two of Kuching's major temples were doing firework displays in honour of the New Year. And you can't miss that...

So glad we made the effort, as both venues did a very impressive job, and it was a nice way to celebrate our good-ish news:












Thursday 8. Breakfast. Nasi lemak from Peanuts Anchovies. Excellent. Really coconutty rice, tasty sambal, juicy chicken:



The friend who'd introduced us to this place had also told us last week about the mania for Mita Cake House butter cheese cake that is currently sweeping Kuching. It all started when Hael Husaini, a singer-cum-influencer from West Malaysia, was photographed at the airport with a trolley-load of these things, and advised anyone coming to Sarawak to stock up.

Well, just along from Peanuts Anchovies, there's a branch of Mita Cake House:


Our friend bravely joined the line, and emerged after a while with the last two of the current bake (there would be no more till 1300) -- one of which he kindly gifted to us.

Later that day we tried it. And it really is something to write home about. Fabulous texture, and a wonderfully rich buttery taste:



But I'm getting ahead of myself... Before cake-trying time, it was go-to-the-bank time, in quest of more bits of the documentation we need for our visa extension.

That took a surprisingly long time too, and we refreshed ourselves afterwards at another of the new cafes that have sprung up in our absence, before heading back to the hospital (third day running) to collect the results of our medicals:



Friday 9. New Year's Eve. And we're off to Immigration to make our opening attempt to submit our documentation.

Now, we'd actually gone prepared to be knocked back. There were a couple of things we were unsure about, and thought we might have to fix. So, we weren't really expecting it would all be over today.

But we also weren't expecting to be knocked back with quite such a vengeance... Not only do we have to fix at least one of the things we'd wondered about, but we have to involve our sponsor all over again... Groan... This person has a really demanding job (not to mention a family), and I find it excruciatingly embarrassing that someone who already has too many obligations has to be saddled with another one: Namely, us.

Immigration want to see all of us together, but they won't schedule an appointment until a month before the expiry date of the current half of the visa.

This is very frustrating, to put it mildly. We have everything the website said we needed. And yet we need more. In fact, the sponsor's involvement puts this whole thing pretty much on a par with the original application. It's now very far from being a simple, painless extension.

And the date is a concern. Firstly, the paperwork that we've spent days running round gathering will be several weeks old by that stage. The prospect of having to do it all again is not appealing. And secondly, the website says the approval process can take up to 30 working days. If it does, then our visas will expire before we're done, and we'll have to leave the country until the extension is approved...

We trailed off, pretty discouraged. And the whole experience kind of cast a pall over our New Year's Eve. We had planned to do an evening walk, just to see what was going off down in the town, and then retreat to our balcony to watch the world explode in a myriad family firework parties. In the event, we couldn't be bothered going out. We shared a couple of beers, and watched from on high:


Fireworks and firecrackers were exploding all evening, but of course the intensity increased as midnight approached:






So, we've arrived in the Year of the Dragon. I hope he's good to us...

Saturday 10. We slept in as best we could. But we can never lie in, even after a short night.

Best to head out for a walk. There was a bit of a morning-after-the-night-before feel to the world:






Many Chinese businesses are, understandably, shut. But Kuching is so multi-ethnic that there's always someone to stand in:


So... That's our week of two halves. On the one hand, lots of celebrating and a considerable sense of relief; on the other hand, a fair dose of frustration and disillusionment.

Hoping the Dragon will burn off the loose ends...