Golden fisherman, Kuta     (C) PJ Croft 2016

Aaah, Christmas Day in Bali. Happy Christmas everyone.

The past few days are blurring into each other. This is the most international Xmas I have ever spent. As I wrote this on Xmas Eve, I was listening to two Russian women friends of V’s in the kitchen. V is Austrian, so speaks Viennese dialect, and of course English is the common language in this country of Bahasa (formal) Indonesian with the Balinese dialect. I’m so fortunate that English is so widely spoken. I’ve spent an hour or so at other friends’ place with a different German friend where the husband is German. I was hearing a three sided German conversation, but I was able to follow the threads. I don’t mind that. Much of the talk was about how cheap it is to live in Bali, especially when you’re on a pension.

The night before, Friday evening, we were at a Balinese woman’s place who is the widow of a German, and one of the Russians was there, with other Bali friends dropping by. Wow, it was a whirlwind of switching languages. It was great.

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Another thing about the Christmas/New Year period here is fireworks. Any excuse for a rocket or two! BANG! zing, fizz! in groups of a dozen or so. You can’t always see the display, but you can hear it.

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It’s a beautiful cool morning at 9am, hardly any wind, the pool looking very inviting. Breakfast is fresh papaya (labelled as from Thailand, huh?) with pieces of fresh coconut flesh, not as tasty as I’d prefer. Then sourdough toast and cheese. The papaya keeps me reg-oo-lar.

V’s gone off for a special massage she’s been told about, with a friend. Too expensive for me. The pool is my massage.

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Yesterday I got to see Yupi, the Great Dane which belongs to the owners of this house. She’s very friendly, with beautiful grey and brown toning shading to black. But she has to stay with the other dogs as we’re off on the road again tomorrow.