In the Dumps...

You are probably wondering where your favourite expatriate British blogger has been for the last ten days or so. Well, he is still here, plodding through life and surviving as usual, but to be absolutely honest with you, Prof. Madder has completely lost all motivation to continue blogging.

Whether this loss of spunk is permanent, I cannot say. But one thing I can say is that for the moment, I am utterly pissed off with life, and if it wasn’t for the loving support of my wife and friends, I may have considered ending it.

The reason has a lot to do with an unfortunate incident that happened on that most ironically-named day, Good Friday. Basically, I was robbed. The circumstances of my robbery are rather embarrassing to me, though those of you who know me personally will know what happened. Needless to say, I lost a bag containing nearly everything that I find useful or helpful or pleasurable in my working life. Everything except, luckily, my passport, wallet and mobile phone.

It could have been worse, yes, but not much. I suppose that not losing my wallet, passport and mobile phone is better than losing my pen drives, my UK driving license, my calculator, my bank books, my dictionary, my tax form, my student’s draft Masters Thesis that I was checking, my Bluetooth earpiece, a couple of notebooks (paper ones), my university ID card and my spectacles. As well as a bloody good shoulder bag that must have looked like it contained a laptop but didn’t.

So It Goes.

One of the side-effects of this happy event is that I find it very painful to use a computer, or read anything because of the fact that my spectacles were among the items lost. My new spectacles won’t be ready till later this week, so it’s quite a challenge to do this blog.

One of the really funny things about the whole situation is that when I went to the police station to report the theft, they asked me, with a completely straight face, whether I wanted them to investigate it or whether I just wanted to report the loss. And the really hilarious thing is that I played their game, telling them not to bother investigating. After all, it’s a near certainty that my stuff will never be recovered. Most likely, the bag and its contents were thrown in a rubbish dump or a storm drain, when the thieves found out there was no laptop inside. Who knows....

So please forgive me for feeling a little bit disappointed with Kuching and Malaysia at the moment. And very disappointed with myself, for letting it happen to me. I hope that the ignorant stupid b******s who took my bag are happy with themselves, and that they had a great time raping its contents, and that they all die very slow and painful deaths.

Not very charitable, I know, but....