Sporadic Scribbles. The Surf-ari!

This is going to read quite strange for I wrote this about 10 days ago while still on the boat. Unfortunately I never finished it then we had the little problem with the Mr Stealth, read below after that it was off to Thailand, where I had originally thought I would find those few minutes I needed to finish crafting this story for you only to find those in-between time taken up with flat laptop batteries, meetings about run orders, doing a friends bathroom floorplan adjustments and simply relaxing.

But I am going through my laptop and rather than let the words go to waste and another day slip by without filling the ether that is my Blog I thought I would whack this into shape and get it up there.

It will also give me an opportunity to put some surf photos up there. Hehe! So here is the story of my first SURFari…



Here is a shot of me slotted at the place I am not allowed to talk about.




Again sporadic scribbles from yours truly. I know, I know there is no need to chastise me for I am a slack bugger. I seem to only write in the off times. The down times between sets one could say. Did I? Here is something that I wrote the other day while I had some downtime but alas no Internet connection…

I am on deck, it’s warm, a breeze is blowing in onto my back and the music from my laptop breaks the otherwise stillness of the lagoon in which we are moored. the other guys are either on the left out at the point, the inside left or in their cabins. The right-hander in this aptly named Bay of Plenty is alas too shallow but I will grace its shoulders for one last surf this afternoon. For I am writing this in-between the morning surf session and the afternoon one. The off time.

We are on a surf safari, a 110’ boat called the Indo Jiwa. Unfortunately our time here is nearly at an end and the six of us will drift back to our own little worlds. The list is Simon Leary, Paul Anderson, Greg, These guys are all from Sydney then there is Channas mate Mill-Dog he is a 55 Californian that was living in Hawai and now seems to call Uluwatu home, and Channa, the owner of the boat oh and finally yours trully. There are 7 crew, Indonesians, who are the men in the background. They make this whole ship work and cook the amazing meals which are placed in front of us at least 4 times a day.

Ten days ago we set out from Gunung Sitoli, which is the airport on Nias. A little island off the coast of Sumartra. Overland for 2 hours in a bump ride that left Soimon high and dry for the next two days down to a spot called Teluk Delam which is a little harbour in the south of the Island. It was here we boarded the boat and overnight sailed around the southern tip past the famous Lagundri Beach (which had a reported 50-70 guys in the water!) up to another even smaller group of islands off the West Coast .
We moored at about 2am near a break called Bawa that is intimidating at the best of times let alone the first day of our surf tour. It rumbled through in the morning and I wondered what I had let myself into.

Good thing was I was not the only one who had second thoughts about this huge bone-snapping wave and we sailed on to the tiny island of Asu. It is here that Channa, our skipper, his wife Ruby and their 3 kids live. It is early and we are on a surf safari so after the crew, has the boat moored out the front of Ruby and Channa’s place, we all bundle into the tender for an hour drive up the coast to this amazing right hander. It doesn’t have a name and we have all been threatened with black magic curses if we ever divulge it’s where about. Suffice to say that we spent the next 4 days going back to the same spot honing our skills and then dragging ourselves spent from the water after 3 hour sessions and eating second breakfasts prepared earlier by the amazing cook on board the Indo Jiwa, Yanko. Guys a genius! I must go sideways a tad here to say that I originally thought I might lose some weight in the 10 days aboard the boat, but I think I have put on about 2 kilos even though I am surfing a minimum of 3 hours a day! We ate so well. BBQ fish in banana leaves, Pasta’s even pizzas one night. Fantastic food and though I hadn’t thought so before, a very important aspect to any trip like this.

So where were we, ah yes the trip to the spot we ended up calling “The left hander” was great for all but Simon who was a goofy footer, a left hander. The fifth morning we set out for a place also north of Asu called Afulu. We rounded the headland and there were already 4 guys in the water. It was the left Simon had been holding out for.

Turned out Channa knew a couple of them. One is the ex-head of Surf-Aid for Nias. So we surfed this great left that left scars I am still smarting over. After a big hold down during which time I tried to surface using my arms only I kicked out and I kicked the reef.

Nias reefs were raised about a metre in the 2005 earthquake. So the breaks are now in different spots. Where we are surfing the waves wouldn’t have broken before and even at high tide dead coral sticks out of the water. It was some of this shallow inside reef that I kicked. The outer section, though it was fast and hollow, was deep enough so that one didn’t need booties. Gosh, that was a trap for young players!

The next day we revisited the same break and guess what. I didn’t wear booties again, I got caught inside again and I kicked the reef one more. Hhmmm. Thick as two short planks I am.

Suffice to say that although it now hurt when I put them, due to cuts on top of my left foot, I wore booties for the rest of the trip! You never know!

The day before we had finished our Holiday With Purpose. Finished what I hear you say? Let me explain. Ruby & Channa run this Holiday with Purpose out of Asu. In exchange for a few hours a day you get a cheaper trip. The work you do is for the local community. He runs fibreglass boat building, she does community gardens, and they also look at community buildings. A school I hear is in the offing!. So it was a great add on for us. At first I had thought we might build canoes or buildings. You know big butch stuff. Though in the end we put in about 4 vegie patchs for different folk. These were more than equally important. Read here what I wrote about it on their site.

So we had actually sailed to Afulu in the Indo Jiwa. After that second surf there and a spot of lunch we upped anchor saying goodbye to Nias and steaming north for 12 hours to the Banyaks. A couple of islands that sit off the coast of North Sumatra. Actually I am looking at a map in Mappoint and they are off the southern tip of Aceh.
Sometime after midnight we had pulled into a cove and awoke to an aptly named wind blown out Treasure Island. So it was in the light of dawn that we headed east to the larger of the two islands and another Aptly named harbour, the Bay of Plenty.

The Bay of Plenty consists of a Left Point Break, a Right Point Break and a Left that breaks in the bay itself. Add to that a fresh water spring Channa showed me while the boys were netting bait fish for the afternoons fishing expedition, the tribe of monkeys that were making a cacophony of noise as we sheltered waters from a storm and you have exactly that, A Bay of Plenty.

We spent the next 4 days here surfing lefts, rights, some more rights, snorkeling and fishing. I could come to this one place! What a fantastic spot. In the evenings fishermen would come into the bay. There boats are no wider than a canoe, though they are about 40’ long. Not even an outrigger! These guys are in the middle of the ocean! Respect!

We would sit on the deck of our behemoth enjoying BBQ wrapped fish, drinking ice cold Bintangs daily feats or surf-ploits filled the darkness of the night, the rock of the ship on the ocean set the beat, laughter at the incidents were the punctuation. The waves got big and scarier with each telling.

Then it was over. Like that. 6am one morning we are being shuttled off the boat to the mainland. 10 days had left us with sea legs so we swayed like drunks on the dock. It would continue all day and into the next. A lovely reminder of the journey we had shared.

So that was the holiday of a lifetime, though I am seriously thinking about going back next year.

Wonder what my darling wife will have to say about that. “Honey? Can we talk?”

Here are some photos of the events

Enjoy

Peace!


Here is one of me blasting along at the bay of plenty



Ando in the barrel, if you look closely at his face you will see it split with the biggest grin. Loving life, go son!





Grego Bouncing off the lip. What can I say that this image doesn't? Genius!





Simon looking relaxed in the barrel. Actually Simon's back had pinged as he stood up on this wave and he was in a lot of pain when this was taken. He makes it and the last photo in this sequence he is standing on his board holding his back. Ouch!




Again the place sorted out the players, Grego with a big cutback at the right hander, Bay of Plenty.





Ando looking like he has an afro. He borrowed Mill-dog's surf hat.

Doesn't show the nice re-entry that he pulled off but he's still having fun!

Warnings from Paradise

So anyway it is last Sunday evening and we are all at home. I had packed my bags as I had a 10.15pm flight to Singapore where I would stay overnoght and then fly early the following morning up to Bangkok.I would have to leave the house just after 8pm to get to the airport.

I had packed everything and we were having a quiet beer with the "Vons" our South African neighbours Michele and Louie, and another couple Arienne & Toby who are marring in Jan next year, she is half American and French. He is Australian and about 10 years her junior. Perfect match! But I digress. We are sitting laughing and carrying on. At 7.50pm I went upstairs and said night to the boys, they were watching a DVD in my bedroom. I came down again and right on the left of the door, where the telephone table is I notice that my 3 bags were now 2. Of course I went straight into panic mode, where was my camera bag. I use the NikonD70 with a 25-80 and a 80-300. Couple of batteries, filters blah blah, so quite a little investment in one bag. I went to the office to see if I had left it in there as I had stuck the power cables for my laptop in the front of the camera bag. Nope not there either. I am really panicking now. I was about to fly overseas on a recce of 3 hotels in Bangkok, 3 in Phuket and 3 in Chiang Mai. I take on average 100 photos while in a hotel. Some of these resorts I take as many as 200 and then there is all the mood images I take which I then try to work into the event theme thereby saving on image purchase fees. It is an important tool for me, one that I can not go to work without.

I tell the 5 adults there what has transpired and ask them all to help with the search. Of course they all thought I was bullshitting and laugh nervously. When they see that I am earnest they reluctantly jump up to help. The very idea that it had been stolen was scoffed at. We were all sitting there, no one could have come in and out without someone seeing what had happened. Surely I had just left it somewhere. The 6 of us went through the house over the next 10 minutes and it didn’t turn up!
In the end I had to grab a taxi or miss the flight. That wasn't an option.

What I think transpired is a thief slunk in across the front lawn and up to the edge of the house. Besides the pile of shoes there on the step the first thing you come to is the telephone table on which I remember as the spot I left my camera bag. So this guiltless fiend must have slipped to within 5 metres of us lifted the bag and made away into the darkness of the night.

So the domino effect was unleashed, it went like this. I went and brought the D80 kit the very next morning. I brought it at Changi airport for S$2200. I had no options and in my heart of hearts know that if I was in Singapore over at Sim Lim square I could have knocked that price down to about S$1700-1900 or so. Bugger!

Back home another set of events was off and running. Gabi had to call the police, we are trying to see if I can claim something on the insurance. But in Bali the police are just a hassle one has to go through. You have to speak to the Bunga, or local council, of which there is a group who are the heavies. They are the protection one needs in this set of circumstances. They consoled her and offered one of their own, who needed some work, as a night watchman. Oh his name is Agus, Looks like a nice chap. I suppose I meet him next Sunday night when I get home!

Gabi told Stephano one of her gay friends who has a shop there and he took her to see his shaman. Bali is renown for it’s black magic So his paranormal priest to find out more about the thieves. He said after his praying that he saw three guys from Lombok, one in the house two outside watching. They used black magic so we wouldn’t notice the guy. He then told Gabi I had to pray, burn 11 of his incense sticks every day and use his holy water. Then they wouldn’t be able to use their magic anymore.

And the last tumbling tile in this story I want to tell you about is the new addition to our house. Chucky I believe his name is and while Gabi has been hassling to get a dog for the kids for some time it was the ideal time to relent and we are the proud owners of a little black, Labrador I think, puppy. I also get to meet him on Sunday night when I get home.

I very different way to head out of the house to the airport and a big wake up call. For although we may call Bali home we are still Strangers in a strange land. Caution has to be a catchcry if we are to endure and enjoy the island of the gods.

This sums up the real world

I have been doing some research today and I happened onto someones blog that had this embedded in it.



Laugh! Laugh! I almost cried!

Get that business plan sorted out, eh?

Later.

About time...

The funny thing about time is my total lack of it. Where does it go? I mean, I work and surf, play with the kids all the things we use to do back in Australia but everything seems to take twice as long here. Have we slowed down to the point that simple tasks take twice as long to preform or is this what they call " Bali rubber time"

Sorry to get so deep.

Big announcement today must got to Miranda and Tim Coleman-Doscas as they had a little boy called Felix at 9.58 am this morning, 5th July 2007. He was a wee lad, unlike dad, weighing in at only 2.89kgs.

Salamat Datang Felix!

Speaking of kids, ours are on holiday at the moment, their school, while it follows the Australian school year, it also has a month break in the middle of the year to at least half align with the local and European schools who are in the middle of their "Summer" break.

The weather is fantastic, mild days int he high 20's or low 30's with low humidity make it a pleasure to be here. We do not run air conditioning and the afternoon breeze at present makes the ceiling fan redundant as well.

Working on some interesting projects one of them will be in Bali in April so I am getting the camera out to take some piccies. Do I get photo Credits as well?

Here are a couple of "Textural shots" that I am using. They are for Fluff of coarse!

This one has been PhotoShop-ed. I was going for the warm feeling. Yummy!














Here is one where I had Oscar holding an Orchid up so I could get the sun and Gabi's flags in the background.
Staged, you bet!













The blog wouldn't be right without the obligatory surf shot.
Here is one Maxi took. We went to the peninsular the other day, Balangan. We got there at 4pm, dead low tide. There was this fast little left running over a coral bottom, my first outing down the Bukit, for surfing at least. Image is a bit dull the sun was behind me setting. Had a great afternoon. Thanks to Toby who showed us how to drive there. And thanks to Maxi of this great shot of dear old dad.

So that is my lot, we have Simon and Bella coming in next week so I will post some photos of our outings with them.

Keep well, we all are.

Peace.

The photos that time forgot! This one is for you Fluff!

As promised, a blog entry sans words. Well not totally only a couple. Just enough to tell you what is going on, ok?

PS What with the $%#@ internet here in Bali these entries are harder than the normal ones! This has taken nearly an hour to upload each image one by one! Argh!

In order of appearance you have.
•Brunnie, Made & Gabi standing near the front door of our house
•Students in my Indonesian Class. Our final day a coffee down by the beach, L-R Hiroco, Dirk, Dominique & Our teacher Arta. Or I should say, Guru!
•Brunnie and I saw this very strange looking bike while out driving.
•We also stopped and photographed some men planing rice. Here are two of the photos.
•Out in Canggu, on the road to my favorite surfing spot we pulled over to photograph the rice terraces, here are 3 of the photographs.
•This one is for you Barry, This is a piccy of the front of our house. At least in my photo you can see our flags and umbrellas. Your photos don't show jack! Shape up bro!
•Lastly, here is Brunnie after breakfasting at Cafe Moka she was curious as to the reason there was a temple on the roof of the house across the road. Me too!

Enjoy!

Mr Mum for a week! Tough act!

I do hope that this message finds you all well. Quicly I have to put a small note here to one of my Sister in-laws who I will continue to refer to as Fluff in an effort to maintain her secret Identity, "sorry about the fact that there is not a single photo with this post. Perhaps I will do a photo only one next time...." hmm now there is a thought. Listern to the wheels talking...

The reason I hadn’t entertained you with further installments in the life of the Glib and flatulent is that it was Istri Sayas turn to go to Singapore (Istri Saya, Literally means Wife mine) She went there to see if she was able to sell some bags for these gay friends of hers.

Oops I suppose they are friends of mine as well though she made their acquaintance. They do make very lovely bags, I have a black one with a little skull on a chain. I have done some adverts for them for local magazines as well as a quick website. Check out their wares http://www.sabbathabali.com/ Anyway she went there with a dozen bags, belts and other trinkets. She knuckled down and arranged some really strong meetings. So ended up seeing a lot of people and may have some good leads which she is now following up. Then on Sunday night she flew home. But the real reason for the whole thing was that her mother was on that flight as well. Her mother came in at 5.30pm from Germany and they caught the plane together from Singapore to here. It was the first time Gabi had ever been to Singapore, sure like everyone she had been through the airport a hundred times but she had never seen the place. She had a ball and stayed at a hotel for the first couple of days and then with some old friends from Australia who moved up there about 6 years ago. She loved the whole thing and even made noises about going back. I told her she would have to sell a lot of bags to do that. But really it is a good thing that she had a ball. She doesn't get holidays that often! I have been there so many times over the years that I am a little non-plus about the place. I know I could never live there, especially now that I have found a true passion in surfing. For someone lie me, the most non sporty person I know besides my friends this is a bit of a feat! Speaking of which, righthander out at Tugu this morning, going off!!!

So net result of all of that is our bank balance is slightly lower and we have Oma here. Actually she is having a little lay down at the moment I think the whole thing has been a little too much for her. Although it's Wed afternoon at 4pm. And she has had a full 3 days to acclimatise I am thinking that she may need the full week to get right into the swing of things. Ultimately she is having the time of her life I just think Gabi has to slow down with the tour de force.

Well life in the islands is trundling along smoothly. Tomorrow is the last of my Indonesian classes, whew 5 weeks whizzes past doesn’t it? And while I do not think I speak Bahasa Indonesia very well I can understand stuff. Which isn’t bad for a guy who knew used tear-up-my-car-seat to remember how to say thank you! A couple of others in the class are really talking, that would be the women. While a couple of us are able to understand but come discussion time give little or no input to the conversation Arta sets up, that would be the men. As sad as it seems us men are the stragglers. Seeing as the class is 5 and there are 3 women, two of whom have been here for over a year, and the men, we are just 2, both of us having arrived in the past 6 months, I do not feel too bad. It will come I am sure.

Maxi and Oscar are great. They both received far too much stuff from Gabi and Oma on Sunday & Monday night. From Gabi Maxi got a diving watch, iPod shuffle, 1 gig USB stick and of course the legendary Oma gift pack while Oscar got his first Gameboy also a watch, but his was PowerRangers and an Oma gift pack. Sniff Sniff! All I got was a tee shirt from Oma! Lol! Actually I got Gabi to buy me a pad to go under my laptop. It allows air to circulate and there is this cushion thing in the front to rest your wrists on. My brother Damien had one up here and after my battery literally fried I thought I needed one too. BTW I am thinking those children of mine are a tad spoilt, what do you think? Thought I should let you know that the T shirt is cool. Nice colour and a very simple clean print. Sort of a stylised elevation or silhouette of Muenster, my mother in-laws town.

So that is my lot for today. I thought I should get something up there to plug the hole in the silence. Feel free to write to me and tell me what little quirks life is throwing about in your part of the world. Or not!

...more rumblings from the mind.

My Aunty Mary, that would be my dads sister, past away last Wednesday evening. I first heard about it in the departure hall at Bali airport. Mum had rung our house and Gabi rang me. Bugger! She was 88 or 89. A good innings but the selfish side of me was looking forward to seeing her again. So it was that I spent a couple of days in Singapore with time to reflect on the old girl. She was hilarious. She had a lot of quirks did our Aunty Mary. Darling whereever you are we love and cherish you and through us you are imortalised.
May the bar in heaven have your favourite tipple and a taxi to get you home. Now where did i hear that before??

Many thoughts have brushed past my synapses in the last few days but i think the one that I cherish the most from her is when my dad would give her that deadly second glass of wine at Christmas and other family functions, this pushed her over the edge and was enough to make her tipsy and she would let fly with the funniest things. Her laugh at these times I can hear in my head. She really was amazing. The funeral is tomorrow in Perth. At first I thought I would get a flight down there over the weekend and fly back Tuesday, but Gabi flies to Singapore herself on Tuesday which would mean I would have to get back no later than Tuesday afternoon. In the end I thought better of it. I am already planning a trip home in July for a wedding of a mate. Also the birth of his first child the week before, it will be his partners 4th. She has 3 girls from her first marriage. Would be his luck to get another girl and then he would be totally surrounded, hehe!


Snapped one of my surfboards this morning. It was the yellow mal I always ride, my favourite. A McTavish Liberator 9'1"! You can see Max putting his board in it's bag. Echo beach is the white caps you can see in the distance on the right and the white caps on the left is old mans. Where i did this.

Will drive up to Poppies in an hour or so and drop it off at one of the surf shops to have it repaired. I have the name of a good shop. 3 different people said they were the ones for snapped boards, so it must be the place. Doubt if I will ride it much from here on out but it will be a good board for visitors. I have another yellow, I brought two of their demos which are this special yellow all over. That board a 9'1" McTavish HP. It isn't as full bodied as the liberator but almost identical in silhouette. Plus I have been using my McTavish 7'4" in the huge swells that we have received of late. Perhaps i will stick with the short boards a while longer. We will see.

We went for a drive down the Bukit Peninsula the other weekend and rather than bore you with more words I will do as asked by my sister inlaw, Fluff, and put some more photos in. They are...


View of the beach Nusa Dua; I like this one as later the beach got incredibly crowded with locals but in the heat of the middle of the day this child was the only one that braved it. Well done i say!


Photo of Gabi, Maxi & Oscar. This is along one end of the Nusa Dua beaches. The place is beautiful over there. The white beaches are very different from where we surf at Canggu where the sands are volcanic therefore very dark.

Here we have a photo Oscar took of Gabi, Maxi & Myself. I am running because Oscar sat there with his finger on the button so we ended up with 30 photos of the 3 of us. Most were a bit blurred like this one but everyone is having such a great time that it makes it special.


Next is the temple on the hill at Uluwatu. Very cheeky monkeys live along these cliffs and one had a go at my camera bag. They are spoiled by tourists always feeding them and now they are sulky if you have nothing for them.









If you turn around 180 degrees then your looking down onto the surf from the cliff also down at Uluwatu. The sun starting to sink in the ocean it was a beautiful spot. We need to go there again. With our boards next time. The actual surfing spot is even further around the corner.

Lastly is a photo of me on my shortboard, we had a huge swell come through a week ago and I dropped down onto the shortboard. Waves at Padang Padang got to a reported 3 storeys high. Photos on Balisurf.com showed guys standing in the barrel with enough room above them for someone else to stand on there shoulders.

Even Canggu where I surf was so big that most people sat in the carpark. Oh and I suppose you will see me on that more and more now my favorite is broken.



More soon, promise!

Peace!

It is all quiet in the house, nothing stirred not even a SNAKE!

A couple of weeks ago, while I was overseas, Gabi sent me an email entitled, What a surprise! Well here are the photos of that little surprise. A 3' python had found his way into the pool. Made, our gardener rendered it suitable for a belt with a belt. Gabi quickly asked him not to hack the head off as it would leave the spirit of the snake here and she didn't want to be haunted by such a beasty!

So I left this tit-bit so long, I had sort of forgotten about it up until I was on that same bit of lawn as I made my way to the guest house and my computer, you get that Hmmm. Would be interesting to step on one of those at night! NOT!

















































So Today we drove down the Bukit to Nusa Dua. In amongst all the resorts there is a little carpark and a tiny beach where it is not Private Property. The beach along the front of the resorts is for hotel guests only, can you believe that! How can someone own a beach! The bit left over was nice so we strolled around there. Oscar was heating up and had tannie after tannie in the park.

Later we drove to Ulluwatu, well the temple down there. We watched the sun set from the cliffs. The monkeys tried in vain to steal my camera bag and Maxi spotted a group of dolphins out to see.

From there we drove back towards home but threw a left at Jimbaran Beach. Where down on the sand is the seafood markets. The restaurant I wanted to sit in was full so we had to settle for next door. We had a fish, a half kilo of prawns, Sate Chicken, Indonesian Spinach and rice. The boys had red Fanta's and Gabi and I had Mixed juices. I had 2 in fact. The whole lot was RP 200 000. (A$27.10) Which i thought a little expensive. But it was good. Damn tasty! We played Uno and Gabi won. The tables are right down on the beach sand and you watch the planes line up and come in. The only problem is the smoke. I can smell it on my clothes even now. Gabi and Max both complained that it hurt their eyes. Oscar and I didn't seem to get it. It was a nice way to finish the weekend.



The rest of the weekend consisted of rising early and going surfing. I haven't gotten the photos off the camera of today so I may have to post them later or let them slide. I do have some shots of Maxi and his friend Mian surfing out at Tugu.


Mian's dad, Louie who is our resident photographer was with us both mornings. Today he had to seek shelter in the rocks while the heavens opened up. Imagine, it's 7.30am still as, a grey hue to everything, the sea isn't water it's like oil and then these big tropical droplets of water come splashing down, they explode everywhere. A swell rises out the back and peaks then breaks. the only sound is the massive droplets drumming out their tune on the deck of my surfboard. Twas magic!


The boys surfing is coming up a treat! But do not take my word for it. Have a look yourself! Fluff these added photos are for you!

Anyway here is a summary of todays action. Maxi is sporting a white rashy and long hair. Mian is in a bright orange rashy. And if you look closely in one of the shots you can see the professor on a wave out behind the boys!

Until next time.

Peace.

Salamat Malam

We're back!

All is good here. But much time and waters have past since I wrote of our little adventure.
Like anywhere life gets busy and the first things to suffer are these little chores, like maintaining a blog!
Not trying to create an excuse but of late I have been out of the country more than I have been in it.
So sit back, relax and be prepared for a whirlwind tour of our life in the past 2 months.

Where do I start?

My brother Michael, I had better change the names to protect the innocent, namely me! So lets call him 'Barry' and his wife Jane, lets for the sake of argument, which is what I will get after this post, lets call her 'Fluff' Anyway our intrepid explorers came up to visit for a week in early March. Neither had been out of Australia since their wedding back in 1986 (I think it was then?)

At first they were going to have a holiday in Melbourne and Sydney but once they heard we were moving here they, well I think Barry was the lubricant, they changed their minds and so we had them for a week. It was great and i know they both had a ball.

They arrived in on Saturday morning. I had just gotten back from Vietnam on the Friday evening. Nice timing I thought. And timing was indeed the theme.

For on the Monday was Nyepi Day, the Balinese new years day. However before we get there the day before Nyepi, all villages in Bali hold a large exorcism ceremony at the main village cross road, the meeting place of demons. They usually make Ogoh-ogoh (the fantastic monsters or evil spirits or the Butha Kala made of bamboo) for carnival purposes. The Ogoh-ogoh monsters symbolize the evil spirits surrounding our environment which have to be got rid of from our lives . The carnivals themselves are held all over Bali following sunset. Bleganjur, a Balinese gamelan music accompanies the procession. Some are giants taken from classical Balinese lore. All have fangs, bulging eyes and scary hair and are illuminated by torches.The procession is usually organised by the Seka Teruna, the youth organisation of Banjar. We went to the cross roads in Kuta which was hot an crowded. Oscar and I went home early. All a bit much for the short bloke!

On Nyepi day itself, every street is quiet - there are nobody doing their normal daily activities. There is usually Pecalangs (traditional Balinese security man) who controls and checks for street security. Pecalang wear a black uniform and a Udeng or Destar (a Balinese traditional "hat" that is usually used in ceremony). The Pecalangs main task is not only to control the security of the street but also to stop any activities that disturb Nyepi. No traffic is allowed, not only cars but also people, who have to stay in their own houses. Light is kept to a minimum or not at all, the radio or TV is turned down and, of course, no one works. Even love making, this ultimate activity of all leisure times, is not supposed to take place, nor even attempted. The whole day is simply filled with the barking of a few dogs, the shrill of insect and is a simple long quiet day in the calendar of this otherwise hectic island. Rather than get 'Villa Fever' we moved into the Dynasty Resort in Kuta and spent the day having massages, wallowing in the waters of the pool and partaking in the odd Bintang.

Barry has emailed me to say his bags are still packed and waiting by the front door to come up again. Hope that means that they enjoyed the hospitality.

Actually they are coming again. They will be here in December with two of the boys, David & Andrew. In keeping with the vain of this post lets call them Davros and Handy Andy. Their eldest son, John, So lets call him John! He will be in Europe. So no fun in the sun for you sport. Do not forget the Thermals at that time over there.

We will fly to Perth for Christmas on the 23rd and take up residence at their house for a week before returning here and into our new house. I think they are here for a month, so they arrive before we leave and are here when we get back.

Families, there is no getting away from them is there?

Lets go forward to Easter. The boys had 2 weeks off, unfortunately I had to go to HK for 5 days before the weekend before easter. If that makes sense. I also had to fly back there for another gig on Easter Monday. In between, I was here for a week. After the second HK gig I got home late on the Saturday and left again for Chiang Mai in the evening of the Monday. Time to get fresh laundry but not much else. The big downer was that this was right across the school holidays.

Maxi and I did have a week, the week prior to Easter, where we went surfing every day. Mostly in the mornings. He has a friend called Mian from School, his parents, Michelle and Louie have become our friends. Mian Surfs, actually taking out 2nd place in the under 12's in the Quicksilver Interschool Competition at Double 6. But I digress. We would all go surfing everyday. Louie, who doesn't surf became our cameraman and photos like the one of me here are credited to him.

Last Saturday, the 28th April was'Tumpek Landep' which is an important day to make offerings here in Bali. This is devoted to Sang Hyang Pasupati, Lord of heirlooms, weapons and metal tools for proper function and magical power. With offerings, special prayers are said to pray to God so that these material things as Kris daggers, motorcycles, cars and other metal objects continue to be strong and bring good fortune to their owners. Cars and motorcycles are all properly cleaned before being decorated with offerings and ornaments and this can clearly be seen in the streets on this day.

So Made cleaned our car, then adorned it with offerings. We all donned our sarongs and had the ceremony in the car port. And thus the car was blessed.

That night we went out for a talk on Global warming out at the Canggu Club. Afterwards we headed down to Double 6 area for some dinner and low and behold we get our first flat tire. Typical eh!

It kind of screwed Sunday up as we had a lot of things planned that hinged around using the car. In the end we laid around the house, I did some work on a couple of projects I needed to have ready for today and after lunch we caught a taxi to WaterBom. The big pool and slide park down in Kuta.

I am now home for a while. Little bits of work trickling through but nothing major. Our big news is that Gabi has rented the house next door for 4 years. It is about a quarter the size in terms of land but then again it is a fifth of the yearly rent. Do the math!

It is free from the 11th of May, actually it is free now! But we will just do some minor works on the entrance and render ne wall. Michelle, Louie and Mian will rent it from us until end December when we take it over. Gabi is signing all the papers today and will finally have her Bali house, at least until May 2011.

Me I am still looking for my chunk of land in the country to build my little dream house not far from the coast so i can wander down for morning surfs. Must get my lotto ticket in today to!

Gabi has signed me up for Indonesian lessons which start on Thursday morning. 4 days a week. I think there will be 3 others in the class with me. I am going to Sabatha's shop today to pick up a bag he has especially made for me. It will take my laptop and my books so I have a school bag. I have done a couple of advertisements for him now. Gabi loves his stuff so much she wants to become their business development manager and take it overseas. At the moment they sell to people who come here and take it home themselves. She would like them to step up to the next level. Would be good for all of them I am sure.

So there we are. All alive, all healthy. A lot more relaxed than we were in Sydney. Life is very good. We hope the worlld is good for you in and around your areas.

Apologies for not writing more and sooner but I shall try to do this at least once a month.

Happy Chinese New Year

The fact that the Chinese New Year is here has meant my IM has been quiet the last couple of days. Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Year of the pig. Hmm I like it already, yum yum!

The weekend was a bit of a surffest here in Bali.

First Sanur on Saturday, We drove through Denpasar looking at car yards, we are looking to buy a car instead of paying someone a couple of million a month, as we do now. It was hot and we had the boards on the roof so it made damn good sense to slide through Sanur and see what's what.

Tide was low getting lower so we parked and made our way to a warung on the beach. We sat and ate. Then off we went. Damien and Maxi headed for this left and right peak just off shore and I went out to the reef in front of the Grand Hyatt. Ok I cut the hell out of the bottom of my feet but to tell you the truth, it was worth every slice. This would have to rank in my top 5 surfs of all time. I read yesterday that Indo Surf rate it as one of the top 10 right handers in the world.

So here I am, it's a slight breeze across the wave, the sneakers are 5-6' and there is me and a kiwi out there! Go figure. I stayed for about 2 hours, actually I paddled in when we were joined by a third. I was spent. I had caught about 20 waves in the two hours. The adrenalin high is still with me and today is Tuesday!

So on Sunday we got in the car and headed to Medewi. Well looking at the map one can be fooled to think it's a short drive but you get stuck int behind trucks and cars that should have been relegated to the scape heap eons ago and well you have to just wait to get around them. The road is like all Bali roads, insufficient. The amount of traffic is huge. All containers etc have to come down this road from the ferry port. In fact everything from Java that is shipped in and out would come along here.

Anyway 3 hours later, just when people in the car were starting to get edgy we arrived. We drove down to the beach some 100m from the main road and feasted our eyes on this amazing left hnder that just seemed to never end. It ran along the point and down into the bay. I was drooling, especially since I was still on the high from Sanur. We decided once again to have lunch. This strategy had served us well the day before and we headed into the restaurant right on the point. The food was good and the hotel we were in would let the kids swim in their pool for 20 000 a piece so it looked like we were all sorted for post eating excursions.


The entry into the water is over millions of stones, round like river stones. Except they had barnacles and sea sludge which meant your foot sort of slid in between until it got caught. On already sore pins I endured the walk out (Just so you do not fret, I bought Reef Booties yesterday!) So I slip past two guys in wellies fishing and finally start paddling out through the white water.

Did I tell you that there was no one out there at this point? Sorry i should have. I paddled out to where the take off spot was and rested, it was a hard slog just getting this far!. After about 3 or 4 minutes a set came in, I wasn't quite out far enough so I paddled over the first and heading out into the slot for the second. Whoosh! This wave was an easy ride. Damn shame it was on my back hand.


I started paddling out and having missed paddling onto another wave got caught inside. And guess what happened? My leg rope snapped! How different! That is 3 in 2 months. Argh! One wave. That was all I had caught. Here is a guy I snapped a little later on to show you what I missed out on. Urmm... Bugger?

The other shots above is of Gabi the boys and their uncle Damien at the drink stall right on Medewi point. The shot from the point back across the bay at the village itself. It is what one thinks of when you think of Bali. Boats, terraced rice fields, mountains and as the grey clouds were soon to show, rain.

Anyway there is a nice swell running at the moment. This morning I dropped the boys at school and headed down to Canggu for another session. Perfect lefts and these sneaky rights that only Andrew and I had spotted were coming in. What more could you want?

To say my surfing has improved a hundred fold since coming up here is a slight understatement. But I am loving it and seems to balance the workload.

So I will upload this, which is a long winded process in it's self and write again soon.

Take care and thanks for taking the time to read this.

Peace!

The rains have arrived.

Although Jakarta has suffered from flooding etc in the past week we have been left to bake under the unforgiving tropical sun like some forgotten sausage on a BBQ. Not today. It is dark like dusk and the rain has been teeming for the past hour. I was beginning to htink the movies were all wrong. Wasn't it Forrest Gump, while he was in Vietnam that had the scene where it started to rain one day and just kept raining for 3 months and then stopped. Perhaps I shouldn't use films for educational content.

I started a blog the other morning so here it is, no use wasting these words. Seeing as I hardly write anymore. I know, I know, slack bugger aren't I.

Been researching the fesability of getting a tad greener. It troubles me sitting in paradise that we are still part of the problem.

Just been looking at a friends website, lets call him John and for the sake of this post lets call his wife Sussy.

So John and Sussy have started up a permaculture farm in teh south west of West Australia. It is there aim to become a repository oif information on it as well as a training centre. I know John has already undertaken serveral (being more than one) courses on the subject as far a field as Holland.

I Love the idea of a permaculture farm and if indeed they become the font of all things in this area, which I have no doubt of course, we will visit their site often to see if we can not take up some of these practises.

For the last two days I have been researching solar panels to at least take my office off the grid. Electricity is one of the big expenses here and if I could half the bill, so save 500 000RP a month which is 6 mill a year or a couple of hundred shy of a grand. I am certain I could pay for siad panels in about 3 years. Thats a plan isn't it!

What is aparent to me, whether it be permaculture or solar power, thermal aircon etc.. all of these are the type of things that needs to be taught to the people here.Hell we should all be learning to tred a little lighter on this fragile orb.

We were in discussions with this guy who has a solar water purifier from SA that we are looking at bringing up here. If we could cure a few cases of Bali Belly a lot of people would be happier. I for one, and Maxi, when he wakes would surely second it. Gabi and Damien, although I am not so sure it was that what they had, would welcome anything that helped in them not spending the last 3 days in bed.

Maxi is laying on the couch opposite me, his belly has had him dancing from the bed to the bowl all night and he is listing in an uneasy slumber. I am on the other couch, one foot on the coffee table, laptop splayed across my lap drinking my morning coffee to the sounds of the cockerels which seem to be completely surrounding the house and thereby giving us this weird THX surround sound. The only other noise is the rumble of the waves as they crash in the shore dump at our local beach. There are punctuations of low CC motorbikes every now and then but not many, it’s still early.

Gabi & Oscar have just left. Oscar starts school at 8 and Gabi starts her school at 8.30.

Although she only complains about the amount of vocab she has to learn, I know she is enjoying her time at the school and the whole process of learning Indonesian. I am unable to dedicate the time needed to make a go of it, due to my work commitments but I am thinking of doing it in April or May. Plenty of time. The good thing I am absorbing a lot ot the words now from Gabi, although I do not know how to use them they will make the process easier later I am sure. She has met some people which is a very good thing, from them I hope she finds a friend. One good friend would be great as we all know they are as rare as hens teeth.

So it is time to wander down the yard and into the shed (AKA Guest house) where I have my computers set up. My brother is in there and needs to be awakened. I need to get some work out, as does he!

Funnily enough just after I wrote this The pool down the yard erupted as he dove in. He’s up! Which is good, his turn to make the Latte’s.

Our one month aniversary

While it is one of my elders birthday today, good on ya Pedro, it is a more important date tomorrow with the big hurdle of one month here in our oasis.

We must be settled as Max wanted to fain sick this morning and lay in, just like he would in Oz.

But things haven't been without the learning curve. I am sitting here on the road to recovery of an incapacitating lergie know the world over simply as Bali Belly.

You wouldn't want to wish it on your worst enemy. Especially when it always seems to hit in the middle of the night and make you go to the little room which one shares with 50 billion mozzies at this time of the day. Ouch!

Also there is the electricity. Last Tuesday I was flying to Sing in the evening, Well the power in the whole of Seminyak went out at about 10am. Right when I was doing something for someone. Not to mention all the work I still had to drag off my desktop for the meetings in Singapore. Argh! I paced around the house. I walked over to the language school where Gabi is studying Indonesian, came home fretted. Finally Gabi said go surfing! Why hadn't I thought of that. There was nothing I could do.

So I disappeared off for a couple of hours and it was fantastic. Not the surf, that was average, but I would have just worn the tiles waiting for it to come back on. About 3pm it did. I was home by then and able to suck everything I needed off. Looks like we have to buy a UPS and a small generator.

My younger brother Damien is here to help do some work. I didn't get him to get into it until yesterday, he actually arrived an hour after I got back from Singapore last Thursday. I waited out at the airport and we shared a car home.

He's spent today working on images for an event in Vietnam next month. The mock-ups of what the dinner will look like. Looking good to. They can get sent out tonight.

Tomorrow I will get him to start on signage for an event in Chiang Mai in April. We have a wide and varied assortment of work to get through.

It has freed me up to get on with some design work for the Vietnam job as well as some conceptual imagery work for two suites (boxes) we do for the HK 7's.

So we are in no need of more in that department. In actual fact I have to get a more ordered life and to stop working on weekends. I have a bad habit of doing it.

I'll work on that!

So that is enough from me but it was a week ago that i last wrote and i know how eager you all are to read these musings.

Take care.

Peace.

Time flies at paradise central

So today is week three. I only feel like I have just set foot here. Not in a hurry to leave, I don't think any of us are.

Was working a lot these past weeks. So much work to get through and only this one set of hands to do it. Seem to be making progress. Damien arrives on Friday and while here will be putting in a couple of weeks work.

Off to Singapore tomorrow for a couple of days. Have to get out before my visa runs out. So got meetings at Techmex, got to get a printer from Simlim and some Nutrigrain for the boys as it's nearly A$10 a box up here. That and Weetbix. The local cereal seems to all be totally sugared or chocked out.

Had a great couple of nights with Warren & his son Luke. They are friends of Tim Colemans who he got to courier in some Aeroguard for us. They came round Sat arvo and 10 minutes later Luke is in the pool. They came over with another couple, Tania & Michael who they met at their hotel. They also had boys, 3 of them under 5, who they had left with the kids club. We had a coffee and water then wandered down to the local Circle K and got some long necks. We chatted til 5 and then they went to collect their kids. Later on, about 7 we all went to KuDeTa for sunset cocktails. There was 6 boys and 5 adults. The idea was to go to Gado Gado for dinner but somehow Trattoria and their pizzas seemed more appropriate.

Gabi and our boys went to their hotel most of yesterday which was great as it gave me the whole day to knock over work. We again met to watch the sunset, this time at Echo beach. Drank beers and ate seafood. Tania, Michael and their 3 left from their straight to the airport.

Warren and Luke left this afternoon, will still be in the air I would think.

This afternoon Maxi and I went to Tugu for a surf and got out just before the sun disappeared. I took this photo from the beach side car park. Just Maxi ,me, a guy spinning fairy floss and another guy selling sweet rolls. Oh and about 20 villages flying around.

They seem to like coming down to watch the sunsets, and why wouldn't you. Sydney siders don't get to see this very often and in Perth you get a little to use to it.

Week three and the kids go to school

We are settling in and the kids are off to school. If Oscar had his way he would have started two weeks ago. Here is a photo in there Batik (sic) shirts and green trousers. Maxi doesn't have any trousers yet, they are coming.

As is the German tradition, Oscar received a cone of sweets on his first day in the big school. He is liking having deep pockets in his shorts too!

Oscar has two lovely ladies looking after him, Tamara is Australian but is either half Indonesia or half Malay, I will have to ask. Then there is Miss Agung, she is 100% Balinese. The kindergarten is called Prep, but functions as the first year of school much as it does in Sydney where they call it Kindergarten. He has about 15 other kids in there with him. He tells me he hasn't made any 'solid' relationships and one kid wouldn't sit with him today when they ate lunches. On the whole he is enjoying it and he will find his place in the coming weeks I am sure.

Maxi has a mixed grade 5-6 class of about the same number. He's in grade 5. The origins of the kids is a veritable smorgasbord. There is a Polish kid, a Russian, South African, Malaysian, Singaporean, American and a couple of token Aussies. Well it is the Australian International School. His teacher is a bloke called Mr Dean, no not Mr Bean. Jeez! He seems a lot of fun and is very enthusiastic about the kids, their outcomes and making the whole proces enjoyable. Where was this bloke when I went to school? He's also the basketball coach, to which Max has signed up. It is THE sport up here. I think soccer is in there as well, but this is where it is at.

Before you ask, No he hasn't cut his hair off! Maxi has taken to wearing a pony tail, something he never did in Oz. Must be the heat. Humidity is very high and if there is no breeze then you just sweat! It's a good look. Much tidier this way

Maxi and I went to the beach this afternoon. He had done all of his homework and I was able to shove off what I was doing as I have to have it done by Monday, it is only Thursday for Pete's sake! We both had a ball. He was on the inside section with about 6 local kids that were surfing some boards that had seen much better days. But these kids threw them around. These guys will be world champs if they get the chance.

When we were leaving at sunset they came up and asked if we had any wax. I gave them the block I have in the car and they devoured it like ants, actually Maxi & I had to get in there and help as they really had no idea on how to wax a board. We drank a fruit smoothie each and watched the sun setting behind the waves before bundling into the car for the drive home. This is the bit that cements the idea of being here. What a fantastic way to spend the arvo. All good!

On the drive home Max said it was the best surf he had ever had. I think the local kids had pushed him a bit, which is never a bad thing. I saw him get a couple of waves and he is getting better. Mix that with the fact that I think he just liked having other kids in the surf with him and you have a winning combination.

It is late so I will sign off.

More later.

Peace

Pinch me. The reality sets in.

So we are at day 13 of 365 and it is still hard to believe that we are living here. We have however started to develop a routine, well at least I have.

Wake around 6.30-6.45 head to the small room for some meditation before grabbing a board from the shed and driving the 10km's or so to the beach. Usually against the morning traffic. Bikes head in, buzzing me like a locust plague as I head out. Many are trying to overtake and I drive with one hand on the horn giving the overachievers a blast to send them back in the ranks and to make way for the tank.

This morning the surf was funny. You would sit out there on a completely flat ocean and then every 10 minutes two or three sets of 4 footers would role through. It was decidedly crowded out there as well, perhaps being a Saturday.

We would all paddle for what we could get and then the wait would begin again. But it's not boring, moreover it's a little like a coffee shop where there is several conversations going on. Each time you paddle out you sort of join another. I tell you it must be one of the friendliest breaks in the world.

Got a couple of nice rides and then it's time to get out. Up to the warung where I park and I order a Mixed juice while I go round back and shower under their water tower. I come through, get changed and put my board in it's bag. My juice comes about then and I drink it. The first sustenance of the day, yummy! I don't linger, I down it and start the drive home.


The traffic has petered off and I cruise home. I get there and everyone is up and Komang and Made have arrived and are into it. I greet everyone and head to the kitchen firing up the espresso machine and making a Soya latte.

Coffee in hand I head down to the guest house which is also my office. Hit the go button on the front of the box and bask in the radiation as the computer does it's morning exercises.

Once on I am off and that is where I spend the day.

The morning is definitely the high point. The bit right up to sitting in front of the computer. Work is the same where ever you park your but. Mind you I do have a great view of a nice garden though. Beats Marrickville, sorry guys!

Lunch is something Komang whips up. A gado gado, Nasi Goreng, Omelettes, so far it's all been good. Then again back to the coal mine for more of the same. About 6 I knock off, around the time the boys are getting out of the pool, herded by Gabi as they would never leave on their own accord. Jack lives here and I drown him with some Diet Coke and a couple of blocks from the arctic.

Nights are easy, we might watch a movie on my laptop, we do not have a TV, play scrabble or the boys might go online and play some games on a laptop.

Speaking of which I might mossy up to the main house now. Also mix it up and have a beer tonight, Gabi brought me down a JD earlier. Nothing left except for a ring of water on the timber top of my work surface but I feel like a cleansing ale, even if it is Bintang!

The image is of a red dragonfly I shot on a leaf at the back of the front pond today. I was testing the new lens. Pretty happy with it, colours are ok and for a handheld shot it is pretty crisp.

Peace!

Sunday drive

Yesterday I drove to the beach like I do early every morning, except I cant today but you will understand more about that in a minute, the surf wasn’t looking that good so I decided not to go out but instead drove home stopping at Café Mocca on the way and getting some croissants, a bit of a treat, something from our life in Sydney that no one had had in a while. Went down a treat, as I knew it would. Then some Balinese friends dropped over. Her name is Dewi and her husband is Endi. They had their two boys, 4.5 & 1.8 with them. I met her online, no it isn’t like that, when I was looking to book some places for our anniversary last May. Even though Gabi was in Germany at the time with the kids, she left them with the Oma and flew to Bali and met me for a week. Dewi booked our places arranged transport and we chatted online. Then each time we come up we get her to organise some other things, she is good like that. So when Gabi came in Nov last she left a big bag with her. They dropped it off and brought the whole family for cake and drinks.

After that we went for a drive to Sanur, there was a house sale on but by the time we got there everything was sold, can you believe it? I think we needed to be there at 8am. We drove down to Sanur beach and had a look, very beautiful we will definitely be going back there one weekend. From there drove into town, right through the centre, being a Sunday drive and all, then came home got our swimming togs, well I got mine Maxi can’t swim for a week as he fell in the pond which is at the back of the house and subsequently got a really bad ear infection and the doctor said not water for a week, bugger eh? So I grabbed mine and my board, a long board as our freight arrived on Friday, another story just there. And we headed out to Echo Beach, yes just like the song, and it is. So we had some late lunch at the Beach House there and then about 4 I paddled out into this lumpy surf with these wickedly pitching lefts coming through. Only problem was the moving peek I soon found out. There were two guys in the water so it was definitely not crowded. The first wave I took I was deep inside managed to get my nose around and shoot across the face but was smacked by the wall as it collapsed in a heap, I was thrown, board and I akimbo and banger my bicep on the edge of the board, the rail it is called. I think I have a really deep bruise from that. Sore as hell.

Then I was a little more reserved and I stated to enjoy myself. Over the next hour I got about 6 waves and they were all good. I was having fun.
Then paddling out from this great wave, what made it even better was Maxi and Oscar sitting up on the break water watching me waving as they saw their dad out there, so anyway I am paddling out and the other two surfers are further out than me but I am gaining when all of a sudden the wave of the day comes through. Face about 2.5m high and it is sucking the water from the reef on which I am paddling. I could tell that I was going to be about 5 metres in front of where it broke and when it did it would be a washing machine. Best place for me was well under it, so I jumped off and swam for the bottom. I felt it go over, I felt my legrope strain then ‘twang’ my legrope went slack. Shit!

I thought I had broken my board. I surfaced and my board was no where to be seen, cursing again I struck off for the shore some 100 metres away through more breaking waves and the two other surfers. As I swam in I could see the boys and some other people looking down at the base of the breakwater where I knew my board to be, more swearing as it was being bashed on the rocks. Then one Balinese guy scrambles down the breakwater and comes back with my board, I could see as I swam that it was still in one piece. I swam in and found it with the boys but with dings, gouges and scratches all over it. I have circled the big ones and in obne phot you can see where the plastic of the legrope 'sheared' off at the connecter right behind the swivel. Bugger!!


The guy was Agung and I brought him a beer. We chatted a while and about then the Beach House (as it is called) started to really fill up with expats all coming down for Sunday arvo seafood BBQ. Maxi met another kid called, wait for it... Maxi and they played together. Oscar tagged along, they all had a ball. Playing with little rock crabs and looking at what the fishermen were catching and the great thing is, that they can do it all under your watchful eye while you sit back, relax and have a beer, coffee or as one table were doing it, Martinis at sunset. Respect!

We will definately be going back there for the Sunday arvo BBQ again.

Peace.

Day three: Got the car and the bike.

A morning filled with filling out paperwork for the Immigration, something we need to do as we have to have Gabi on KITAS (Indonesian residency) to allow our kids to go to the school, and then an afternoon hiring a ten year old Kagang. at first they brought around a car that had tires like racing slicks. Viva la Tokyo Drift!

Whats worst me headset is dead and I can't use Skype. Do you think I could buy a new USB headset anywhere without someone trying to charge me an arm and a leg?

The ability to be able to do things really quickly and efficiently, because you know where to go an you know the langugae are being replaced by the foreignness of Bali.

They aren't in a hurry and they do not always speak English, a bad habit us English speakers get into.

But it hasn't replaced any of the euphoria we are all, as a family and individually, are feeling, rather it is heightening the experience.

You have to think. And I mean really think. For every action there is a reaction someone very wise once wrote. I am feeling it and while frustration is the first emotion to rise I am also having to rely on my family and wits more. It's good.

Boys only spent about 3 hours in the pool today.

Komang (I got the right spelling now, made a delicious Chicken curry which even the kids liked. Another good thing will be watching their pallet develop.

It is late (10pm) and the others are in bed. The night is quiet, the drone from the neighbours aircon is a pain as is the "doof, doof, doof" from the disco up the block. You can hear the surf rolling onto the beach up the road but you can not hear a car or motorbike.

More again later.

Peace!

Better than a punch in the face... Only just!

...well Maxi and I went for our first surf today. Just down the road, sorry Jalan, where the Sofitel is we went out into the slops. Max took his NSP which is about 5'6". I took my short board as well. All the long boards are part of a freight consignment that we have coming in on Friday.

Been a while since I rode anything but a 9' + and here I was on a 6'4" Fish. Very different let me tell you.

However, had a ball. It was 3-4' slops and the fish was a nice fast manoeuvrable board. I had a great time.

We both did. I saw Max getting out, he was further down the beach, just then a set came through, I took the first wave, a right, dropped down dug in at the bottom and headed back on up, snap! Off the lip and down into a cutback, back around and they one quick up the face before the whole lot came down with me in the white water, perfect wave to finish the session on.

But enough about me.

Wandering up onto the shore I could see Maxi approaching. I then figured out he was crying. I ran to him. While wrapping his leg rope around his board a wave had come in and given his board a shove which must have flicked around and given him a smack on the right cheek. Split the skin and bruised the whole socket.


Nasty little sucker! The eye, not Maxi. Should be an interesting black eye though. This photo was taken after bathing, oh of course then Kumang had made us some Nasi Goreng for lunch which we sat down to eat, delicious (She made so much I am having it again tonight for dinner, yum!) then I got around to taking the photo.

If he can just keep that shiner until the 22nd Jan when he starts school he could get some instant cred.

We also met an English bloke in the surf called Nick. Lives in the Gang behind us somewhere. Seems a friendly sort. I am sure we will see more of him.

Anyway, I have work to do. It isn't all just holidays here. More from us later

Peace!

..So this is it! Day One! Bali

The eagles have landed!. I sit here in a bath of my own perspiration. It's 7pm Monday the 8th Jan and we are finally on Bali. Wow!

Still can not really believe that we are actually here.

Maxi & Oscar have spent the day in the pool. They are besotted. They are also having the time of their lives.

The one thing we thought we would have issues with, having people around all the time, isn't an issue at all.

We have two staff here, Kermung and Made. (Hope I spelt their names right.)

Kerming (she) looks after the house and Made (he) the Gardens.

She made us this wonderful omlette for lunch and he played with the kids, cut a bit of lawn and prooned the odd shrub. They are fantastic and I think that we will have no problems in that department. The boys love them. They both thought Maxi was a girl, we told them it is a common occurance. What with all the hair and all.

Took a while to get all my computers set up and then even longer to get the internet sorted. Some techies arrived and after 15 minutes we had the router all sorted and things were whistling along.

Tonight we are off to Trattoria for dinner. Gabi & I know it from past visits. Great Italian place down the street.

Oh before I forget. Maxi and I went out and hired the obligatory motorbike. Just for a week while I sort out a car and motorbike deal from one of the local transport people. The boys were blown away that dad knew how to ride a bike. I took them both, at different times, for a spin. I got some brownie points there!

A nice feature of our bike is that it has a side board rack. Very cool, very Bali! So in the interim I can ride the 800m to the beach with a couple of boards and we can go for a surf.

Anyway, time to go out into the night.

We are in heaven.

Peace.

Click, clack and we are just about Packed!

Whew! Nearly there and still 3 sleeps. As you can see from this trite morsel I haven't boxed up the computers yet.

Actually I am render a job and thought I would show you my new 70-300mm lens in comparison to the....
18-70mm that came with the camera. Both shots are from the same spot both at full zoom. Cool eh?

Will now be able to get some surfing shots from shore. As you can see of the ones of me that Gabi took (below) I had to crop them and in doing so they became quite pixelated. The best thing about this lens was the price, $150 only! It's plastic and you can feel it, lack of weight etc etc. But I can take it to the beach and I am not going to get overly worried by splashes etc.

But back to the move. Gabi has stripped all our posesions and they have gone into one of 3 piles. First pile is the stuff that is being shipped. Or should I say has been shipped. We sent off 117 kilos yesterday. The next is the stuff that stays, the bulk of it. We are loading up the garage with everything we are not leaveing in the flat. As it's a friend that's renting all the main furniture stays but all our nick nacks are going. Gosh we have some crap!

And third is our baggage allowance, we each get 30kg plus cabin, say another 12, when you factor in computers, cameras etc. So that is a total of 168kg.

It is hard to distill ones life into a quarter of a ton. And it's not just me but Gabi & the boys as well so really we all have less. Much less.

I think one should do it every couple of years. I noticed Whitney Houston doing it today. She selling off all her old frocks to pay the storage company for all the stuff they have been storing for her.

Anyway, I am drifting so will post this and get back to work.

Peace.