January, 2009 (Trying to find my place in a foreign land)

I don’t have time to finish… I’ll have to update this when I get home. It’s up to give you some Idea and so I do not lose it again. I will stay up to date in my travels with the crew and fix this up when I get home.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Recovery day: As you can imagine not a great deal occurred today. I moaned about losing my phone. We sent Man back to Marina to see if it had been handed in with no luck and the kids did far too much screaming and playing for my poor head to endure. I sent them home around mid afternoon and went back to bed feeling more than a little sorry for myself.

Friday, January 2, 2009

* Bludged around home, then back to Hendro’s pad for another feed and visit to the market.
* Back to Mattaram mall for more bloody shopping.
* Man takes my bike for flipping ages, I crack the shits & Ani cried.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

* Lost some of my photo’s somehow and some music. I think I deleted them by mistake.. what a mang.
* Bought new phone while Ani went shopping with Hendro’s wife and cooked up another feast at Hendro’s.
* Iwan was driving by and popped in to visit so he ended up coming with us to Hendro’s for the feast.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

* Wedding at Charlie’s village in east Lombok.
* Uni, Mum, Man and sister boy come visit.

Monday, January 5, 2009

* Had a big feed that Ani cooked here at home and got lots of work done on the yard.
* Beers at Lina Restaurant with Steve, Angie and Monty.
* Party back at Steve’s pad, met a bunch of fellow expats living here in Lombok and ventured out to Happy café and Marina for the after party with everyone.
* Ended up so drunk I pee’d in my room against the wall. Ani had great fun teasing the crap out of me about it. Impersonating my not so steady movements as I tried to find the door out of the room. At least she cleaned it up for me.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Recovery day… and went to Ampenan for a while to visit Ani’s family.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Finally got my ‘Speedy’ Internet connected at home.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Big day on net.

Friday, January 9, 2009

My Birthday:

* Spent the day at Pacific Hotel pool, swimming and drinking.
* Caught up with the whole crew at Happy Café for what was meant to be dinner and drinks but turned out to be drinks, drinks and more drinks. Hendro, Iwan, Ogi, Mimin, Ani, Steve, Ian and a bunch of others showed up.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

* Charlie was still mad drunk when I we woke up.
* Big sleep in before heading off to Ampenan to visit the family again.
* We brought Uni home for the night. She’s sooo cute and was no problem though Ani made me sleep the wrong way across the bed because Uni was scared of me.
* Both Hendro and Ogi are giving me the shits a bit. They have no idea of what ‘I want some time here at home alone’ means.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

* We went to Pacific Hotel pool again, for another long swim, more than a few drinks and a feed.
* We were back early in the evening, very pissed, for a long, much needed sleep.

Monday, January 12, 2009

* I’m a little shaky after my weekend of celebratory, birthday drinks.
* Bumped into Barbara (who I met on New Years - Remember?) and got mad job offer.
* Went to café Liam Karaoke Bar to celebrate my luck. 100 bucks later - Hendro had been laid, we ruled the stage at karaoke and I had a huge fight with Ani when we got home.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

* I was Mad hung over this morning. Didn’t get out of bed until after midday.
* Ani doesn’t remember a thing about the fight… hahaha… that’s it no more Illusions for Ani.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

* Didn’t leave the house except to go to the market and then later to a street café for dinner (great tucker).
* Met another of Hendro’s mates Danny who teaches several languages to locals privately. He helped me find this dope program for learning Bahasa Indonesia on the computer.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

* Had a very bludgie kind of day again.
* Ani and I ended up at Ampenan playing cards with her family and neighbours while getting drunk on this weird locally brewed alcohol called ‘Brum’.

Friday, January 16, 2009

This was the day before we left for Gili Trawangan. We spent it getting organised buying tickets and researching where to stay.

Friday, January 17-19, 2009

Gili T

Friday, January 20-25, 2009

* Got my books from mum.
* Went to Ampenan a few times.
* Hurt my back doing back flips at pacific pool

Friday, January 25-31, 2009

* I get a local healer around to help me with my back and he has some crazy predictions for me.
* Got attacked by a horse while riding through Ampenan.
* Cultural differences and language difficulties.

What must be said:-
In reference to the faith healer dude I mention in the bullets above, here is what I wrote in an e-mail to Mum. I hurt my back the other day and had a "faith healer" (for want of a better term, he is like a massage, acupressure and religious therapist all rolled into one) over yesterday to fix it. He sorted my back and then told me, without any leading by anyone, how I was very missed back at my home. He said my friends and family are all very powerful people because he could feel the good wishes and love they are sending me. He told me that I have a huge reserve of positive energy both from within and because of the good karma everyone sends me. He then told me it was important I travel home regularly... in my dreams. I told him I didn't know how to do that so he made up a potion that I have to apply to specific points on my body before sleep that will help me make the journey. I did just that last night and had the most vivid dreams of being home with you all... It was incredible... both rejuvenating and sad. I miss everyone so bad. I kinda freaked a little tho. How the fark did he do that?? I was up pretty early walking round the house freaking out and my phone rings. "Halo" I croak... it was the faith healer!! I had only been up for 5 minutes and he reckons he could tell I was spinning out so he called to reassure me. He then proceeded to tell me he had dreamed about me last night and needed to tell me an important message from god!!! Holy shit was I ever covered in goose bumps at this point! He told me to keep travelling... do not stay in Lombok for any longer than end of March (exactly when I had planned to go) there is something big I am meant to achieve or discover (I'm still not that good at understanding Bahasa Indonesian). He kept saying Harume, which means good smell but is also the indo version of the name Aaron. Somehow Harume is important to my development as a person and my ultimate happiness. He told me I had great success in life awaiting me as I have a gift for telling stories and that there is a story I have to experience and tell the world to achieve my purpose in life!!!!!

I'm soooooooooo spun out at the moment. How freaky is that shit!!! Not your average phone call ey. Strangest thing is I have only a basic grasp on Bahasa Indonesia... so I was looking stuff up in my dictionary as we spoke. The strange bit about that was whenever he would give me a phrase or word I was unsure of, the meaning in the dictionary was exactly what I was guessing it was. I quizzed him how was it possible to understand words I had not yet learned and he said it is because it is a message for my spirit, not my conscious self and there is only one language in the spirit world.

Something’s in life defy explanation, I know that, but talk about twilight zone :-)

February, March, 2009

* How do ya trust ani’s fam
* Is ani’s bro a boy lover
* Ani’s friend Sali
* Meeting Ben and trip to Kuta
* What’s the deal with my rent (Haliel or Ogi) I know they get commission
* Laughing at Bule’s in Marina
* Talk about Ani and her history
* Sexual translations (Sniff V Kiss, Hugs and spooning, the silent treatment V’s talking it out, how did Ibu support her fam in suluwesi)
* A day in the life of… Jalan, Masak, Makan, Mandi, Jalan, Masak, Makan, Tidur Jalan makan Minum, Mandi, Tidur
* Troubles with hendro (knife bending night, Crying apology night, Getting the shit with me for not buying MORE rokok, Ogi gets in hendro’s ear, who ever said Hendro was my employee)

The night Uni went to hospital.

Here is what I sent to Mum via e-mail:-
Hey ma and boofhead,

Thought ya may have been tryna get me again and wanted to report in.

First - I'm improving a lot health wise. There is still a small hard lump there but no pain now. If not gone I the next week I will follow up. Medicines are all finished so fingers crossed.

2nd - What a freakin horrible 2 days or one very long one. Sunday morning I go to get some money out and can't. I'm like what the fark?? So return home to check online and I cannot log in. Just comes up with this security warning. By now all of Ani's fam has popped over to cook up a huge feed and we have screaming or sick kids everywhere, along with loud talking chain smoking adults having a good long old fashioned chin wag and catch up. Meanwhile the rain hits hard so everyone is forced inside my somewhat tiny pad. There's politics and religion being heartily discussed at ear splitting decibels, tantrum throwing toddlers and madly laughing children of various ages running riot while I try and deal with a call to Australia and the CBA. As you know the phone here isn't the best in optimal conditions and with the rain I kept getting cut off or could only hear every third word. Then when I finally can get a decent line there is the discovery that someone has tried to hack my net bank and everything is frozen as a security measure. OK... so lets unfreeze it... well we could if I had not lost my mobile phone. I need to use the netcode sms service as part of reinstating access. I cannot use an Indonesian number but I can use what they call a netbank token... long story short to receive said token the only option is by mail... which as we know can be like 6-8 weeks. No they will not accept my mothers address as that breaches the netbank token confidentiality. Anyway after much arguing I convinced them to unfreeze my account but that still takes overnight. I had zip cash left... ok I thought... although it was inconvenient I reckon no biggie really.

Then - by late arvo Uni (Ani's kid) has this mad temp, won't eat or drink, constantly crying. Yes we are worried but settle in for the night. No sleep tho. Uni is just constantly crying. We get more worried. By 3am she has this rash developing on her feet, hands and in and around her mouth. Panic strikes. We are off to the hospital in ampenan with Ani, Ani's mum Ibu and Uni all crying to find out what is wrong. The doc does a cursory examination and says we need blood work but that cannot be done till 8am. So we head to ani's families place to wait out the time with Uni still screaming constantly. Eventually the paracetamol we were given kicks in a little and she goes back to just a more normal crying... non stop. Off for the blood work eventually, still with no sleep and after the tests are done we cannot see the doctor again till 2pm. Back to the fam's pad for more screaming baby, worrying and no sleep. 2pm we hit the hospital and the doctor has been called to an emergency. Off we trott back to the fams pad and then after a phone call we go back finally to see the doctor around 7pm. By now Uni has calmed quite a bit. Stopped crying and although has not eaten properly or been able to take milk (her mouth is too sore) she seems relatively happy. Doctor diagnoses hand, foot and mouth disease... nothin he can do. It's a viral infection with few complications. She will be fine in a few days. So back to the fams house, stuff around gettin uni to bed and finally I am home now.. it's around 11pm AND I still have not slept. I'm beat. Ani is in a foul mood. Right now i'd so rather just be home hahaha. Of course all of this is taking money to get done... and I can't get at mine. Talk about bad timing. So there I am borrowing what I can off various fam members (who are all dirt poor anyway) to get Uni treated. It was only about 500 000 (8000 = $1oz) but that was a task for everyone to raise let me tell you.

Anyway thought i'd give you the rundown.

My bank troubles.

I have been having all sorts of drama’s with my bank of late. Here is what I wrote to Az about it. Some cunt has tried to hack my online banking. At first we thought it was another CBA customer who had just entered their user number wrong (mine by coincidence) and then locked me out and shut down my ability to even draw funds from an ATM, by trying their password to many times. I rang CBA and they unlocked my account. Then after putting the phone down, in the time it took me to log back onto the net... I was locked out again!! So someone is watching my account and they must think they are close to my password. In other words it's some dude tryna steal my money. So now I have frozen accounts until they investigate further. Lucky I had withdrawn a far wad before all this began... I'm nearly stone broke now but CBA reckon the will re-install my ability to bank tomorrow. Even if it means giving me a new account etc. That could suck bigtime if they do cause then I have to wait for a new card and pin to be sent to mum and then forwarded to me. So no freakin ATM access while I wait up to two months for my mail. Indo post is just choice!! I have opened a Indo bank account using Ani's name etc so I can at least transfer funds into that and use her card for our trip. Once I have netbank access again of course. Grrrrrr!

Ani’s driving the motor bike.

Homesickness - The unrelenting pest.

April, 2009

Mimin - the family visit.

Ani driving the car.

Uni’s Party.

Man’s Wedding.

Ibu moves in.

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