Friday, December 27, 2002

The Left Foot
An evening of packing has given the apartment that horrible bare and temporary look. I am still a bit feverish but I'm determined to be better when my holiday officially starts tomorrow. After three months here, my last sleep in Kuching is imminent. There are so many things not working now that we wonder what will be still going in the morning. I'd like it to be the fridge.

It is rather weird and a little alarming to think that in two weeks I have to immerse myself in Lilydaleania again but I cannot wait to see those gals.
The Left Foot
I am leaving the office now to go on holidays at last. It's been a day of farewells and I have acquired a parcel so large that I cannot imagine how I am ever going to get it home. What a pity the DHL man had just left.
So what have I achieved? I've heard a lot of kind words today but what do I think? I think I've made a good start on moving things in the right direction and I hope the momentum won't be lost. It's been interesting, challenging, frustrating and satisfying. I've been out of my comfort zone and a member of a minority group which is a salutary experience. I am very tired and can't shake off my cold and don't think I will until I can get away from the air-con. What I need now is a holiday. Tomorrow we go to KL for a few days then to China. When I return to Lilydale I know my thoughts will be divided. I will be wondering how all the processes I have set in train are going along. I'm sure I'll be informed if everthing falls in a heap!

Wednesday, December 25, 2002

The Left Foot
Christmas Day in Kuching has been very relaxing and pleasant. In his usual way, Right Foot produced perfectly chosen, custom-made presents which we opened around the palm Christmas tree - just a teaser for our real Christmas in Melbourne on 19th January. We couldn't get through to Grumpy Girl by phone but we've sent her an email. Happy Christmas GG and Matt.

Buffet lunch at the Hilton was nice but a little strange. As well as all the traditional Western Christmas food there was a wide range of Malay and Chinese fare on offer. For most of the guests it was the usual eat and run we've become accustomed to, no lingering over coffee for this lot. Ours was the only table to order a bottle of wine. People here just don't drink.

After lunch we went up to the pool to doze in the sun and stand around in the cooling water. We stayed there for hours, catching up on five months news from Petite. Very soothing. I have another cold, the first one arrived for my birthday and the second for Christmas. I suppose it's the constant change of temperature from the tropical outdoors to the freezing air-con inside.

We're now sitting around reading all the books Petite bought over and munching cheese straws from Patterson's cake shop. Tres bon.

Tuesday, December 24, 2002

The Left Foot
We took Petite to Bako National Park and we got a much closer look at the proboscis monkeys than we did the first time we went there. That's the sort of luck that follows Petite around. The monkeys did all their stunts for us, swinging and running and chomping etc. Fantastic. We then trecked through the jungle so that we could have a swim in the South China Sea. This is when our luck ran out. Poor Right Foot was stung on the right foot by a stingray and was in agony. We struggled back through the jungle to the canteen where a bevy of wise men administered traditional Malay first aid. The pain subsided and so did my vision of spending yet another Christmas Eve in a hospital emergency ward.

We had very choppy seas on our trip back to shore and were saturated. Now we are safely back in the ET where the toaster has just died. The dryer expired yesterday and now there is not much left of the mod cons we started out with three months ago. Will the building still be standing when we leave on Saturday?

It's a very unusual Christmas Eve. No shopping for turkey in Prahran market, no last minute present wrapping and definitely no Ray Martin and Carols by Candlelight. Tonight we will dine at the Top Spot on top of a multi-storey carpark. Tomorrow lunch and a swim at the Hilton Kuching. Different.

Merry Christmas to everyone especially Grumpy Girl. X0X0X. And a virtual H o P while driving to Adelaide and back.

Monday, December 23, 2002

The Left Foot
We're just back from a meal and a couple of Tigers at our favourite riverside restaurant with Petite. It is so amazing having her here and hearing her voice from a metre away instead of on the end of the phone line. She says she's enjoyed her first day of living at Kuching pace. I wonder how she'll feel after another four days.

I have three days off work now and intend to enjoy every second. It was very satisfying teeing up those two appointments today - A and N are just what we need to turn an inward looking refuge into a customer focused library. Z was thrilled when I told her and is now really looking forward to her new job. They will be a wonderful team. I was able to talk up the salary for all three which may not please the Institute but which is good for the profession. Librarians rule!

Merry Christmas to anyone still reading this piece of self indulgence, especially to Grumpy Girl who will be celebrating in Adelaide. We will miss you GG. Have a relaxing and restorative break from all your enterprises. Happy Christmas to you.
The Left Foot
Petite is here! Beautiful, brilliant and brown as any local and much, much suaver. We met her at the airport then alas, I had to come to work. The day has started well, though. I have rung the two successful candidates for the library assistant positions and both have accepted the offer I made. We agreed on a salary somewhere between what they wanted and what SS was willing to pay so I am feeling gooooood. Now back to Problem Number 199. Someone tell me, is it really Christmas out there?

Sunday, December 22, 2002

The Right Foot:
Kuching is famed as Cat City, so you might expect its feline population to be something special. Not so, but far otherwise, Best Beloved. Taken all in all, the Kats of Kuching are as lean, mean and ill-favoured a set of moggies as you could ever not wish to encounter. Tabbies, gingers, a few black and white and tortoiseshells seem to make up the bulk of the population. Most are rakish and mean-looking, with fur in poor condition, torn ears and dingy whiskers. Almost all of the street cats you see have very short tails, or no tails at all.Some have strange knotted or kinked tails and it makes you wonder how they could ever curl them decorously over their paws as they sit surveying the world. There would be no eloquent tail tip to twitch in order to express finer nuances of feline meaning.

Kutching's kats appear to scrounge a meagre existence around the bazaars and markets, using the deep stormwater drains as a sort of cat highway to keep out of harm's way. They are usually not unfriendly although they don't court human company. We got caught in a sudden shower along the Waterfront one day and, together with a crowd of people, found refuge under the wide eaves of a hawker kiosk. While everyone looked up and out at the rolling clouds, I glanced down and there at our feet, cool as a cucumber, was a ginger cat, washing his paws to while away the time. Most buildings have a resident cat or two to help keep things in order. The State Library has a large piratical animal with a very loud meouw who strolls around amongst the diners out on the cafeteria terrace and demands chicken with menaces. Swinburne Uni campus has a very self-possessed tortie who sleeps on the sunny steps surrounding the security guard's office. We visited a longhouse village recently and I was pleased to see that the ends of each house featured a number of protruding floor boards which made perfect sunny cat perches and that the village moggies had smugly taken up residence, glancing down through half-closed eyes at the earth-bound village dogs as they wandered about.