A treeshrew has recently taken up residence in our garden. He emerges from the bushes in the quiet of the morning and vigorously forages in the lawn for seeds or insects, using his long snout very effectively. He is unaware that I am watching him from behind the window of my writing room. When I first saw him, I thought it was a once-off but now I see him almost daily and have become so fond of him I feel I should give him a name! Suggestions are welcome. My thrill at seeing animals in our neighbourhood has not diminished in the year that we have been here. Perhaps that’s because, as a Kiwi, I am unused to seeing anything apart from birds in the garden or maybe it’s because I lack a serious occupation!

We were woken this morning by a government Land Rover going slowly down the road with a tannoy blaring some kind of warning in Bahasa Melayu. Not understanding the language of the country we are living in, we were mystified. Shortly thereafter a man in an overall and a face mask came slowly down the road spraying something that immediately billowed into clouds of white vapour. Realisation dawned. They were spraying the area against dengue-carrying mosquitoes. We rushed to shut all the windows though the chemical smell was already obvious inside the house. Amazing that we were not informed ahead of time with some kind of pamphlet in the mail box. Nevertheless, dengue has been on the rise in Malaysia recently so I guess the powers that be are doing what they can. Scary that there is no cure for dengue and no vaccination either.

I like having fresh flowers in the house, especially now that I am home such a lot. Before coming to live in Ipoh, I had visions of markets full of exotic tropical flowers that I could buy for the house. This has turned out not to be the case. Florist shops here are filled with artificial flowers and you can only find a few bunches of fresh flowers in fridges at the back. When I bought some lilies from one of these fridges for my neighbour who had had surgery, I got the distinct impression that this was not welcome and that perhaps fresh flowers were only suitable for funerals! The Hindu community buy fresh flowers, usually a mix of chrysanthemums, as offerings either for the temple or their prayer rooms at home. They also buy elaborate wreaths (see pic below) for important religious festivals. On a recent trip to Taiping (a town about an hour’s drive north of Ipoh) I was delighted to find some flower stalls by the side of the road. I bought several bunches from this lovely woman and they lasted for many days in a jug on the dresser in the living room.