I’m takin’ a sickie today. I’ve got a note from my doctor.

Seriously, I had emailed my GP in Perth asking if it would do me any good to come back early, or whether I’d be better off staying here. I got her very comprehensive reply this morning and she confirms – stay, get bed rest but importantly, do the pool water walking. That’s good because I think that’s what’s fixing me up.

She also suggests a gel called diclofenac. By coincidence, I have a tube with me, it’s Voltaren. I brought it because my right shoulder and arm are painful, so it’s a happy outcome. I’ll have a hunt at the Apotek round the corner. She also recommends Tramadol for pain relief. I know about that one and I need some more, so … Looks like things will be OK.

More water walking soon, but I’m engrossed in a program on NHK TV about a Japanese motor mechanic, getting right into the mechanical stuff. This is interesting.

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From my mate with the sense of humour:

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 Well well well, interesting day today.

First, I caught the KK bus to Galeria and had another look at the bag I saw – when? Yesterday? Anyway, to cut it short, I bought it.

Nice, eh? Price was A$122.  This is what it’s replacing.

I bought that at Tangs in Singapore in 1990 or ’91. I still like it, but I like the new one better at the moment. We’ll see how it works out.

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Then I caught the KK bus back, intending to get off at the Oasis Lagoon hotel next door to Hardys. But they weren’t going to stop there, and nothing I said would persuade them otherwise. I said, “Why can’t you just stop outside Hardys and let me off, then go on?” Sorry sir, we don’t stop there. Bloody hell, their minds work in mysterious ways here at times. So I just came all the way back to Taksu.

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But ………..  on the bus I got talking to a woman – we were the only passengers.

Well, we talked and talked and talked. It turned out that she’s from Austria, and lives in Bali most of the year, at a village near Lovina. She rents a villa and has a car here. She’s got to know a family and is quite involved with them. She was in Sanur to meet them, and they were going back to Lovina this afternoon. But she had to wait, so we continued our conversation in the coffee lounge.

Cutting it short, she’s from Vienna and has done quite a bit of work overseas. She’s retired now and on her own. I think we found quite a lot in common and when it came time to part, I had no hesitation in hugging her. She’s very nice. I got strong vibes that she’d like to meet again, so … Ya never know in the big city.

Her name’s Veronika, by the way.

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I can’t find the one on the right, but the one on the left is available for about A$120. Just window shopping. It’s web mail order anyway.

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I did another 20 laps of water-walking in the pool today. Back still hurts but it feels more like a muscle pain now.

Mt Bromo 1989. I rode one of those horses across the lava plain in the pre-dawn fog.     (C) PJ Croft 2016

Another Sat’day night and I ain’t got nobody,
I got the money ’cause I just got paid.
How I wish I had someone to talk to,
I’m in an awful way.

(Sam Cooke © ABKCO Music Inc.)

Bromo Dawn 1989      (C) PJ Croft 2016

Warung Blanjong yesterday. They gave me so much fruit I couldn’t finish it.

Serious. But first, laugh at this:

“After fighting for 11 months, last month Immigration Minister Peter Dutton intervened and grated the girl’s visa.”   Did he sprinkle it over his spaghetti bolognaise?
[ABC News]

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I’ve realised what my hip pain is. It’s not the hip, it’s the sacro-iliac joint. Look it up in Wikipedia and it will tell you that there’s not much that can be done to cure it, only ways to manage it. That doesn’t sound good.

The pain is bad enough that I can hardly walk at the moment. It’s good in the pool, so I’ll work on that (what a life). But if it doesn’t improve in the next few days I might have to think abut going home early.

I might have to go to the BIMC Hospital too. I take Tramadol for pain but it’s not very effective. I might have to ask for stronger pain relief. The cost for my first visit was over $200 last time. Ouch, that’s pain in the wallet. No travel insurance cover for medical either, and even if I did have medical cover, this is a pre-existing illness. They get you every way.

I’ve emailed my GP asking her if it would do me any good to cut and run from here, or whether rest and pool time is better.

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Soryu Class sub

Japanese subs. Should we or shouldn’t we? At first I thought the Germans would be the best, or better still, US made subs, since interoperability would be best if we both have the same equipment.

But it’s been in my mind that if we bought Japanese, we’d get superbly made boats that would be extremely reliable and would almost never break down. That’s been my experience with Japanese electronics.

When you think on this, that would be like having one or two extra subs. Why? Because experience with the six Collins subs is that at least one of them is always laid up for repairs. If we can get four working and at sea, we reckon we’re doing well. That’s like having only four subs with two unreliable spares, not six.

But the Japanese subs would be so reliable that if we bought 12, we would have 12 available at virtually all times. That would be like having two spares at all times compared to the Collins subs. That’s a powerful argument.

The news says Japan is desperate to get us to buy so that we form a bond in the western pacific area against China. That’s also a powerful argument, to me. So I say, buy Japanese! However, I’ve also always said that the choice should be left to the submariners themselves, the officers and crew. They are the ones who know their equipment, not some department head in Canberra who’s never sailed anything except a desk.

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10.30am: I was thinking of going to the Galeria to buy a Kura Kura bus pass, but I think I’d better give my back time to improve. I’ll stay in and swim and rest today, I think.

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Sent to me by a mate with a good sense of humour.

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Did 20 laps of the pool today. It’s 25m long, so that’s 1Km. It’s not strenuous but I think it’s doing me good. It must be. The pain seems a bit less.

Those red areas.       (C) Spine-health.com

It’s inflammation. Treatment is ice packs for up to two weeks, rest, and anti-inflammatory medication such as ibuprofen. I can’t take that as it interacts with blood pressure medication, but I’m taking a different anti-inflammatory daily anyway.  Plus, take pain relief. OK. I just have to wait.

Only an hour to go to the end of Nyepi and I can open the curtains.   (C) PJ Croft 2016

Had a good sleep from 9.30pm to 1am last night but couldn’t sleep after that. It’s OK, I’ve been up workin’ on this addictive machine for a few hours. I’m fiddling with the screen resolution because the native 3840 x 2160 pixels makes some programs text far too small. I’m now at the usual 1920 x 1080 HD resolution and that fixes the problem for those two programs, but I much prefer the Ultra HD native resolution. The makers of those two programs (ACDSee Ultimate 8 Image Browser and Xilisoft Video Converter) should make their text scale properly. Fat chance.

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Problem: my right hip and the area behind it (right lower back, upper bum) is now so painful that I can hardly walk. I’m wincing with nearly every step and often gasping and crying out with the jabs of pain.

Huh. When I approached the reception desk this morning in obvious pain and difficulty, young Sabrina (yes, that’s her name and she lives up to it – nice pair! 😉  ) said, “Good morning Mr Croft, how are you?” I said, “Not good, I’m in a lot of pain.”  I may as well have said I was turning into a coconut because she completely ignored my pain and continued to ask me what I wanted with a big smile. (It was batteries for the TV remote, by the way, which I got.)

I’d ignored the hotel breakfast buffet at Rp85,000, $8.50, and gone to the warung just around the corner for brekky.

Mixed fruit, mie goreng, lime juice and coffee came to Rp114,500 or $11.45! I’ve learnt that lesson – use the hotel’s breakfast, it’s much better value.

So anyway, this hip pain is a big problem. What am I going to do? One good thing is that water-walking in the pool is completely painless, so I can do that for exercise. It’s enjoyable as well.

It occurred to me that if I were brave, I could rent a motor scooter to get around on. I think I could cope with it. They’re light and step through and have electric start these days. Hmmm.

But at the moment, I’m a bit confined. The pool beckons.

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Interesting article on the ABC about the US election, and it points out that in the USA:

the real wages of most workers have been stagnant for the past 50 years, but S&P 500 company CEOs now earn 204 times the pay of their average workers …  [ABC News]

It’s another obscene situation. The rich are just plain greedy. The more they have, the more they want, and it’s at the expense of ordinary employees.

I don’t advocate militant unionism where union leaders take out their frustrations on companies, but I do advocate a much stronger union stance to force companies to pay proper wages and to keep them up with inflation. If that means industrial action, strikes, so be it.

In my former employment, we engineering staff suffered a 25% reduction in real terms over the 1980s to early 1990s and we never regained it. I wanted to take a tougher stance, but so many of the guys wouldn’t join the union. If we’d gone on strike, these guys would have undermined us, even though they were in the same wages position as we union members. I was pretty angry at times. But it’s all in the past now.

It was interesting that several of the guys who didn’t want to join the union before all the redundancies happened in 1999 changed their views and joined when they were under threat of being laid off. Yeah. And a couple of the guys who were adamant that they wouldn’t have anything to do with unions still took the redundancy payout package that the union negotiated for members. Oh no, when money was involved, they abandoned their principles and took the cash. I spit.

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This is frustrating. I got an Amazon offer email for the above watch at US$99.99. I find it fairly attractive, especially as it has a compass function. It’s called the Invicta Aviator.

I stewed on it for a few days and this morning I thought I might order it. But when I went to the web site, the offer was gone and the price has doubled to US$200. Sorry, no, that’s too much. Missed it. Booger.  Anyway, in the specs it says it’s 12mm thick and weighs 16 ounces. That’s half an inch thick and half a kilo in weight! I think it would have been a bit much.

I was in the big shop at the Galeria on Tuesday and came across the Tumi bag section. Why is it that we are so attracted to carry bags? It’s not just a women thing with handbags, it’s a man thing too. I’ve got about a dozen all up, I’d say, including two specific camera bags. I bought a Tumi bag at Xmas which I’ve realised ain’t that useful, and now I’ve got the hots for another one. It’s like this:

But not this one – I couldn’t find a picture of the one I saw, but it’s much better. Phwoooaaar. I want it. Phwoooaar, it’s expensive. US$335. I’ve got to resist. I’ve got to go back and have another look …

But I’ve also got to remember that the bag I use all the time although it’s 26 years old is the best bag I’ve ever had. There’s no way I’d ever throw it away. I bought it at Tangs in Singapore in 1990 for about $50 or thereabouts and it’s lasted all this time. Hmmm.

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5pm: I’ve been into the pool and I did 18 laps of water walking today, a lap being up and back. It’s not strenuous exercise, I’m not huffing and puffing, but it stretches the muscles and makes ’em work. Not bad.

While I was there, I had to listen to three Aussie blokes and a sheela (honorary bloke), all wearing the obligatory Bintang singlets and with tattoos, sounding off about Oz and the world to a Dutch guy. Of course, hyperbole was in order and house prices were “nothing less than a million dollars” and cars are “real expensive”.

Well, they’re not, actually. Wheels did an article last month pointing out that cars are about 25% to 45% cheaper in real terms than they were 20-25 years ago. They gave specific examples, which I can’t remember here, but you can buy a Yaris or a Micra or other small cars brand new for around $16,000. That’s very cheap by any standard.

But then the conversation got on to refugees and how Germany was destroying itself by taking so many Syrian refugees. They all get given a house, ya know? And then they all group together – implying that they form ghettos full of crime and no-go areas for whites.

All get given a house? Bullshit. Bullshit! What a load of tripe. But they know, y’know? Like, it stands to reason, y’know? Sick!

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5.30pm: Dang, I’ve just been down the street (very slowly and painfully) and I broke my own rule: I didn’t carry a camera. I saw two great shots; one was of guys dismantling a huge barong or legong figure from the parade yesterday. It was like they had murdered it and were chopping the body up. You’ll have to take my word for it.

The other was two young boys double-dinking (Aussie term) on a small bike, but having great fun at it. Missed the shot. That’s my rule, always carry a camera, because ya never know.

I was looking for a mini-mart with an ATM, but I found the first without the second. I had to use my VISA card. It was OK.

One very interesting thing: a small shop called Bag-cool (I think — something cool), “A Museum of Vintage Bags”. How unusual. That’s the great thing about Bali, it’s full of surprises, nice ones.

Peace and quiet at my hotel.     (C) PJ Croft 2016

It’s 0845 and we’ve been through the total solar eclipse. What a disappointment. It was hardly visible here, just a slight dimming of the light. I’ve seen eclipses before and this was a fizzog compared to the others. Oh well, I’m only young, there’ll be plenty more in my lifetime.

I had the camera set up on the patio in time lapse mode, but I stuffed it up. I didn’t set the number of shots, leaving it on 1 shot at 06:14am. Yeah, well that’s what I got, one shot. Now it’s working, and it’s taken a shot every 10 seconds for the past half hour, about 900 shots. This was the eclipse period, so I’ve got what I wanted but it’s not very exciting. I have a 1min. time lapse movie, but it’s nothing. Oh well.

It’s Nyepi day, but in this hotel, you wouldn’t know it. The restaurant staff are banging and clattering and all the cleaning staff are out on the pathways talking their heads off. Obviously, big hotels are exempt.

Last night was the Ogoh-ogoh parade and I was hoping for a good photo spectacle. I walked from here to the corner of Poso and Cemara and Tamblingan, where a crowd was gathering but nothing happened. I was expecting to hear the music and drums — I heard nothing but the never ending snarl of motor bikes. That gets on my nerves after an hour of it.

Apparently all the action was along Jl. Danau Tamblingan outside the Hyatt hotel compound at the end of the red line below. Too far. My hip is really hurting and I couldn’t walk the extra 500m  –

The distance from the Taksu (left pin) to Poso corner is 530m. That’s my limit at the moment. So all in all, Nyepi has been a big disappointment so far.

Jalan Danau Poso, the road to the meeting place.   (C) PJ Croft 2016

Satay. Aaaah, that smell!    (C) PJ Croft 2016

Pensive child.      (C) PJ Croft 2016

Jl. Poso      (C) PJ Croft 2016

Gathering dancers       (C) PJ Croft 2016

By the truckload.    (C) PJ Croft 2016

This is the timelapse at about 8.15am until 9am. There’s not much solar eclipse, I’m afraid.

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I forgot to mention – most businesses closed down in the afternoon on Tuesday, the day before Nyepi, and that included ATMs! Yes, no cash available on Tuesday afternoon. Luckily I had about $26 worth and didn’t need to use it, but I spoke to an Aussie couple who were wailing and worrying. Nothing to be done about it, sorry.

That also meant the Kura Kura buses weren’t running either. No wonder we waited half an hour with no show at the hotel. I had to share a taxi to the Galeria shopping centre. I had gone to the Galeria specifically to buy a Kura Kura bus stored value card, but the counter was closed. Booger.

After walking back from the Poso/Cemara corner, I had a late dinner (just a club sandwich with a fruit juice) in the hotel’s restaurant and was able to book the $12.70 cost to my VISA card.

The two restaurants in this hotel are managed by a separate company, so you can’t book things to your room. That’s a bit inconvenient sometimes.

7pm: Aah, now it’s all happening. I was engrossed in video editing wen the phone rang. It was the front desk asking me to close my curtains. When I looked out, pitch blackness. Everything was closed down, including both restaurants. I thought they were going to be open and I’d said I’d be eating, but apparently it was only up to 6pm. Oh well, that means all I’ve had is breakfast today, apart from beer and crackers. I’ve got plenty in the room so I’m not going to starve, but boy it’s quiet now, and dark outside.

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Crumbs, the hotel guests (Aussies, natch) are paying not the slightest notice of the need to keep quiet. The women are cackling! Cackling loudly in the pool. Ugh!

I feel like a swim, but there’s a big group of blokes who seem to be having a drinking session in the pool. I don’t like the look of it. Too loud, too ugly for me. Russian and Aussie voices?

5pm: I went in and it was like a warm bath. The pool gets full midday sun. I did 12 laps of water walking, taking about 30 mins, then one lap of breast stroke until I got a leg cramp. It’s good exercise.

Crikey, there was an incredibly ugly fat Dutch woman constantly blocking my way while she obsessively pushed a ball underwater then let it burst to the surface with a great splash. It just went on and on and on. I got the feeling she was trying to attract me, but no way, lady. Not interested.

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Wow, have a look at this photographer’s web site: http://www.andyyeungphotography.com/Portfolio/  Click on Slideshow for a spectacular set of images. He obviously jealously guards his pics so I dare not show too much here.

He’s Hong Kong based and has a new viewpoint to show, especially using a drone for those HK tower shots.

I’m pleased to say that I’ve been to many of the places he’s photographed. I’m finding travel pretty hard now, though, and my right hip is really hampering me at the moment. I can’t walk like I used to.

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Unfortunately I’ve discovered the first drawback to this room: a hard bed. I can’t sleep and the bed is making me toss and turn. At 2.30am I’ve got up and dropped the aircon temp from 27º to 25º and I’ll try again soon.

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I’ve made no secret of my left wing political views. I despise the Liberal Party and all who sail in her. All they know how to do is to destroy, to dismantle, to waste the opportunities that government gives them. The NBN is the latest example. Labor saw that as a nation building program to give the entire country a world class fibre optic network operating at 100Mb/s and as future proof as possible in such a rapidly developing field.

But bloody Malcolm Turnbull set in to criticise it, to try to set himself up as an expert who knew better, telling us he would save time and money. Has he? He has not. The system he has imposed is massively inferior, well below world standard, anything but future proof, will cost just as much and take just as long. He has wrecked the nation building plan.

What’s brought this diatribe on? An article in the Saturday Paper on John Howard’s years.

“… when you talk to public policy experts, the picture that emerges is one of a rather inert government that had a very thin record of reform, that left Australia more divided, that entrenched privilege and inequality, and that left the political and economic landscape littered with mines primed to blow up under successor governments.”

“They [the Howard government] had three things going for them,” says Jeff Borland, professor of economics and labour market expert at the University of Melbourne.

“First, the continuing benefit of the economic reforms of the Hawke–Keating years. Second was a Reserve Bank which by the ’90s had a clear understanding of the workings of the economy and had, in Ian Macfarlane, an outstanding governor. Third, they had favourable economic conditions.”

Aside from introducing the GST, Borland says, they did little in the way of positive reform. [The Saturday Paper, 5 March, Mike Seccombe]

It was yet another period of wasted years, as happened under Malcolm Fraser. Do-nothing years. That’s the pattern: Labor governments build, introduce major reforms, inspire with new ideas, bring the country with them. Liberal governments do the opposite, tear down the reforms, sabotage the ideas, divide the country.

“Howard, [Hugh McKay] says, exploited groups such as refugees for political advantage. Howard was the man who refused to apologise to the Indigenous Stolen Generations. His was the government that changed the Marriage Act to stipulate that it had to be between a man and a woman. He was the one who fostered the intolerant religious right within politics. He drove out moderate forces.

“He left us a meaner society than we were, much less committed to egalitarianism and to our moral obligations,” says Mackay.

It’s happening again now. John Howard was an out and out racist. The way he banned his party people from taking part in the Stolen Generations March and refused to make an apology was despicable. He said it would cause legal problems. Well, the Labor government made the apology, there were no problems and nothing but good will. This government has divided the country once again. Oh, what a waste of breath.

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I’ve realised that this hotel is one of the three stops for the Kura-Kura bus in Sanur. It has its terminus at Mal Bali Galeria in Kuta and stops at the top of the Jalan Bypass, then the Oasis Lagoon Hotel next to Hardy’s, then here, then back to Galeria. Ideal for me. I’ll buy a season ticket tomorrow (today), I think.

Google translate tells me kura means spleen, but kura-kura means turtle. And they say English is illogical 🙂

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I watched another movie last night – Carol. It was another superb performance by Cate Blanchette, but apart from that I was bored stiff. If you like a love story between two women, go for it, but I could hardly finish it.

The best bit was right in the very last seconds, though. The young bird tries to get back with Carol but Carol isn’t giving her a second chance. You had your chance, baby, so that’s it. Magical look from Cate Blanchette.

Then it went into the bin.

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 9.30am: Yeah, another bad night. Fall asleep easily, wake two hours later and that’s it. I feel knackered now, although I’ve had a very nice swim. I had the pool to myself and did about a dozen laps of water walking. It’s 1,6m constant depth all the way, and about 25m long.

This is a very nice hotel, one of the best I’ve ever stayed in, I think. The size of the room means you don’t feel cramped, the sliding doors open onto the patio, which itself is quite large. There are green palms all around the patio. Not so big as to feel impersonal, but big enough to have all the modern touches. I’ll definitely stay here again. The hard bed is the only minus point so far.

Oh, and tiny, tiny bugs (?) or midgies that bite. Not too bad.

Red dragonfly     (C) PJ Croft 2016

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OK, I’ve moved hotels. I’m now in the Taksu Sanur, Jalan Sudamala, south Sanur. It’s not exactly traditional Balinese, sorry, but so far at midday, I’m very happy. I was sorry to move out of the S’cape, but those stairs just scared the shit out of me. I felt I was taking my life in my hands every time I had to do that 90º turn with its narrow triangular steps at the top to go up three steps to the bedroom. There was nothing to hold onto! OK for a young ‘un, I suppose, but not for me. I mentioned it again when I checked out and the guy said, “We have rooms with the hand rail.” Well, why didn’t ya say so? Maybe I could have moved rooms?

Anyway, having spoken to one of the residents, I’m sure he wants to sub-let or rent out one of his units. I’ll speak to him before deciding further.

That still wouldn’t fix the lack of pool ladders, though. The resident guys agreed that it was a bit odd and I’m sure we could whip something up together. There was still no-one in the pool since I wrote about it yesterday.

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This room feels so spacious!

This would be the most spacious hotel room I’ve ever had, I think. I’m sitting on that nicely padded chair at the desk. Thank goodness it’s padded; so many hotel chairs are hard wooden horrors. In fact, I think the photo is of my room, because I can see that covered walkway through the sliding doors. Different painting, though. I’m on the ground floor and the pool is to the left. It’s actually a raised pool, about 1m high, but has ladders.

Funny how bathrooms are becoming more and more transparent. The fashion is that the shower can be seen from the bed. Ooooh, sexy. This one’s translucent rather than clear glass.

No hand-holds in the shower, though, and a slippery floor. I’m surprised that hotels don’t take liability seriously, eg the S’cape stairs. If I slipped and broke something, I’d be looking for costs and compensation, especially if I had to be flown back in a wheelchair or something.

The hotel has suites available which are 101 m2 with a separate dining room and lounge. It occurs to me that if I was thinking in terms of spending $20,000 pa on a leased villa (in a thought bubble!), but only spending half to two thirds of the year here, then if I found a suitable hotel and spent $20,000 there (or less, of course!), then I’d be better off. I could book ahead, swing deals and cancel if I needed to. The $20K (or less) might pay for one of these 100m2 suites. That would be far preferable to haggling with banjars and housekeepers and if I didn’t like things, I could move. Hmmmm.

Later: I asked about the two bedroom suites and they are Rp1,500,000 a night, A$154. That’s the single night rate – I’m sure if I said 60 nights it would come down, and I’m sure it would be lower through the Booking.com type of site. I don’t need two bedrooms, just two rooms, but do I even need that? This is pretty nice for half that cost. I’ve asked to see a room, but later.

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The wi-fi here is very fast, they say up to 6Mb/s, and it feels like it so far. Great. Totally unsecured, though. Laughably obvious passwords.

And I’ve got a 32″ LG LCD TV with a full range of channels. I’m watching Channel News Asia at the moment and it’s a very nice feed, far less US oriented than that bombastic CNN. They’ve just run a half hour doco on the evolving design of Singapore HDB flats. Yeah, real exciting, right? But I’m interested. I’ve been to Singapore dozens of times and often wondered how big these flats are. Now I know.

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Now to prepare for Nyepi on Wednesday. Tomorrow is Ogoh-ogoh Day, with parades and water fights, I believe. My camera is water resistant, I’m not worried. I hope to be there, in Jalan Poso, just down the road a bit.

Then on Wednesday (actually Tuesday 6pm to Wednesday 6pm I think), it’s total silence and darkness. No going out, no music, no lights in the room. I have thick curtains and headphones so I’ll be fine. I’ve got a couple of movies to watch so I don’t need the TV.

The TV has a full range of inputs, by the way, including HDMI and USB. My external DVD drive is USB. I wonder if it’ll work? I think I brought an HDMI cable with me but this laptop is a 15″ Ultra HD screen, so I hardly need anything else.

I think big hotels like this are a bit exempt for non-Bali guests, but I’d better get some basic food in today and tomorrow. I’ve taken the no-breakfast option here ($8.50 if I want to pay) so I need to wander out and check the street out. It looks to be quite an active street.

And I should, should, try to walk to the beach from here. It’s a fair way, about 1Km I think. I can do that at home but in this heat and humidity, I’d better take water and a cut lunch.

Oh, Google Earth tells me it’s only 580m, not so far. Hmmm.

Later, 6.30pm: I had a walk and found there are small restaurants all around here, including a nice Chinese just next door, which is where I ate. I haven’t had Chinese for a long time.

I found there’s a Guardian chemist just around the corner (50m or so), a very nice looking up-market warung on the corner with Jalan Poso, a Muslim restaurant across the street (Buka 24 jam – Open 24 hours – why? Oh OK, if you have to get up at 3am for prayers, then maybe you’ll want to eat at 4am? That’s Islam.), and a couple of other small eats places. One, the Warung Jawa Bu”rst (that’s how it’s spelt) looks pretty dubious.

I should add that in 1989 when my good mate and I did a trip thorough Java by bus and train, I was awoken at 3am in Malang by the call of the meuzzin for the faithfull to prayers. It was beautiful! This guy knew how to sing, and it still sends shivers down my spine when I hear that beautiful song in my mind. Did I go to the mosque? Yair, not likely.

I ate at the Chinese place, but only after the waitress held my arm as I stepped up the two steps. I just can’t do it unassisted by arm or stick.

There’s also a Doktor Gigi (dentist) around the corner too, and an interior decorating shop.

The desk tells me Nyepi is 6.30am Wednesday to 6.30am Thursday, so that’s OK. she says we Westerners can use the pool and the restaurant, so no need to bring food in. Just don’t go out onto the street. Easy.

Now to open the bottle of duty free Sapphire Blue gin I brought with me. First use.

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Ugh, I don’t know why now, but my right hip has become very painful. It’s been twinging for a few years, especially when I get up during the night, but it’s suddenly hit me hard today. Lucky I brought my walking stick. I didn’t have it this afternoon and I was really hobbling.

Grrrrr.     (C) PJ Croft 2016

I’m not sure if I’m pleased or bemused. I’ve been eating at a particular restaurant, the Warung Bali Bagus, every day for breakfast and often for dinner in the past six days. The food’s good, they’re very friendly and have treated me well, often adding little extras like fruit when I decline dessert. And the price is right. Full “American” breakfast: toast, juice, fruit, two eggs, bacon, tomato and coffee for A$3.45.

Last night they gave me a gift, a Bali singlet. But when I opened it up, it’s a walking advert for, you guessed it, the Warung Bali Bagus, complete with street address, phone number, email and web address. I’ve worn it this morning to show my appreciation, but I think it’ll be going out in the rubbish.

This morning I was driven to distraction and had to leave early by a woman with a cough at a nearby table. Uuurgh, every 30 seconds, coff, coff, coff, coff. It was OK to start with but I was silently wishing she would finish up and leave. In the end, I had to.

But, bloody hell, I’ve just discovered that she and her husband and small child are in the unit next to me! I saw him outside and I can hear her coughing through the wall. Now the baby’s crying. Aaaaarrrrgh. Thank goodness I’m leaving tomorrow morning.

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Beach offering      (C) PJ Croft 2016

They sure take their offerings to the gods seriously in Bali. I counted six little shrines just in the Bali Bagus restaurant alone this morning, and one of the women came out two or three times to add flowers and rice and to sprinkle the holy water over them and everything nearby. You can’t walk along the footpath without having to step around these little baskets on the pavement. At least the birds can eat the rice.

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They’re cleaning the pool at the moment, but in the whole time I’ve been here, six days, I haven’t seen anyone in it. I went in on the first morning after I arrived, but I haven’t been in since (because I have so much trouble getting out). But no-one else uses it either. Odd. The water’s not that clean.

I must admit I’m looking forward to leaving tomorrow. I’d like to have a nap, but climbing those stairs is daunting. I slept beautifully last night, almost unbroken, to make up for the previous night.

I brought my suitcase down almost empty yesterday, and I’ve been bringing my clothes down in plastic bags because I know if I fill the suitcase, I won’t be able to bring it down tomorrow. I’ll pack it here, downstairs. No problem.

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Reception on the downstairs TV has been horrible and I was forced to investigate. As usual, it was a very poor plug fitting on the antenna lead. I remade it and it’s brilliant now, but the slightest movement of the TV makes it go bad again. It needs  whole new lead. Now that I’ve got a strong signal downstairs, it makes me realise the upstairs ain’t so good either. Too bad about that one.

The TVs are old Samsung CRT sets, and they look awful compared with flat screen LCD sets. I’d forgotten how terrible analogue CRT TV was. The scans on these are adjusted so far out that there’s constant flashing white stuff at the bottom, the scrolling news headlines, but you can’t actually see them. It’s very distracting.

Really, all there is to watch is CNN and I’ve had enough of that. There are only a few topics – 80% is the US election stuff, and the rest is Business Traveller with that grating  gravel voiced British showman, a few news items, repeated endlessly, and commercials and promos. It is boring. The new hotel tomorrow has a flat screen TV and, I hope, a full range of digital channels.

Barong! Bing bang bong. These kids were out on the street having fun last night. It was strictly amateur, but it’s better than lurking and dealing drugs back home.

I love gamelan music, which this is not, but it was great to see these boys enjoying themselves. A full gamelan orchestra is  a sight to behold and a wonderful sound. It is to me, anyway.

Full gamelan orchestra, Kuta 1983  (C) PJ Croft 2016

Gamelan orchestras, Kuta 1983   All images (C) PJ Croft 2016

Ubud 1983      (C) PJ Croft 2016

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I’ve just had a good chat with two guys who live in these units full time. Both own their units (or long term lease them, that is) and one owns three, living in one and renting the others out. That would solve my requirements, because he’s very keen to do business and is open to haggling. He showed me one of the empty ones and it has hand railing. Both guys’ units do, and they were very surprised to hear my unit doesn’t.

I told them of my list of ‘requirements’ and they were in full agreement. They want to set up a residents’ committee to deal with these things. When I said that I would like to spend more time here, they welcomed me, being of ‘the right age’ and right type and so on. One’s a retired construction engineer and has given me his card. Anyone want to buy a unit? He’s keen to sell or lease.

I’m not interested in buying, but I could come back in May/June. That would solve my problem. Hmmm. Nice guys, anyway.

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Aaargh, another bad night for sleep last night. Dammit, I drop off easily, last a couple of hours, then wake and can’t get back to sleep. I think I dozed for a couple more hours but I feel awful now at midday. Now I’ll have to climb those damn stairs again.

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I started watching the movie Bridge of Spies last night. I had to stop in the middle, but good movie! Tom Hanks is the main star and the other is Mark Rylance. Never heard of him, but he looks familiar and is excellent. I’m looking forward to the rest of it.

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And the mistakes just keep on comin’.

“… the double jeopardy clause of the US constitution prevents Mr Simpson from prosecution,” Prevents? Protects, I’d say.

“Double jeopardy is a principal of US law …” Er, I think he means principle. Both of these are by one writer in The Guardian. Not the paper’s fault, but lax subbing.

By coincidence there’s an article about grammar today, so I’ve posted those in the comments.

And from a photography blog: “… how they concepted an image“. Down the page in another post: “… photographers teach you about how they concepted an image”

What?! How about the perfectly useful word conceived?

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Sunrise over Lembongan   (C) PJ Croft 2016

Hot one today. Clear blue skies. I wish I could go into the pool, but I don’t want to go through the painful process of getting out again.

Sunrise, Bali    (C) PJ Croft 2016

I’ve just had brekky (brunch, really) at the Bali Bagus restaurant where I’ve been every day so far. This time I had Indonesian breakfast – nasi goreng, but I asked to have toast as well, extra. Bless ’em, they didn’t charge me for the toast. This is very generous as they don’t have much custom and their margins must be pretty small. Nice people.

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I drew some cash from an ATM across the street. What a fantastic thing, travelling is just so simple now compared with 30-40 years ago. Travellers cheques, remember those? So clumsy, so much trouble. Now my ordinary plastic card that I use for my supermarket shopping at home works just the same here. Just think of the computer power that makes all this happen. All down to electronics and electronics engineers and programmers.

But I’ve just read this morning of a soccer player in China, imported from a Spanish team, who’s being paid $300,000 a week! It’s obscene. China has overtaken the US for the number of billionaires – 596 ! One Chinese alone has amassed US$34.4 billion. You can’t spend that much money. The interest alone at 5% would be $1.72bn a year or $33,076,923.07c a week! How could you possibly use $33 million dollars a week? It’s obscene. The top 20 richest people on Earth now have 50% of the total world’s wealth and they are scraping it in at an ever increasing rate. While Somalians and Ethiopeans are starving to death, do these rich people do anything to help? Apart from Bill Gates, maybe, I doubt it. They go and shoot elephants, or buy the ivory. Elephants are being shot, poached, stolen, faster than their replacement birthrate. It’s obscene.

Keeping out of the sun, Jogjakarta 1989  (C) PJ Croft 2016

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I noticed that when the cleaner was in here this morning (yes, these units are cleaned daily), there were two guys looking at my staircase and mumbling to themselves. I wonder if my moving out and cancellation has made the management think of installing handrails?

Would I re-book if there were handrails? Possibly. But I’d need a pool ladder, cleaner pool water, and the seat on the balcony removed and steps put in to enable me to step down and up again. (What a stupid design. Pretty hard to fix, too.) Oh, and take the bath out and put in a normal shower in a cubicle, with safety bars on the window so you can’t fall though the louvres.

I sat on the wide bath surround this morning and swung my legs around. It’s much safer than trying to step over that 35cm edging.

I’ve still got the booking at the Astana Villas in May for 8 days. They’re slightly cheaper but all on one level. They’re only half the size of this one, but not too bad. I’ll see how they turn out.

The advantage of these S’cape units is their size, 85 sq.m., you sure don’t feel cramped, and their location, right in the centre of Sanur. It’s a pity they don’t work a bit harder on the deficiencies. I’m not sure how I’m going to review them on the booking web site. I’m not upset, just a bit disappointed.

If they just made a few relatively small changes I’d book again. It’s obvious that some people must live here, or they’ve bought their unit. They’re for sale at US$145,000 on a 21 year lease. That’s A$9,725 a year or A$187 a week. That’s cheap rent. You could sub-let your unit for the times you can’t be here. Hmmm.

Sunset, Fremantle WA   (C) PJ Croft 2016

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The Guardian reports on a dam in Iraq that may fail. It could trigger “unexploded ordinances”. Wow, those Iraqi town council ordinances must be pretty strong stuff.

Similarly, the ABC has an article that says something “… rung down the changes”. Rang down the changes, please, if it’s past tense.

Ring rang rung
The ABC’s gone bung
I think I should ring
And see that writer hung.

Sink sank sunk
Who woulda thunk
That the ABC
Could feed us such junk?

Sing sang sung
English is among
I’ve run out of rhymes.
I think there’s more to come. 🙂

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I’ve discovered that there’s a solar eclipse here on Wednesday next  week, the 9th. That’s Nyepi! Wow, that’ll give it added significance. Very portentous. The path is over southern Sumatra and northern Java, Jakarta, but we’ll see it here. It starts about 06.30am, reaches totality about 07.30am and finishes an hour later.

Never a dull moment in Bali. Oh, hang on, this will be a dull moment. 🙂

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I’ve put all my criticisms of these units in an email to Kartika, the lady I’ve been dealing with and she’s forwarded them to her managers. Briefly they are:

• Handrails for stairs
• Remove seat on balcony and put steps in so balcony can be used
• Provide ladder for pool
• Put safety bars/grille on window over bath
• Remove bath entirely and make it a shower recess
• Improve pool filtration to make water cleaner

I’ve been very diplomatic so as not to sound upset. All except the last are basic safety issues and could affect their liability, although I didn’t say that.

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Annoyances about a two storey unit – I wanted to make a phone call today, but being downstairs, I realised the only phone is upstairs. I went up there later, only to realise that my mobile, with the phone number list, was downstairs. Duh. I really, really can’t hack those stairs. What a pity.