In Reply to: We have JBR's but can anyone do a posted by Balimagic on Wednesday, 11. January 2006 at 05:34 Bali Time:
always boiled the kettle before drinking any water & it took him a long time to get out of that habit. He just stared silently out of the window on the way from airport to my place when he first arrived taking in everything & it was funny for me as I was driving remembering to myself how quiet & in shock I was on my first trip from airport to hotel in Bali. It must have been similar for him.
Then at the shops I think we spent triple that week on groceries, as he wanted to try everything... He also felt so isolated as people in Aust dont live in their neighbours pockets & often you dont know your neighbours well! To him this is still hardest to get used to even though we have bought a house on the same block as my ailing parents unit (as he wanted to look after tham as they get older!)
Out shopping one day & he was talking to a sales guy & had asked for 'running Pyjamas'....? Turned out he wanted to know where the tracksuits were!
He has a job & he works with 4 other Balinese guys & so they all take their rice, sambal & meat into work & share, which has been gooid for him, but maybe not his learning English better!
Initially he'd want me to make calls for him, but now he calls up & organises everything himself.
We have 2 kids & so luckily he had Maddison to go out for walks with so he was never alone even when I was back at work, they'd go to the park & on picnic's, so even though he was homesick, he was still not alone. He used to walk her to kinder & pick her up..
There have been hundreds of times he has done silly things & organised stuff to be done to the house or car & then I have had to call & cancel, coz he thought it was free etc!!!
He misses Bali, but he loves working & having stuff in Aust.