This is a special Insert written Thursday, April 16, 2009

OK… here is your warning. For those who do not like bad language… GO NO FURTHER OR SKIP TO THE NEXT HEADLINE. For those who do not wish to hear a grown man whinge and cry… FOLLOW THE PEEPS WHO CAN”T STAND SWEARING.

FUCK!!!! Remember this When I lost all those blogs? Well my run of misfortune regarding lost photos and blogs is fucking continuing. Despite learning my lesson after losing those blogs and backing up regularly yesterday afternoon TOTAL AND COMPLETE FUCKING DISASTER STRUCK!!!!.

Let me start at the beginning. I needed a new phone. Ani has the last one I have bought now. She has basically had it as her phone for the last few months and since I’m leaving for Malaysia tomorrow to catch up with Az it was time for me to buy another. We headed into Mattaram in search of a bargain and where gone for several hours. Over the past few days, I have been working very hard to catch my blogs up to date. Since I lost that last lot I have basically been chasing my tail trying to get back on track. There just never appears to be enough time for me to write up what I’ve been doing and thinking, rewrite those entries I lost AND live life here, experiencing new things, just basically have fun… the whole reason I’m off travelling to begin with.

Anyway I was nearly finished yesterday. Just s few formatting issues and my photo’s to resize and edit where left to be done. I assembled all the photos and batch processed them in preparation for the upload. While that was happening and my laptop chugged away we decided to make use of the time and go phone shopping. Sick of paying top dollar just because I’m white I bargained hard and played several shops off against each other. This took a while as we sweated in the oppressive heat going back and forth between vendors. As we started on our way home a huge electrical storm that had been brewing all day finally unleashed on tiny Lombok. We oooh’d and aaaaah’d at natures display in the taxi as we returned and I really gave it no more thought. Ani mentioned that we hadn’t unplugged the TV before we left. This is a habit Ani has that really annoys me as it then means I have to root around plugging it back in when I want to watch the box. I now know why she does it though. At the time she said it, feeling a bit tired and sweaty I kinda snapped at her to stop being so silly… “Sayang… berhenti itu… bodoh!!”

We pulled into our driveway and noticed the front light was not on. By now it was right on dusk and the house was pitch black inside. “Lektrik Mati Lagi??” enquired Ibu (Ani’s Mum) as we unloaded from the taxi, as we all felt annoyed that the power would be out again. We keep enduring long blackout over the last few days for some reason. Way more than normal. We all trooped off inside and I checked the fuse board. The main fuse and every other breaker were tripped which is the first time I had ever seen anything like it here. I switched ‘em all back and smiled, glad that at least it wasn’t another blackout and we could have the fans blasting inside. Before I even got back to the lounge room I could hear Ani talking loudly “Semua Mati Sayang” or “Everything is dead hun.” I was thinking, ‘Hmmmm doesn’t sound good… What the Fuck is going on??’ as I walked in.

Turns out she was right all along. Never leave your stuff plugged in during the wet season and there is an electrical storm or you are leaving the house. We must off been struck by lightning, either our house directly (although I cannot see where) or the electrical line nearby somewhere. The TV, phone, modem, rice cooker and worst of all MY FUCKING COMPUTER are all absolutely stone dead, un-revivable!! The fridge is still running but it has it’s own ‘super duper’ breaker and the A/C was switched off at the wall thankfully.

I immediately broke out into a panic induced sweat! Of all the things that could happen, I had not expected this. My panic was not eased by the fact I had my portable hard-drive plugged into the computer as well. Trying to learn from past mistakes I had set it up to back-up while we where out.

So… I’ll get to the point. This morning I fixed the TV and took my computer gear off to get looked at while Ibu revived the rice cooker and bought a new phone. My hard-drive was fried beyond repair, the portable hard-drive is still being looked at and I had to buy a new modem. That’s OK… Monsta has been backing up, I hear you say. Yes he has been backing up… but to the portable FUCKING HARD-DRIVE. The tech’s restored my computer to the only back-up point they could access quickly off the PHD (portable hard drive). Unfortunately that was NOVEMBER LAST YEAR and it is not looking good that they can access any other data. It may be that they have to reformat the thing to repair it.. we just don’t know.

What does all this mean??? Well at present I have lost a fair few photo’s (most of them are still on my camera thank god), a big chunk of music (though I think I can recover that from my Ipod) and EVERY FUCKING UNPUBLISHED BLOG ENTRY I HAVE from late December until now! It hasn’t properly sunk in yet. It’s 4.11pm now and I have no hope of rewriting before I leave tomorrow. In all honesty I have no inclination to rewrite them again at present. I’m just too pissed off. I am going to try and catch you all up to date as best I can but it’s going to be short and sweet out of necessity. Believe me no one could be more disappointed about all this than me. I just cannot believe my bad luck. Also I am majorly pissed off at my laziness right now. If I’d just made some time to upload I could recover them all from the net. Boo Fuckin Hoo Monsta you have no one to blame but yourself son so get to fucking work!!

For the purposes of getting something up and safely stored on line here is my summary of the past few months. There won’t be all the photo’s available and many funny stories will be skipped over or forgotten but I’m just playing the cards I have been dealt. I do have some hand written notes that have obviously survived my electrical catastrophe. They will help me out until the end of January when I am left with only my dodgy memory. At least I have something still and I only have these notes because of the first time I lost blog entries and I was trying to reconstruct what I had been up to. It really is funny how life works sometimes. Sorry guys!!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

I can’t really remember what we got up to after visiting with Ani’s family yesterday. I’d bet money it involved the Marina nightclub, alcohol and excessive dancing to bad pop song covers by gaudily dressed lady-boys. It seems to have become my routine as Marina is Ani’s favourite place to go and Charlie gets us in without paying the 50,000Rp cover charge. I know it must have been a late one because Ani and I slept forever again this morning and Charlie was knocking on my door to see if I wanted to visit mates of his before I had fully woken. The little guy is yet another ever-ready energiser bunny. He goes to sleep hours after I do and is up hours before me, all the while trying to hustle work from various tourists we encounter and drinking like a war-time marine on leave. It’s got me stuffed how he manages but so long as he isn’t hitting me up for dosh and is so much fun to have around I’ll keep hanging with him. He has kind of taken me under his wing and is always on the lookout for me. Charlie has also taken to bargaining everything down to local prices on my behalf and is saving me money everywhere we go.

Ani wanted to go spend some time at home so I told Charlie I’d see him in about an hour and I headed off to Ampenan with little Ani on the pillion seat of Big Red. When we arrived at Ani’s place her babe Uni was obviously sick as a dog again and crying non-stop. I can’t handle seeing her like that so I sent the mum and Ani off to the doctors with some cash to see what they could do for her and made my way back to meet Charlie. Charlie was waiting on a call from his mate Iwan so we made our way to Pacific Beach resort to have a swim and a few beers till he rang. Pacific Beach Resort is a five star joint just north of the main drag here in Senggigi. It has large luxurious Beachside Bungalows that rent for around 200Aus a night and probably the best pool in the town. We lazed away the middle of the day quietly drinking beers and swimming in the pool. I also grabbed a great feed here and was surprised by how cheap everything was. The food and beers are about two thirds of the cost at Happy Café.

Iwan eventually gave Charlie a call, we grabbed some beers and made our way around to his house. Iwan lives a little north of Singgigi in a beautiful property with lush gardens and a couple of home stay rooms. We made our way up short section of the gorgeous coastal road here and were soon pulling up outside Iwan’s pimp pad. The front gate is an ornate hand hewn, stone archway that looks as if it is centuries old but I’m told is only new. I rode the bike through the arch way and down a small gravel path to an area that opens up for parking. Stepping off the bike to look around I could feel the peaceful nature of Iwan wash over me as if he has somehow infused his property with his loving serenity. As we wove through the fertile green surrounds I noticed a magnificent day bed to my left, continuing further brought us straight to a large, covered outdoor area for entertaining. This area also contains Iwans’ artist studio where he paints in a style that mixes modern pop multimedia, impressionism and traditional Javanese methods. I can’t say his work is my cup of tea, but it is certainly unique and obviously provides him with a satisfying outlet for his expression.

We spent a fair while just chilling and chatting and having a smoke or two. I met a heap of Iwan and Hendro’s mates including Harto and his “Mexican” girlfriend (well she isn’t really Mexican it’s just a playful teasing game Harto has obviously been doing for ages). There where a bunch of other guys but I cannot remember any of their names, it was like being at the local meeting place for the ‘cool arty types’ we smoked up some party durries and I ended up feeling all paranoid. Especially when Harto told me all about his 8 years in an Indonesian Prison for the possession of a very small amount of marijuana. We drank strange, local, herbal alcohols called Tuak and Brahm and chatted for ages. Harto and Iwan have both had western wives before so speak great English and not only speak it but also generally understand the needs of a western person. As in they don’t go putting their hand on your knee while chatting for one thing. Concepts of personal space and what might be construed as not exactly manly behaviour here are very different to home. All in all it was a very interesting afternoon. I can’t wait to go back and hang out again. Everyone is so interesting. For example I mentioned Harto going to jail, well his German wife was not able to stay in Indonesia while he did time, so he lost her and their three children back to Germany. He tried living there after his prison term so he could be involved in their lives again but it just wasn’t the same and didn’t work out. Iwan’s western wife died of cancer 6 years after they where married and around 8 years ago from now but you can still see the grief in his face when he talks about it. It challenges all those preconceptions that you have about mixed race marriages in places like Thailand and Indonesia. I’m sure I’ll talk about it more at a later date, but for now it’s enough to know that I think far more of them are actual genuine love affairs as opposed to “Mail-order” type situations. Westerners’ bigotry, my own included, seems to paint all occurrences of these relationships the one colour unfairly.

Soon enough though I was getting pretty heavy eyelids so returned to my room for a siestas before Ani rolled around again and dragged me out for dinner and far to many drinks at Marina…. once more. We caught up with Hendro at Marina as well and spent our time carving up the dance floor, speaking copious amounts of bullshit with the other westerners and generally the same old, same old.

After we had returned from our disco outing we gathered in the chill out zone again. It was so hot. Charlie and myself stripped off to just shorts, while Ani sat fanning herself with a makeshift paper fan. We decided this sucked too much and that none of us were ready for bed just yet. Charlie came up with the idea of heading back to Pacific Beach Resort for a midnight swim and some ales. Ani had a friend Charlie had been chatting up for some time and he was keen to invite her along. So we made some calls and jumped into a taxi to make our way back up the road. Pacific is open 24hrs a day but when we arrived we were the only people there. The massive pool is surrounded by day beds under thatched roof, for post shelters called baruga. We claimed one nearby the inviting water, cracked some beers and waited on Ani’s friend. Soon there was a slim, young hottie wondering up the pathway. I laughed as I watched Charlie undress here with his eyes. I ordered the girls a long island ice tea each and we kicked back to enjoy the tranquil surrounds and sip on our beverages. Ani and her friend were soon hungry and we arranged for some Nasi Goreng to fill the gaps in their bellies.

There is nothing like this place to my knowledge in Brisbane. It’s kind of like a five star, much larger version of chilling beside Ben and Jodes pool in the middle of the night. I felt like a movie star who had booked out an entire resort just on a whimsical indulgence. The only difference is that because Charlie knows the manager so well it didn’t cost us much at all, just the sum of our drinks and food in exchange for the run of this amazing pool area. I could not ignore the siren song of the pool waters any longer. Neither Ani nor I had swimmers with us but I wasn’t going to let that stop us from cooling off. I grabbed Ani and helped her out of her clothes before she returned the favour and removed mine. Ani let out a whoop of joy as I threw her over my shoulder and ran for the pool. In hindsight I probably should have asked if she can swim or not but I didn’t, instead I just leapt into the deep end of the pool, copping a huge jet of water up my nose I was laughing so hard. The next thing I was aware of was Ani’s panic. I felt like such a dick when I realised she doesn’t have very good water skills. Thankfully she has a dope sense of humour and as soon as I had saved her from drowning and had her bundle in my arms she cleared the water from her face and peeled of a hearty laugh. While I floated on my back propelling us towards the shallow end with big, slow kicks Ani repeatedly murmured “Oh my God”, laughed hard and half heartedly tried to bash me as punishment for scaring her so bad.

Charlie and Ani’s friend were too busy in the day bed to even be bothered looking at Ani and I so we ended up playing around, skinny dipping in those still warm waters for a couple of hours. It was so much fun we stayed in until Ani’s lips went blue and parts of our bodies that should not be, ended up all pruned up. At one end of the pool, furthest from where our baruga was is a “in-pool” bar. There were no staff around but the seats in the water are there permanently so with our drinks on the bar, stimulation of the water against of our nakedness and the sight of each other so exposed it would seem pretty obvious exactly how we kept ourselves occupied for so long in that pool. Surely I don’t need to spell it out!

Eventually Hendro and his lady decided to retire to a room at Pacific provided gratis by the management. Ani and I waited for ages for the cab we ordered but eventually made our way back to Raja Bungalows to crash out on the ‘hard as stone’ single bed. Despite the limited room and extremely sparse cushioning offered by that dodgy mattress we both slept like champs well into the next afternoon. I guess that’s what happens when you stay out till the sun is almost up.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

The next few days were complete mayhem. I inspected the house that Obi had mentioned and quickly realised I wanted to at least rent it out for a while. It’s blimmin cheaper than staying at Raja and I get my own space to chill in. Besides I really am getting to like it here, I have quite a bit of time before I have to meet Az and crew so I think I’ll pause my more nomadic part of this trip and try out living here for a little bit

The house is quite cute to be honest. In a good part of Senggigi too. We checked it out pretty thoroughly and I agreed to rent for a month and take it from there. It has three bedrooms, all with beds, though the 3rd room is missing a mattress on the single bed. Two rooms have wardrobes and the master has A/C. There is a dining area with table and chairs, a small kitchen and tidy bathroom/shower. It is pretty a westernised sort of residence but there are very Indonesian aspects to it as well. Like the fact there is no sink in the Kitchen. The sink is out back, actually outside the house, where apparently it is a lot healthier to do your washing up, I was told. There is no laundry at all, I mean why would you bother that is what the bathroom is for after all. Apparently you do your washing of clothes at the same time you wash your self. Or send them of to a laundry I guess. There are open area’s above every door way and window, when I say open they have no glass or anything but do have like a decorative wooden open grill type arrangement which I guess allows the house to breath and prevents mustiness, mildew type stuff from growing around the place in this tropical weather. There are only two taps, one at the sink out back and one in the bathroom but there are two shower type nozzle thingo’s in the bathroom. One for showering and one for washing your bits after going to the loo. The sewerage won’t handle paper. It’s not designed for it. If you are lucky there is a functioning electrical outlet in each room. Just the one though, I doubt you could set up a proper ‘home entertainment’ type deal here and have the house’s electrical system deal with it.

There is a small fridge but I’ll have to buy a cooker. It is within walking distance of the beach and only a very short ride to the centre of Senggigi. All in all quite a nice little setup. At least as presentable as Raja’s and allows me more privacy. Easily the best part is the HUGE double bed that is actually soft and the A/C. We agreed to move in over the next few days so I’m looking forward to that… though we will have to go shopping for some things first.

Eventually we moved on and Charlie’s family came up to Senggigi for an outing, being that it is Sunday and the normal day for such things. We went back to Pacific and had a very nice afternoon. Just chilling around the pool with a few quiet beers. I had a great swim with the kids and we all had a big feed. The view here is fantastic. You can see clear across the ocean to Bali. Hanging around for the sunset is well worth it. Of course we did just that and were treated to a spectacular display of sunset over tropical Bali the flat clean water in between.

Monday, December 29 and Tuesday 30, 2008

I was sooo freakin busy, for the last two days, it is ridiculous! Right now I’m just far too exhausted to even write this up with my usual detail and long-winded descriptiveness. So here is the not so flowery short version peeps.
Shopping: Ogi, Hendro and I piled into Ogi’s blue Volkswagen, Convertible Jeep (Do ya know what I’m talking about? They are pretty cool.) and went shopping for some things I need for the house. We headed into Mattaram where there is a shopping precinct full of places with the kind of stuff we need. It was several hours of crazy traffic, beggars, too many shops and too many shopkeepers seeing me and instantly doubling their prices. Too much time spent haggling with said shopkeepers, too much asking Ogi “How do I say that?” and “What’s the Indonesian word for this?” I made a quick call home to let Mum know what I was planning and feel out her reaction to my latest activities. I spent a bunch of time thinking about what I’m doing, myself, to try and be sure I REALLY do want to stop for a little while and do this. Eventually after excessively sweating, compulsively bargaining and receiving far too much sun exposure over a few hours we were done. The jeep was chock full of shit. I’d hardly spent anything and yet was on my way back to the new pad with A two-burner gas cooker with huge bottle, a rug for the lounge room which will actually be where we sit (no need for a lounge), Various cooking and eating utensils, a drinking water dispenser, linen, pillows and a bunch of groceries. We just beat the rain home and had to race the stuff inside the house quick smart before it all got drenched but once it was done and set-up I looked around and smiled. It was already starting to feel like home here.

Charlies house for a feast: Ogi soon left us too it as we bummed around making some minor adjustments and Hendro got stuck into cleaning up the yard. By the time Hendro had finished I had also been back to Raja, settled my account, packed up my crap and moved it all to the new pad. We decided we needed a good feed and Hendro wanted to go home and visit the family so in a moment of clarity I suggested we buy some grub and have a cook up back at Hendro’s for the whole family. Well maybe it was Hendro’s idea, I can’t remember right now, but I’ll claim it anyway just because I’ve already written it down. We stopped at the market on our way back to Hendro’s picked up some fish, vegies, calamari and prawns. Hendro’s misses was impressed with our selection and set about whipping up a feast of feasts with Hendro and Ani’s help. I was left to my own devices for a while which was fortunate because I ended up with a huge entourage of kiddies following me around, rendering any assistance I may have wished to give practically useless. Whereever I went some 20 odd kids would follow and get in the way. It truly is a eerie feeling walking through the narrow lane-ways of Hendro’s Village in Ampenan. Like a big white, hairy pied piper I gathered followers wherever I went. I’m thinking they don’t often see many bule (Westerners) round these parts. It was a lot of fun though and the food was absolutely AWESOME!!

Sleep: First night in the new house was dope!! We had Hendro as a guest but I think Ani liked it as much as I did. No hot water though. It looks like there is a system for it in place. I’ll have to try suss it all out when I get a chance. The air-con in the main bedroom was heaven but the bed has a terrible squeak that is really annoying when you…. ah…. when… you are moving around… for ‘whatever reason’. Kinda distracting really and must be looked into soon as well. The mattress though is like a big fluffy, yet still supportive, cloud. Light years more comfortable than that concrete like slab I had at Raja and many of the places I have stayed at in my journey so far.

Ani’s house: Ani wanted to do some shopping at Mattaram Mall so we made our way to her families place again to pick up the crew and go for a bit of an outing to the mall. Here in Indonesia McDonalds is considered a first class restaurant so going to the mall is a pretty big event. You don’t even need to buy anything - it’s just the thrill of the outing. We spent virtually a whole day there. At least a couple of hours where spent at there games parlour. Kinda like Time zone back home it’s a huge spot chock full of games and activities. Perfect for entertaining the kids and I don’t mind admitting I loved it myself. OK, yes I know… it’s a bit daggy but being just a bigger, hairier kid with grey hairs, I was the last one ready to leave. Ani had to come over and drag me away from Virtual Cop. I would have thrown a small tantrum had I thought it would have any effect. We bought a Indonesian to English dictionary for me to start learning Bahasa Indonesia. I don’t know how effective it will be as it is written for Indonesians to learn English but it was the only one of it’s kind in this huge, sprawling complex. I was tired enough by the end of our outing without traipsing around through several more levels and wings in what would most likely be a vain attempt to find a version written for native English speakers. All in all it wasn’t too bad a day. I had fun even though I don’t usually dig shopping per se. It must be the novelty factor but I know too much more of this and it will get old quickly.

Swap bike: I also swapped Big Red for another Tiger Motorbike I am now renting from a mate of Ogi’s. Dubbed Black Beauty it’s exactly the same as the one I had but nearly half the day rate, brand new (only a month old) and der… it’s black not red.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Over the last few days there had been much discussion about what we wanted to do to celebrate New Years Eve. I eventually bought 3 tickets to the big Gala event at Senggigi Beach Resort. This is a government run and owned five star resort right on the best beach in Sengiggi. They are renowned for throwing the best shindig in Lombok every New Years Eve. I wasn’t going to miss out on an event that generates such hype, I considered it my duty to investigate further and see if this party is as good as they say it is. Since it is a pretty formal affair I needed a long sleeve dress shirt and Ani had nothing at all to wear that was even close to appropriate. Hendro had a brand new dress shirt some tourist had given him so he gave that to me as a gift but we needed to go buy something nice for Ani. This meant another trip to Mattaram Mall. I really wish I had given this all better forethought cause we where only there yesterday and could have done it then. Alas I haven’t been thinking or planning too well and found myself back at the chaotic mess of crowd, chrome and glass that is Lombok’s premium shopping facility.

My fears about this shopping caper getting old quick proved to be well founded. Today was not fun as we went from place to place trying on dresses and shoes. It had already gotten old and fast. I pondered why women feel the need to inspect every possible option of garb available in the building before being able to choose one. I never did come up with a reasonable conclusion. I just followed along as Ani discussed with gown was the most flattering with her sister Dewi. The irony of it all was that the gown eventually selected was one of the first we tried. Men reading this will sympathise with my frustration. Especially since by the time this was decided we where already several levels away and at exactly the opposite end of the VAST mall. I was nearly frothing at the bit to be home by the time shoes and accessories had been purchased and we were dropping Dewi off on our way back to Sengiggi.

We arrived back at Green Valley with just enough time to get ready. I DID manage to squeeze a pre-function beer or two in while Ani applied make-up and fussed over her final preparations. Dewi had hit me up today for a bit of cash so she could go visit her husband on Gili Trawangan for the night. His name is Ayoh and he works as a cook in one of the restaurants there. Gili T is a small holiday island north of Sengiggi. She only needed an extra 20 bucks or so and I was happy enough to give it to her. The money meant she could afford to take the kids as well. Since Ayoh only gets a few days off to return every month, the thanks and knowledge of how much my help meant to her was more than enough reason for me to shell out the cash. So I was a bit confused when a taxi rolled up and out piled Ani’s entire family. I hate not understanding what the hell is going on. I made mental note to devote some small time out of everyday to improving my Bahasa as I tried to find out why we had been invaded. Eventually I was told that the seas where too rough for the ferries to operate tonight and instead the family where going to hit up Marina Night Club while Ani and I where at our function. Of course the ‘travel money’ was never offered back to me. Small “bullshit” alarms where sounding inside my head. I decided then and there that I would be more wary of Dewi in the future. It’s not the amount of money involved but the principle that irked me. I knew the rough seas excuse was a pile of horse dung. From the road to Sengiggi you can see all the way to Gili T on the distant horizon. They may think I am stupid but I had noticed just how perfect the ocean was tonight on our way home. You could not ask for better conditions to be on the water. I bit my tongue though. I wasn’t going to get into some demeaning discussion with Ani’s family tonight. I wanted to have some fun.

Ani and I left the fam at my pad and made our way to the resort by taxi. Hendro was waiting for us at the gate with an umbrella. The rain had unfortunately started and looked to be hanging around like a bad smell for a while. This would normally not be an issue except this particular party was an outdoors function. Thankfully it wasn’t too heavy but still enough to be bloody annoying. The set-up at Sengiggi Beach resort was absolutely breathtaking. There was a huge stage on the beach with a band already playing. Long rows of delicious smelling food stands where positioned, both the left and the right of the stage. Down the middle, where gorgeously decorated tables on the sand and in front of the performance area. The whole lot was cleverly lit with masses of fairy lights, Hawaiian style torches and candles. Both Ani and I stopped in our tracks as soon as we saw it. A small “Oh my God” slipped from Ani’s lips as we stood hand in hand drinking in the sight. The general manager saw us standing there slack jawed and walked over to say hello. “Gidday folks, do you like the set-up?” he asked while extending a huge, white, chubby hand in warm greeting. Yep.. he’s an Aussie. I was pleasantly shocked out of my awe, took his hand and shook it as we chatted more. His name is Ian and he lives here in Sengiggi with his Indonesian wife and three kids. Ian asked us to join him and his friends for a few pre-dinner drinks so Ani and I followed him over to a large group that was a mix of Westerners and locals, all of whom where obviously fairly wealthy people. Hendro had disappeared somehow without me noticing so we soon found ourselves being introduced to far too many people for me to remember names.

My memory of the night gets pretty sketchy, very fast after this point. I remember being shouted several very strong JD’s by various members of Ian’s mates. Ani was soon so drunk we had to find her a seat as her new high heels where just too unstable under her intoxicated control. I met the owner of Blue Marlin Diving, though I can’t remember his name now. He’s Ian’s’ best mate, a Pom and generally a very interesting and polite guy. I also met a women by the name of Barbara, who is a writer for some newspaper conglomerate that operates here in Lombok and supplies the worlds press syndicates. I gave her my blog address out of courtesy, without much thought, when she asked for it. This meeting turns out to be the single most important event of the evening though I was not even really aware of it occurring. We’ll talk more about it in later blogs I’m sure. I also spent a great deal of time chatting with Ian. He’s a large man with an acerbic wit. His favourite past time is chatting in that classic Australian style of playful insults and double entendre’s. We spent ages trying to outwit each other. Thanks to Az I held my own fairly well. Without the practice back home I would have been lost I’m sure. Ian and I made firm friends during this conversation and Ian’s mates spent most of the time pissing themselves laughing as I came up with some choice one-liners. Hendro eventually found us again and turns out he already knows everyone. No surprise really from the self-proclaimed King of the Kings of Sengiggi. We where delegated prime position at a table for dinner by Ian himself, directly in front of the stage and adjoining Ian’s own table.

I remember eating and the food was freaking fabulous. Ani and I ate like we hadn’t seen food for days and I ordered a bottle of Bacardi from the bar. This is where all memory ceases to be coherent and in order so I’ll describe the rest of the night in point form.

* Hendro hit the stage more than once during the excellent entertainment. He cracked the whole crowd up with his antics and even made the paper with a photo of his antics. The dude is a consummate party professional.
* I bought more than one bottle of Bacardi. Too many to remember. We should have all ended up in hospital. At nearly a million rupiah each I spent a small bloody fortune but as Hendro says “One Time, One Night”.
* Ani and I also made the paper. I don’t actually remember this at all but soon discovered our photo in the weeks to come. I was smoking a cigar in the pic and still don’t know how that happened. Maybe Ian was giving them out… who knows.
* We carved up the dance floor at the end of the night. Along with Ian and Hendro, Ani and I owned the place. So much fun.
* I left my Bacardi behind when we decided to move onto Marina and catch up with Ani’s family. Ian found it and ran out himself to return it. No mean feat for the chubby fella. He was most disappointed with himself when I pointed out how he had just performed a decent act. Huffing and puffing from the exertion of running he left us chastising himself under his breath for acting out of character. Very funny man!
* We partied on at Marina for several hours after the function. Caught up with Ani’s family and also Monty and his fam.
* I was unable to stand up by the end of the night. Ani was propping me up as we waited forever for a taxi that never came.
* Eventually Ani got one of her girlfriends to take us home as the sun was rising. On her mates tiny little scooter!! Both Ani and I piled onto the small scooter with her girlfriend. After I fell off a few times Ani put me in between her and the other girl and they crawled home at a snails pace while TINY little Ani tried to ensure I remained in my seat. She succeeded though neither of us knows how.
* I woke up the following later that morning, still blind drunk and butt naked on the floor of our bedroom. Ani no longer had the strength to pick me up when I fell over as she undressed me.

All in all I had the best night. Unfortunately I soon discovered I had lost my mobile at some point during the night along with this small present Ian had given me (a Senggigi beach Resort travel clock). Ah well… it was a very big night… you have to expect some casualties.

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