Our highlight this week was definitely the Kuching Parade of Lights.

But I realize I completely forgot to tell you last week about the gecko...

This incident happened almost two weeks ago, but I was obviously too traumatized to record it immediately. So here we go:

Our key protagonist is the gecko that had chosen to end its days in a corner of the kitchen. Not just any corner, but one that's obscured by the edge of the fridge and the plastic bag full of plastic bags. Hidden from the eye, our defunct creature also gave no olfactory sign of decay.

Until, that is, its inwardly rotting body was broken open by the questing snout of Nigel's prized Dyson...

And then... Words can't describe it. The smell was horrendous.

Plus, bits of putrefying gecko had attached themselves to the hoover brush and the sucking mechanism...

Sorry, were you just having your dinner...?

Anyway, much soap and water and many wet wipes later, all the smell-producing material had been removed. And yet the air, defying opened windows and through-draughts, still stank -- veritably REEKED -- of vengeful dead reptile.

Nigel's nose hates air freshener sprays. So we bought scented candles from Muji. Plus a cigarette lighter to light them with. Plus bamboo skewers in case the lighter was too short for the candles. The whole business cost about MYR 60... But the candles were surprisingly effective at covering the lingering smell particles until they'd dispersed.

So, now we have a new rule. If you can't see it, don't hoover it.

EVER...

But that was last week.


This week, it has been mostly business as usual. A fairly similar week, in fact, to its forerunner (apart from the gecko).

We're still getting rain (good). The repair man came (good). We met up with various permutations of friends (good).

And we're now working our way through the Things-To-Be-Done-Before-We-Leave list (the one we drew up over far too much Mandheling coffee at Zoey's last Saturday). This is not necessarily the most exciting stuff (think: getting typhoid injections, and upgrading my computer to Windows 11, and taking stuff to the Salvos -- that kind of thing), but it all has to be scheduled and ticked off.

We also went to a really informative talk put on by The Rewilding Association of Sarawak. The presenter, Dr Antony Shadbolt, is a New Zealander, and it was interesting to hear of Christchurch's attempts to accommodate more trees. Rewilding (and not destroying in the first place) are things we definitely need to inject into mainstream conversation here in Kuching. It's incredibly saddening to see the ongoing loss of tree cover.


And here's this week's mall-and-cafe crop:











Slightly under three weeks until D-Day now...