Well a bit of a catch-up is due. Lots to do at work so I have been a bit busy ( and tired ) to blog. 
This weekend has been fun. On Saturday morning one of my colleagues invited me out for breakfast. On the drive into the city centre from the hotel we passed a Chinese temple and elsewhere I passed a large cemetery, clear indications of the size of the local Chinese community.
Apparently breakfasting out is a bit of a local tradition and there are some cafés that are only open in the morning to cater for this trade. We were joined at breakfast by Paul’s 11 year old daughter Joanna, apparently his older daughters used to join him as well but it is no longer cool to be with Dad, some issues are clearly cross cultural…..
Anyway, once at the café we sat down to an excellent meal of Mee. Paul and I had Mee Jaya ( my transliteration so may be spelt wrongly ) which was noodles with chicken curry while Joanna had Mee Goreng ( literally fried noodles ).
Then Andrew (one of my team ) picked me up from the hotel for an orientation tour of Miri but with a specific aim to find a car, well there were surprises in store. Quite a number of expats have arrived recently so it is a sellers market, prices are considerably higher than when Andrew arrived 8 months ago. I was offered a 10 year old Landcruiser Prado for just over EUR16000, a 7 year old RAV4 for EUR23000 or a 5 year old Pajero for EUR35000. Small cars were not much better with a fairly basic Proton ( local build ) at EUR9000 for a 4 year old vehicle. These cars are all available from one or other of the dealers used by most expats and come with a warranty. I will look again at the board at work & club to check whether there is anything coming up for sale from someone on departure. 
We then moved on to furniture, since the houses here are provided unfurnished. Andrew pointed out the various furniture stores to me including Cane Decoration which offers hand made rattan furniture, I then saw some examples at Andrew’s house and they are quite impressive, pretty certain we’ll get something similar when we have a house.
Speaking of houses I have opted for a place in Taman Bayshore. Andrew showed me around his house ( which is the mirror image of our house ) and the big rooms certainly look better with furniture in them.
Andrew and Sarah have removed one of the base units in the kitchen so that they have space for their dishwasher and a cold water dispenser, we will probably do the same.
We had lunch on the beach shore in front of the club, very relaxed, and then took a quick stroll round the facilities. There are lots of sailing options. 
Plus other ways to enjoy the water such as the river barge, the left hand boat with the bimini top and twin 60Hp engines, not sure that it is visible in this picture but the right hand engine cover is held on with bungees, Apparently this engine has finally given up the ghost and a new engine is on order. The river barge ( as might be expected from the name ) can be used for excursions up river. The speedboat beyond ( with a whacking great 175Hp outboard ) is apparently accompanied by a banana boat and great fun can be had by all.
There are 4 tennis courts at the club, the court surface appears to be in much better condition compared with the courts at the Marriott but they are busy in the evenings so some people ( those who are members at the Marriott ) play there instead.
Sunday has been a really wet day, but with the typical warm rain of the Tropics, when it is really heavy I use an umbrella but otherwise I just walk through the rain. I clearly still have a N European attitude to rain, when I am in the car and preparing to open the door I just expect it be cold and wet, so it is still a really pleasant surprise when it is hot and wet. But the rain was not too much of a problem as I took the opportunity of fairly empty Sunday roads to explore the city streets and start to get my bearings. There are no GPS maps of Miri thus it is back to old fashioned paper maps and dead reckoning.
Finally, although today has been grey and wet this is a picture of the hotel pool and sunken bar which I took yesterday morning, definitely feels a bit decadent to be living somewhere that looks like a holiday brochure.
