Another double entendre.

I’m getting to the stage where an end is in sight to the clearing and boxing. Today was the last day I could put stuff in the big dumper, (assuming they come to take it early tomorrow), so I had to work hard to fill it. Keith came to give me a hand, bless him, and we got most of the heavy stuff out.

In the morning I dumped all my computer books, dozens of them. I used to believe that if I bought a book, I’d know how to use software and be expert at doing things. Each book cost $75 – $85 even back in the 1990s, so it was a big investment, but I used to drool over those books. Did it work? Well, I did pretty well, but I can’t actually say it was due to the books…

I dumped a chest of drawers I’d bought at Boans Karrinyup (pre- Myer and back when we had real shops!) in 1975 and painted myself. Crumbs, that’s 36 years! It was only cheap pine, no value and not even remotely trendy, so it wouldn’t have been saleable or giveable. Out, out! But even so, it’s wrenching.

2007

The other meaning of the heading is that I’ve been dreaming up ways to get Minnie to Bali. I can’t imagine life without her. Having a dog like her is like having the perfect child: never naughty, never answers back, never in a bad mood, always happy, always smiling, always obedient, always friendly, always loving and affectionate. Always there for you. Chien au Dieu.

No, it’s a rubber tongue!

So I’m wondering if there’s a way to get her to Bali with the minimum stress on her and me. What about by sea? By sea from a nearby Aussie port? It’s just a pipe dream at this moment, but worth thinking about. Probably impossible, but… what an adventure it would be for both of us. Never say die.

Lots of tragedy at the moment, aye. On top of New Zealand’s grief, we learned today of the passing of one of our cousins in California, USA. Poor Dean. We didn’t know you very well, mate, but we knew what illness you were going through and it became too much for you last night.

Our hearts go out to Stephen and Lisa. Although we’re far away, we’re with you, in the electronic room with you, feeling your pain.

That makes four relatives passing on in one year. That’s the way it is at our time of life, we know, but it’s hard all the same. Bear up. It does get easier with time.

More progress clearing the house today and I can now hear an echo when I clap my hands! I’m a long way from filling that very expensive dumper bin at the front, and tomorrow has to be an even bigger effort. They come to take it away on Friday, filled or not, and it cost $290!!!

It’s crazy. Keith helped me by cleaning the workshop today, and if it had been that clean in the past 10 years, I might have got a lot more done. Bit late now.

Nyepi.

I’d never heard of it, but on Saturday 5 March at dawn (6am) for 24 hours, Bali will be shut down.

http://www.balidiscovery.com/messages/message.asp?Id=6758

It’s a 24 hour silence and darkness period to reflect on the Balinese religion. That includes the airport and all sea ports. No lights, no fires, no activity, no tours, no nothing. Not a bad idea, I reckon, but it’ll disrupt a few travel plans. My flight is at 2345 on Sunday 6 March, so I escape the curfew.

Poor NZ. The shaky isles indeed. I’ve never been there and I really should go, but…

My clearance and packing continues apace. This is therapeutic! All those books and CDs and DVDs! I don’t need them. Out! Out! I still have the contents of the electronic items of course, but all that clutter is gone! Whole cupboards of cooking utensils, pots and pans and plastic ware. Stuff I haven’t even set eyes on in 15 years, buried in cupboards. Crazy. It really does make you feel better to get rid of it. So many documents, so many brochures, files, leaflets, ring binders, all for forgotten schemes and wasted plans. Out! Out!

What change we’re going through. So many things seemed important ten years, even five years ago, but are now redundant. I used to keep up with digital TV technology, but it’s all changing even more, so what’s the point?

I think even my slides are going into the bin. If I haven’t scanned it by now, it can’t be important enough. Thousands of slides, but I’ve been through them once and that’s got to be it. Renew, refresh, regenerate. I still have the electronic versions, and that has to be it. Time now to generate new material, not dwell on the old.

Yet, I can see the paradox. I’m the one saying get out and record history. Hmmm, well, I’ve done that and scanned what’s worth keeping, I think. Who’ll take the old? How do I store it?

I also have a big box of all Dad’s stuff — letters, slides, negs, prints. I’ve tried to pass it on, but no-one wanted it. Too late now. I’ll scan as much as I can, but…

What a time we’re going through. Butterfly’s wings? Financial turmoil worldwide; political upheaval everywhere; wild, unprecedented weather; extreme drought and record heatwave in lower WA; the opposite in the rest of the state and the whole of Australia; huge technological change, rendering all our old ideas obsolete… it’s a bit hard to cope, isn’t it?

Minnie continues to get thinner and bouncier. She’s such a happy dog. She smiles at me and pants her feelings. How can I leave her? All I can hope is that my trip on 6-12 March will throw up a solution.

I picked Minnie up from Ian’s place this morning and brought her home. She was zonked! I don’t think she slept well last night and the car trip was too tiring. She’s slept all day today, but by 6pm she’d perked up and was looking for food, so that’s a good sign.

But it indicates that a long plane journey would be very hard on her. We agreed today that if she stays with them for a while, it buys time and it’s possible we could get her into Bali legally, either by a change in the regulations or some other way. All I can do is hope.

The house has been open for inspection twice now but there have been few people through. It’s too early to worry, but it’s just my luck to pick now to sell. Can’t be helped. Don’t panic, don’t panic.

How about this? I left the sliding door to the main bedroom open this morning at 10am to let the cooler air in while people came through, then went out to Ian’s place in Darlington. I got home again at 1235pm and only then realised that my wallet was still on the bench and the bedroom sliding door was still open! No fault on the real estate agent – I didn’t mention the door, but phew! If that wallet had disappeared, I would have been a bit upset! It contains your life, these days.

Now I’m seeing clear progress in clearing the clutter. All the CDs and DVDs are gone. I estimate over 1200 CDs and over 250 DVDs. Amazing. All have been either copied to hard drives or transferred to soft wallets.

Many, many books are now in boxes for delivery to the Save the Children Fund book depot. Many still to go, but the clearance is visible.

Most of my clothing went last week. Next is household appliances, crockery, cutlery and glassware. Orrefors, Ittala, Bormioli, all the top brands – can’t give it away so it goes to the op shops.

Then the slides and negs! Thousands in about 40 ring binders, covering 30 years of my photography. I do have most of them scanned, but scans can always be done better and I’m reluctant to ditch them. I might have to, though.

Then the workshop! So many tools! So many screws, nuts, bolts, timber, metal, garden implements, plumbing bits, power tools… overwhelming. I think the only way is to get a dealer in to give me a price to take the lot.

Then all the rest goes into the big steel bin at the front. I have 5 days left to fill it before it’s taken away. Out, out damned spot!

My complaint to the bin hire firm resulted in returned phone calls and a return visit this morning from the young guy to fix the problem.

Full credit to the young guy – he wasn’t grumpy and just did what I asked, which was to move the bin forward about 1m and closer to the wall by 1m. It took two tries, but it’s now accessible and I can drop the door down.

If only he’d listened to the customer, he would have saved us all a lot of time and trouble. But it’s fixed, so I congratulate Affordable Mini Bins of Mullaloo.

It was the first Home Open today from 2-4pm and I had to vacate. Strange feeling to know that people are looking through your home. I have no idea what happened – out of mobile phone range at my brother’s place in Darlington, so I didn’t hear the result. No Under Offer sticker on the sign, though!

Minnie’s at my brother’s place overnight as a trial. She seemed very happy, so I was able to make my departure with no traumas. She can’t negotiate the stairs, though, so…

Oh my Dog, how long will this heat go on? Today was 34C after 34C yesterday and tomorrow is forecast for another 34C and humid. This must be a record. It’s been a month now of above 30C and there’s STILL no end in sight. People ask me how I’ll cope with Bali’s heat. Are you kidding? Bali is cooler than here.

The first home open is tomorrow at 10am to 12 noon (I think!) so I’ve been desperately working today to try to tidy the house. Ha! A hopeless task, but I’ve made an improvement. Even vacuumed.

I had a big bin delivered today and got another example of the “attitude” of young guys. He wouldn’t put it in the car space where I wanted it – and I could see why. The truck was just too big.

So I said OK, put it at the bottom of the drive, a straight backing path. But it ended up across my gate and too close to the fence. I asked him to help me (help me!) move it across, but he just said, “Yer won’t move it, mate.” Meaning it’s too heavy. OK, I said, but I want it across a bit. Nah, too much trouble, not his problem! He wouldn’t do it!

Grrrr!

So there it is, blocking large objects through the gate and too close to the fence to drop the door of the bin. But his attitude was, “Not my problem. Can’t do it.” I can’t handle these young guys any more. The lack of manners, the lack of politeness, the don’t care attitude. Reason number 107 to leave Perth. I’ve had enough.

No op is a computer programming term, but I’m claiming it. No op is what happened today.

What a farce! I presented at the hospital at 10am, having had no breakfast and nothing to drink, so I was hungry and thirsty as hell. Got admitted and settled down to wait. I was well down the list, maybe 2pm.

I spent the first two hours dreaming of food and ways to solve the Minnie problem. Worried as hell, I can tell you. I was so thirsty! It amazes me that they will allow you to become dehydrated. I asked the anaesthetist if I could just suck an ice cube, but he said no! Any other time, they warn you NOT to become dehydrated. How can water cause a problem?

Anyway, about 12.20pm I was moved upstairs to “my” room, and at last I could set up my CPAP machine. I’d been so worried last night that I woke at 2.30am and never got back to sleep, so I was pretty tired.

I donned the stupid backwards gown, had the stupid stockings forced over my feet (and had the circulation cut off as a result!) and was lying there waiting for 2pm when the surgeon breezed in. I didn’t recognise him in his cute mob cap, but I said, “Oh, Gordon, g’day. How cute.” He has a sense of humour.

So he said, no operation, because you weren’t told to stop taking Clopidogrel and there’s too much risk of blood loss due to the thinness of your blood. (Who wants fat blood, yeah?)

So I said, OK, no worries, I can have lunch! I was relieved. I don’t care if it happens or not. He wants to reschedule for 3 March, but that’s too close to my next trip on 6 March, so I’ll just say, no, wait until I get back after 12 March…. sometime.

So I caught Blue CAT (and got jerked back and forth by a maniac bus driver! Accelerator, brake, accelerator, brake), then train from the Esplanade to Stirling and bus from Stirling to home. The bus driver stopped right outsdie my house for me. Very nice of him. A bit of respect for age from a mature guy. Cost to get from home to The Mount – $33.50 and 25 mins. Cost to get home — $0 and two hours. Oh well.

The taxi driver this morning was from Dubai, by the way. He has a six bedroom, three bathroom house in Ballajura and a $350,000 mortgage (and a demanding wife.) He’s 30 and already paid off one house and this is his second. His father in Dubai has two wives and a 17 bedroom house! So he said.

On the train there was a big pushbike parked right across two disabled seats. I saw this and thought, hang on, this is not right. Then the train stopped at Glendalough and a huge, young, muscly guy (with huge steroid type boobs under his T shirt, I might add) retrieved the bike and got off.

But he’d stopped anyone using those clearly marked disabled seats with his bike on the train. I WOULD NEVER HAVE DONE THAT! Never have dreamed of it. You just don’t. What is going on??!! They don’t care. Yet another reason why I want to get out of here.

A solution to my dog problem may be at hand. I won’t count my chickens, but it would be ideal. More later after I’ve discussed it properly.

I am knackered!

I’m afraid my hopes have been dashed.

The Indonesian Consulate sent me all the information, which is the same information that’s on their web site. When I read it closely, I realised it’s been there all along:

(I added the colour.)

In other words, I could fly her into Surabaya (East Java, 370Km from Bali) but it’s still illegal to bring her into Bali. If I were prepared to fly her to Surabaya, pay er, pocket money, then drive from Surabaya across Java to the ferry at Banyuwangi, ferry across the strait to Gilimanuk, then across Bali to Sanur, all the while avoiding police inspections and paying pocket money, it might work. And it might not and she might be traumatised and probably shot.

I think it’s too traumatic even for me and too difficult and dangerous. I have two last options, but I think I have to resign myself to leaving her here.

Not too happy. About to leave for the hospital.

The news about dog imports is a bit better today, but still a worry.

I got through to the Indonesian Consulate and they have no knowledge of any ban into Bali. But neither can they say positively that I can import Minnie. It seems to be a mystery why Jet Pets has this knowledge.

OK, I said, I’ll ring Garuda.

Garuda were very helpful. Catherine said she had gone through this with her dog from HK to Mauritius and understood my distress. She said Garuda carries people, and that is their prime focus, but she knew of no reason why they wouldn’t carry a dog.

Full credit to her, but she just Googled dog transport firms and said, “Try these”, so I was back on my own again.

The local Perth firm I tried was very sympathetic and very helpful. They had heard there was a problem, but didn’t know for sure. They are checking and will get back to me. But the suggestion was, I may have to go via Surabaya in Java and then go by road and ferry to Bali. Payment of moneys may be required.

OK, I understand that, but I dread the thought. Surabaya’s a BIG city and is 370Km from Sanur, Bali. Minnie’s going to be traumatised enough, let alone a long road trip. Not to mention me! She can’t jump up into buses or vans and I have trouble too.

Tomorrow (Thursday) I’m in hospital to have my gastric band removed, so it all has to wait. I’ll know more on Friday.

Phew! This is hard going. That little bit of rain we had this afternoon on our 39C day wet some of the cardboard cartons of belongings I had out the back! Dammit. Not too badly, but who would have thought we’d get rain? Ha! I should have…

Kantor KRI (Konsulat Republik Indonesia) di Perth hari ini tutup untuk public holiday di Indonesia.

Saya email untuk informasi menganai impor Minnie ke Bali. Kembali besok, harapan.

Meaning: I phoned the Indonesian consulate in Perth to confirm the ban, but they’re closed today for a public holiday. I left an email enquiry and I can only wait in hope until tomorrow.