Damn, damn, damn, damn! It’s 5.30am and I haven’t slept all night. Once again I just couldn’t drop off, despite having a cup of chamomile tea at about 9.30pm and taking a valerian at 11pm.

But that’s not why all the damns. I was noticing a funny feeling on my legs on the bed, as if I might have been bleeding. But on inspection, I’ve found a large (20mm diameter) fluid blister on the back of my left leg that’s leaking the interstitial fluid. There’s a bit of a stain on the sheet, unfortunately, though not bad, and it leaks onto the tiled floor, making it very slippery. It’s not at all painful.

I’ve had this before but not since last year. I thought I had it beaten. Obviously not.

The treatment is to apply a large soft absorbent plaster, then bind the leg moderately tightly with a bandage. Luckily I brought all this stuff with me. And I must keep it infection free. That means no more pool, both from the point of view of not letting any nasties in, and not soiling the water. It’s not pus or blood or anything, just clear fluid. It’s the fluid we all have between all the cells and muskles and things in our bodies, a bit like saline.

Damn. It’s bad enough that I feel nervous about continuing here. Not that I’d be doing anything different at home, it’s just feeling nervous about it. I’d feel safer at home, that’s all. However, it will destroy any feeling of “carefree holiday”. I won’t be able to relax.

I think I’d only forfeit one night’s cost if I cancelled the next hotel. I’ve pre-paid the six nights in this one but I think if I explained why I have to leave I might be OK for a refund. I have travel insurance and I think it should cover something like this. Hmmmm.

I’m raving a bit here, because I’m dog tired and worried. I’ll be OK with some brekky inside me. I’ll try sleeping again after that.

07.00am: there’s a Garuda flight tomorrow night (New Year’s Eve) at 7.20pm to Perth and the Business Class fare is A$706. I’ve already paid $235 for my flight on 7 January. That makes $471 difference.

BUT! I’ve just checked my hotel booking for next week and the cancellation cost is the full whack – $450. Hang on, I don’t pay until I get there. If I don’t show, how can they charge me? I’ll have to think about this.

Sorry, I’m in a bit of a panic. Calm down. Get some food and sleep, then think.

6:30pm: OK, I’ve settled down now. I wanted to say so sooner, but the internet connection has been down since about 9am so I haven’t been able to. Frustrating!!!

I had three restless hours’ sleep 10am – 1pm and felt better. I’ve found I have all I need in my bandages package – iodine patches, big absorbent sticky pads and Tubi-Grip, a thick, closely woven cotton tube used for putting pressure on the legs and holding the bandage in place. I got a hotel girl to bring scissors and help me slide it on. Wow, it’s tight, but it has to be.

Then I had a wander around and found an Ace Hardware right behind the hotel. it’s only home and office wares, not really tools, but I bought a pair of titanium scissors there for $4.89.

Then I got the hotel shuttle bus to Kuta Boardwalk shopping centre, just for a day out. What a crowded mess! Choked with traffic. Had a chat with a Swedish couple in the bus, just arrived. “Is it always like this?” Yeah, ‘fraid so. My advice: get out to the small country towns. Kuta is not Bali.

Bingo! I found my Xmas present to myself. It’s a carry/shoulder bag, similar to the 25yo one I’ve got, but bigger and higher quality. Much higher quality. It’s charcoal cotton twill canvas with plum/brown leather fittings and pewter fastenings. Tumi brand, designed in USA. Price? $200. As soon as I saw it, I just knew it was what I wanted. I walked out of the shop initially, but turned around and went back, thinking, just do it! The price included gold stamping of my name on the leather tag. Stupidly, I chose CROFT when I should have left it at PJC, which is what I usually use. Too late now.

That should last me another 25 – 30 years.

Then a leisurely late lunch and a 2 for 1 drinks offer at the boardwalk, then a boring, incredibly slow taxi ride back to the hotel. The fare was Rp.50,000 but it took so long that I gave him Rp.100,000 and said keep the change untuk anda, untuk anak-anak anda, for you and your kids. Poor bloke. I spent nearly double that on my lunch and drinks.

So now I’m back and with a beer inside me, feeling much better. I’ll stay on. I was a bit nervous this morning, but I feel OK now. I can’t go in the pool though, with this bandage on, bugger.

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All the time I’m connected to the internet here, my virus protection program is constantly throwing up messages saying, “Duplicate IP address detected. Blocked.”; “ARP Cache Poisoning threat blocked”, and so on, around two or three a minute. This bloody hotel’s wi-fi is unsecured (by WEP or WPA or WPA2, simple to implement). I’ve told them about it but nothing’s been done in 36 hours.

I’ll have to complain again. I’ll use an analogy: it’s like a bank vault with no guards. Criminals want to get into the vault because they think there’s money and secret stuff to be had. We want to let the good stuff out, but not the secret stuff. If there are no guards, there’s nothing to regulate the traffic.

It means I have to log off at any time I don’t need to be on-line. This is absolutely basic stuff. It means I can’t go to any banking site as well. Grrr.

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 I spent probably two hours last night trying to make my Panasonic camera connect to my laptop by wi-fi. It’s supposed to be possible! In fact, I’ve managed to get it to connect, but I can’t see any files on the camera. It doesn’t appear in the list of devices in This PC > Devices and Drives. The camera has a button labelled Wi-Fi. I press  it and a blue LED comes on, asks me for the PIN (which is fine) and it seems to be ready. But nothing happens.

It shouldn’t be this hard! There’s supposed to be “Wi-Fi Direct” in Win 10 but I can’t find it or figure out why not. There doesn’t seem to be any Search in Win10. Where’s it gone? Web search? They all seem to lead nowhere, or are for developers. Why can’t someone just say, do this, do that, click, that’s it?

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This is what you get on a 12 month lease for $20,000.

It’s a villa in a group in Sanur. $20,000 works out to $55 a night. That’s his asking price; I’d say you could bargain it down. Just a thought.

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