[T]he spring has set in with more than usual severity, the famous horse-chestnut tree of the Tuileries is covered with snow in place of leaves, and spongy April, instead of betrimming our banks with peonied and lilied brims has nipped the too early blossoms, frozen the bubbling brooks, and produced a fourth course of cough, catarrh, and cold, which have seized old and young, rich and poor, in their relentless grasp.

We clocked in at 7:30, but didn't actually do any work until at least 8.

With free-roam of the reserve's rainforest and fruit trees, the semi-wild orangutans at Semenggoh Nature Reserve near Kuching in Sarawak are not guaranteed to show up at the twice-daily feeding sessions, but there's a pretty good chance of catching the endlessly entertaining sight of our shaggy jungle cousins stuffing half a dozen bananas into their mouths, grabbing a coconut and then scrambling back up into the jungle canopy -- swinging from tree to tree, dangling nonchalantly from vines and taking care of their adorable infants.

With one, last desperate lurch, the lorry cleared the tracks, disappearing out of the arclights, into the darkness; and then there was silence...