I am blogging this from Kuching as Nic and I just got in on Saturday night.
It was raining all day on Sunday which made me think, 2 businesses which can do a roaring trade here are those selling water heaters and those in laundry services.
Water heaters are needed because it’s freaking cold to bathe in regular water as the weather dips to 23C; laundry services are needed because your clothes won’t dry in this wet weather and you’ll smell like a damp Alsation.
Finally the skies cleared yesterday and we were able to get out of the house.
Parents-in-law were worried that the water level would rise abominably (the drains overflowed and the roads became rivers!). The drain outside the house did overflow and the water reached the gate. Added to this, I heard about King Tides for the first time in my life.
It made me realize how urban I was.
People here live by the rising and falling of tides and nature features a lot in their lives. Flipping open the local newspaper, I saw a listing of the ships’ schedule – when they were arriving and berthing at the Kuching port. I take for granted that we can go anywhere by car in Peninsula Malaysia.
Here, I heard they need to know when the tide is rising so people can easily transport goods along rivers! Or at least reach their kampung easily!
sarawak
Mentioned in The Malay Mail, Thanks to Robert
Anyone who reads this blog knows that Robert Raymer used to be my Creative Writing teacher when I was an undergrad in USM about 10 years ago.
Fate made us meet again some 3 years ago when we were both speakers at an event that KDU Penang was organizing then. We met up, exchanged news and thought that was it. He was moving to Sarawak anyway as he had taken up a new teaching position at UNIMAS.
Yet, as always, as Paul gleefully reminds me, there are no coincidences in life. We meet for a reason. And that reason may not be clear to us in the beginning but soon makes sense.
In the end, Robert became our client because as a writer, one needs to get the word out there. What better way to show it than through a website that collects all the awards and stories/books in one place for editors and book publishers to find him? It’s a one-stop website for all you ever need to know about Robert Raymer, the author, the teacher, the self-confessed fan of The Secret.
But it went a step further with a blog. I knew instinctively that a blog was the best thing for Robert because he writes and writes and has so many ideas. He needed to share them online.
And so he has. For the past 2 years, he has been blogging in between writing his novels, signing books at MPH, promoting his newest book, Lovers & Strangers Revisited and juggling teaching at UNIMAS. And in addition to raising a young family – he has 2 young boys!
Anyway, go read the interview in the Malay Mail where Robert gets to talk about blogging, what he has gotten out of it and yippee, even I get a lovely mention and blog link! (Thanks Robert!)
What a way to start one’s Thursday huh!
Kuching Diary: Cheng Ho Garden
Continuing my Kuching entries!
And of course, Happy Valentine’s! Remember there are all kinds of love – friendship, for instance! And of course, the regular kind, the boyfriend-girlfriend, husband-wife. Also don’t forget sisterly and brotherly love, parental love, etc. Even love for animals.
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I had heard about Cheng Ho or Zheng He Garden or Taman Sahabat for sometime now but never had the chance to visit until this last trip to Kuching. It’s located at Jalan Song.