Friday November 21, 2008

This will not be a big entry kids.. my head is still making funny drum like noises in co-ordination with my heartbeat.. booom boom, booom boom. I could not find my painkillers this morning, maybe I left them on Jeff’s boat but either way it meant I was off, first up, to find a pharmacist and try and explain what I wanted. I found the correct store but everything is in Indonesian and the nice fella, who was serving, despite our combined best efforts, could not understand my requests. He did find my mimes of my nights drinking to be very entertaining but failed to link that to what medicines I would require. Defeated I made a hasty retreat to Timor Telecom where I could do a little research, entertain myself online and generally just soak up their high quality Air-conditioning.

While whining about my hangover to Mel she mentioned how strange it was that they didn’t understand the word paracetamol at the chemists. DOH!! My thick Australian brogue and the words Pain Killers spoken at several different tempos and multiple levels of volume now seemed to me to be a very pathetic attempt at communication. I excused myself from our online convo, returned to the shop and with one word found I soon held salvation in the form of some little white pills in my hand. Awesome!! Thanks to Melissa.. You rock girl!!

I spent some time in the Xanana Reading room around the corner from Timor Telecom just browsing through the library of Non-fiction materials about this little fledgling nation. It was interesting but my head, although getting better, still complained about its mistreatment. I soon gravitated back to the Aircon and cyber umbilical cord to the world I have left behind.

Eventually I did some lunch and spoke with Tez on my mobile. She had been out at the Coalition Gig the night before and had wagged work. We talked for hours and about $15 US dollars later I reluctantly let her get back to her own painful post-party recuperations. It has just occurred to me that I should try and get some pics up of everyone I talk about so that those of you out there who are not part of my immediate crew have faces for names. I might do that when I post this blog. It will give me another excuse to soak up the cool air. It’s been very hot here over the last few days and I don’t know if it’s just the effects of my overconsumption but dang am I feeling it.

The cooler parts of the arvo I spent on my back under a banyan tree in the ‘Virgin Mary’ park. I listened to my I-pod and generally bludging. I rediscovered ‘The Toothfaeries’, not exactly the most street cred thing to admit but I absolutely love this band. Torrent the album ‘I Believe’ and ‘High heels pumping’ people if you don’t mind a dose of folk/world/socio-responsible feel good rock fusion. Actually that is a shit description but I guess it matches how I feel… uber crappy. I experienced a real personal connection to the opening track ‘Leaky Boat’ that continued right through the next several tracks like ‘Take it Easy’, ‘You’ve Got to be happy now’, ‘Maybe One Day’ and the delightfully sentimental... in fact kind of corny ‘Suit Song’. They all suited my mood that had by now become semi-melancholy. They are Kingaroy locals and I think that helps me connect because that reminds me of Twenty and Beth. Two of the best friends a fella could ask for who live in Brooklands just 20 minutes from the Kingaroy city centre. Shouts out to my brother!! Sup my nigga!?

Another quick play around on the net trying to win a battle with MBF back home was the next task of the day. Afterwards I found myself waiting for Tavis and Meagan back at City Café with Bin Tang in hand. Yes I know.. you would think I'd learn but I’m a sucker for punishment, besides the good old hair of the dog had me feeling the best I had all day. Monsta you bloody alcoholic! It wasn’t long and my new buddies found me and we moved our party back to ‘One more bar’ for dinner, a hand full of cautious beers and another awesome, meandering conversation. I noticed that poor Meagan was fading fast around 11.30pm so happily made my excuses and let them get to bed. They are mid-clean with Miles who has to have a thorough going over if he hopes to gain Australian Customs clearance on his arrival back to the land down under. Poor Miles is apparently not holding up so well to the high pressure cleaner and they want to be with him early in the morning to oversee the next stage of his procedure. Apparently he is revealing large patches of rust under the road grim and rust is one thing that Customs believes is a danger to our native flora and fauna. I guess it is another surface that dirt and grim can hide in, but it still seems like overkill to us and we spent a good portion of our night feeling bad for Miles. I hope he holds up OK on Saturday.

I got back to my room feeling pleasantly wobbly again and opened my door to a completely unfamiliar room. “Shit!! That’s not my place”, I thought backpedalling and quietly closing the door. I stood in the hall checking that the room number was indeed 202 for a good few minutes. I looked around me to make sure I was orientated correctly and that there was no way I could be at the wrong room. I didn’t trust my navigational skills after last night so I took my time… Yep! I’m in the right spot.. I opened the door again and sure enough it was my room, but every piece of furniture is now in a new spot. The domestic staff must be playing with me! Who has ever heard of your rooms’ layout being changed every day! Is it another weird Timorese thing? I made mental note to ask Tavis and Meagan if they have noticed the same in their hotel when I see them tomorrow. For now I stripped my smelly clothes off and returned a missed call from Shelly.

She was asleep when I called and gave me the funniest response to my statement of “Hey babe, it’s me!” A short “Yeah!” with a detectable note of annoyance was her answer but that tune changed instantly as she woke properly. “Monstie!! Baby!! I can’t believe I am talking to you. I love you honey! It’s so good to hear your voice!” We had the best little catch up before I finally passed out with the air-conditioner rattling away in the background. I was smiling to myself, congratulating myself on my awesome friends and feeling well loved and maybe a little special even. Shelly always does that to me. She is such a sweetheart.

Speaking of sweethearts I just wanted to throw in a quick shout out to my gorgeous, funny, intelligent sister Kerri. I hear ya still kicking ass at Uni Kerri Berri. Have I told you just how proud I am of you? You looked at your life and decided you wanted to do something to improve it. That’s always the easy part hun.. in fact anyone can do that… but you made it happen girl and are succeeding, after all these years of being out of the academic world you have jumped in with enthusiasm and passion and followed your dream. You go Girl!!! Make of your life everything you wish it to be. There is nothing you cannot do; I know that for a fact!! I am sure I have never told you this; did you realise that you are one of the main inspirations I had to make my trip a reality? For a kid sis you sure lead by example a lot. If you could, despite all the difficulties, make what you want a reality then I really had no excuse for my laziness. Thanks for being a world-class sister and friend Ker and don’t fret about ya net, we’ll get to chat on Skype eventually. Whatever happens I will be with you always. Much love kiddo ☺

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