It's the dog days in Saratok after the Chinese New Year and I had to drag myself out for a run this evening. As usual I went to the running track a couple of kilometres out of town where the car park was full.  Several people were walking or running around the track and a football match was in progress in the middle.  I did a slow warm up, nodding every now and then to one of the regulars, then launched myself onto the track for a five kilometre trot, which my GPS watch tells me is just under eleven circuits in the outside lane. Whenever I begin a run I have this anxiety that my body won't carry me, that this is the day when my old legs just refuse to budge and I stop immediately or fall flat on my face.  It never happens, muscle memory kicks in and the body just goes through the motions.  People seem surprised that I don't get bored, running round and round in circles, but there's a surprising amount of stimulation.  I have my MP3 player, on which I listen...

With Chinese New Year looming Sue and I decided to make a quick getaway to the Marriot in Miri.  This is a resort hotel in the north of Sarawak, next door to oil-rich Brunei.  Miri itself is an oil town so there is money here, which in turn attracts expats and sleaze. We flew here from Sibu at dusk in a turbo-prop which took off in heavy rain and thrummed and bumped its way to Miri in and out of thick cloud with the odd flash of lightning.  One of the main reasons for coming was that we can apparently stay using the "government rate", which gives a 50% discount for public servants.  This proved harder to wrestle from the smiling but wary staff at Reception than I expected, though I think we finally succeeded.  A number of Sue's colleagues had the same idea and it's been good to catch-up with people around the pool and over dinner. Because the hotel is out of town we've been insulated from the Chinese New Year celebrations, apart from being woken up by a...