Blandday

Hiyas all, as predicted, not a lot happening now.


Here is my daily routine at the moment:


4ish awaken briefly to the call to prayer.


6:30ish awaken to the sounds of movement and elevator music that they turn on in the corridors (I guess to scare away loafers).


7ish head down to breakfast with Tari.


1st course fruit (lots of it - have I mentioned how good the pineapple is?) and apple juice (really nice and sweet/tart rather than the kind of bland stuff we get at home)


2nd course a spoonful of four or five dishes. On some days this means only three or four spicy dishes. Guava juice and a cup of tea.


3rd course, Tari is usually heading off to work now at about 8:30 or so. More spoonfulls of whatever I didn't have room on the plate for in the 2nd course and maybe one or two of the ones I really liked.


4th course, slowing down now, I have my book out and am reading at the table (sorry Mum). Istu or Santi refill my tea with a little "Terahmakasih" from me (thank you) and a "samu samu" from them (you're welcome). 4th course is a free-for-all. You just can't predict the wild and crazy things I'll do. Often it's fruit and a croissant. Yesterday it was minute-steak and nasi goreng.


Today was neat, three buddhist monks in the robes, shaved heads etc. sat down next to us. We bowed our heads politely (as everybody does here). Nothing overly out of the ordinary until one of them got out his mobile phone. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that just does not fit my profile of buddist monk (then again, nor does breakfasting in a five star hotel come to think of it).


Tari was amused when she asked me about one of the dishes today and I said "It's nice, a little bit mild." Since when did I start ranking my breakfast food according to its chilli content???


Anyhow, after breakfast, sometime between 9:30 and 10:00 I wander back to my room. Sometimes I nap, today I'm blogging. Basically I just wait for my food to settle.


11:00(ish) into my bathers and down to the pool. Exchange nods and smiles with the poor guy who basically has to sit and make sure I don't drown. The first day I was there he was doing laps of the pool, sort of constantly checking me. Maybe the pasty white skin was a give-away that I don't spend a lot of time outdoors. The amusing thing to me is that the pool is only 1.6m deep so I can stand up in it with my head above the water. Anyhow, the last couple of days he hasn't been so concerned and will often just chat with one of the guards or groundsmen.


11:30-12:30 swim until the wind picks up a bit. That's my cue for exiting the pool, drying off and sitting on one of the poolside lounges while I read for half an hour or so. When the pool guy (I should learn his name) starts packing the towels up and carrying them inside that's the hint that any second now it's gonna pour.


12:30 - 13:30 have left the pool, it will now be either gently raining or absolutely thundering. I'll shower and read or watch a doco.


14:00 ish I might watch more TV. Yesterday I traipsed down to the local mall (about 20 minute walk and only a couple of scary intersections to cross). If you time it so that the rain has only just barely let up you might get a little damp (which the humidity and sweat would do anyway) and you get the bonus of not having too many other people out ('cos they're not nuts). So far I've lashed right out and bought a couple of VCDs perfectly legal ones I'm sure.


They're super high quality, like 320x240 downloaded from bit-torrent then burned to a CD. As long as you watch them small screen they're okay, Die Hard 4.0 looked average even on full screen. Fantastic 4 II looked, um, like somebody demonstrating the effects of pixellation using square centimeter pieces of coloured paper.


So why am I willing to watch bad movies at poor resolution? Well, for between $1 and $7 I figure it's like movie rental prices and the TV in our room is about that big anyhow! Plus I could go in the draw to "4 Win Units Nokia 5200" and you just can't miss an opportunity like that!


That fills in the arvo nicely. Sometimes I'll go sit down in the lobby with a nice tall chilled juice, sometimes I'll watch a movie/tv with a root beer. I've got the devastating task of finishing off two blocks of chocolate in the next four days. It's okay, they're only 200g blocks instead of 250g so I think I can make it =)


Tari get's "home" sometime between 4 and 6. She's been totally whacked so often it's just dinner then she's asleep by 8:30. Yesterday we had a trip to a Batik (the local clothing I told you about) store to buy a birthday present for one of her colleagues. Jacki (I found out there's no e) and Tari and I got a taxi (for the first time) because it was still raining (doesn't make it any cooler or less humid somehow). The taxi driver tried to scam us into going to an expensive store, and took a really round-about route. No point getting angry, the fare is still stupidly cheap and we ended up where we wanted in the end.


This store was two stories high. Ground floor was full of batik clothing for men, women and children. Upstairs had lots of, um, souvenir junk. Bad silver jewellry, sea shells, wooden carvings, cigarettes, solid brass ornaments. The whole store smelt of incense. I may not have mentioned the smoking yet, can't remember. Lots and lots of people smoke, you can buy from walking street vendors any type of cigarette you'd like and they smoke everywhere.


And I mean everywhere. Walking down the street? Check. Sitting in their cars? Check. In the side of the road food carts? Check. At the bank? Check. In restaurants? Check. In the toilets? Check. In case you were on autopilot, read that last one again. Yes, there is an ashtray fixed to the wall next to the toilet paper.


We accomplished our mission for the birthday present and braved the mall for a drink and to find a card. I say braved because there's only so much being stared at that you can handle after a while. When mothers holding babies point you out so that their other kids can stare at you it's definately time for a coke.


Jacki managed to talk a toy shop guy into a super bargain for things that she will re-sell later for a profit in Australia. As we left the guy's companions cheered him, so I figure that it was a win-win situation for everybody.


Guys with umbrellas escorted us to a taxi on our way out, again the lightning is just absolutely stunningly amazing here, as is the amount of water. You don't have a choice with the umbrella guys, they just follow you, shielding you from the rain, then you have to pay them. It's wierd handing over a 1000 for anything. You can tell the workers are getting tired, it's the first time I've seen Tari and Jacki choose a taxi rather than walking.


Back to the hotel for dinner (room service tonight so Tari can have a break from people). I caved in and had my first "western" meal. For the princely sum of 200,000 I had a massive Australian steak with chips, salad (with chilli flakes of course) bread rolls, lemon drink and yummy gravy. Worth every 1000. Absolutely yummy, cooked perfectly.


With that it was TV on to learn more about the never ceasing struggle between hippopotamus, lion and crocodile. When will they ever learn.


Anyway, that's pretty much the program for the last few days and the next few days. If we do anything else interesting I'll let you know. And Dean, I'll see if I can find some chicken essence for you =) We noticed it mentioned on another television show so it must be pretty common here. I think probably like Yakult or something.


Sim.