Possibly no month since Purple Tern began has ended so differently from the way it started...

The beginning of August found us still in Baku, the end-point of our momentous Journey.



We had a few (slightly bewildering) interim days in KL...





... and a few (somewhat more focused) days in the Pullman, Kuching.



And the end of this same month finds us installed in our new flat. A few more day-to-day acquisitions have to be made, but the end of that process is now in sight.

If I'd written this yesterday morning, I'd still be enthusing about how easily it's all gone since we arrived in Kuching. But yesterday afternoon a snag arose that we still have to work our way through or round. Fingers crossed...


It is still true that I'm not entirely reconciled to being fixed. If the world were a free place, I'd still be wandering.

But it's not. The powers-that-be have decreed that human beings have to be nailed down somewhere.

That being the case, as I notice myself repeating over the last few days, this is a fine place to be. If it turned out I couldn't stay here, I'd be pretty upset.

It's also true that having a base will in some ways facilitate future travel. When we (hopefully) go to the Philippines in a couple of months' time, for example, we won't have to carry our sub-zero winter kit with us, because we have somewhere to lodge it.

And in any case we have to reduce our travel footprint.

(Rationing flights seems like a good idea to me -- but I'd certainly rather do it voluntarily... We're doing a lot better than last year, although the Philippines trip -- for possibly my last conference -- will tarnish our record somewhat.)

Local travel -- digging deep into a locality that's on your doorstep -- is a good way to tread more lightly. I just need to redefine "Overseas Experience" somewhat. Framing is everything...

And fixedness will undoubtedly facilitate the study I want to do, as well as the quest for wellness and stillness that I have up to now contrived to shove off into the future.

So here's to it...

We haven't gone too overboard with purple in the flat, but there are a few touches here and there, just to remind me:




To close, I need to mention that it's National Day here in Malaysia. This is Hari Merdeka, when Malaya (now the western part of a bigger Malaysia) gained independence from the British. (I can never watch that repeated stirring cry of "Merdeka" without shivers running down my back. Such a moment...)

But, of course, at that point Sabah and Sarawak weren't part of the equation, and "Malaysia" had not yet come into being. That didn't happen until 1963.

There have been a few calls recently for Sarawakians to downplay 31 August, and emphasize instead 22 July, Sarawak's "independence day".

Not everyone, though, is into the "playing down" thing:


Celebrate everything, I say.