Birthday celebrations continued into this week. They've officially ended now, but we reserve the right to revive them if the need arises...




On Sunday morning, before it was light, we headed back to Toast Bread, the place we'd found those yummy Portuguese egg tarts. A nice walk, enlivened by flickers of lightning, clouds of crickets, and soft dawn skies. And a great brekkie. Soft-boiled eggs and kaya toast for me, and -- because he was still celebrating -- the whole nine yards for Nigel. 





The Ramadan display at The Spring (which I'm guessing they'll leave up for Gawai, but I might be wrong) has gone from strength to strength. I'm so impressed with this. It's beautiful, distinctive, and a fabulous way to showcase local materials and motifs (with orchids, pitcher plants, and rafflesia featuring prominently):










On Tuesday, we had a "pink supermoon". When I heard that it was the Americans who coin these descriptions, I took umbrage at the self-allocation of lunar naming rights, but it turns out it's the Native Americans who characterize them, so that's all right then:

"In the 1930s the Maine Farmer's Almanac began publishing American Indian Moon names for the months of the year. According to this almanac, as the full Moon in April, this is the Pink Moon, named after the herb moss pink, also known as creeping phlox, moss phlox, or mountain phlox. The plant is native to the eastern United States and is one of the earliest widespread flowers of spring."

Another option for this one is the "sprouting grass moon", which sounds quite nice too.

And this moon also marks the birth of Lord Hanuman, in a celebration Hindus call Hanuman Jayanti.

Super-impressive, anyway:


Thursday was Nuzul Al-Quran, commemorating the recitation to the Prophet Muhammad by the archangel Jibril of the first five of the verses that would eventually become the Koran.

Surah 96 Al-'Alaq, Ayat 1-5 go like this:

"Recite in the name of your Lord Who created, 
created man from a clot of congealed blood.
Recite: and your Lord is Most Generous
Who taught by the pen,
taught man what he did not know."

Creation, words, knowledge... Always inspiring.

Anyway, accustomed from our days in KL to this being a public holiday, we resolved to get out early, and enjoy the quiet, pre-dawn streets. Noting that they weren't quiet for long, we wondered if we'd got this holiday thing wrong. Sure enough, a little consultation of our trusty Almanac revealed that Sarawak doesn't celebrate this holiday... Never mind. I enjoyed reading the verses.