Usually, I pack a few sachet thingies of plastic ear plugs, mainly to drown out any bogans on the flight, my own snoring, or screaming kids that you could end up next door to. Guess what? No ear plugs, and for a while I contemplate banging on the wall and telling them to shut up, or, borrowing the mosquito fogging equipment and jamming it under their front door. These kids must have lungs like space hoppers, it goes on and on, the never ending banshee wailing and the parents oblivious to it all. Perhaps they have my ear plugs? So, a night's 'sleep' consistently interrupted by these brats is not good for my hypertension. I'm thinking of something to take my frustration out on... the Germans should be glad they have left
It's light before we know it, and Mrs W seems a bit better, amazing what 4 Imodium tablets, a cork, and a mallet can do. Off we go for our fifth brekkie, and I can rest easy . The toaster is no longer a problem, and I feel very relaxed walking into the restaurant. I don't believe it!! The French have congregated in rugby scrum mode around the toaster, chatting away, and hogging the excusion zone I had agreed with the Germans. 'Excusez moi , s'il vous plait' Wharfie utters... The French turn around, one of them apologizes and beckons me forward. I multi task, grabbing two slices of wholemeal, whilst , at the same time, smiling and say 'merci beaucoup' . I spy another nattily dressed French gentleman, 'comment allez vous c'est matin' ..I enquire... 'tres bien... et vous' ...is the reply. I have made my mark, I have opened a line of communication on what they believe is their terms... little do the know they have used up my entire French vocabulary in forty seconds flat. I hope and pray they don't ask me anything else. The seeds of mutual friendship are sown, and for the rest of my holiday, we share respectful glances, smiles and a wave or two. I bet all the girls reading this got a bit excited thinking that Wharfie may be bi?...lingual..that is. Sadly, I was hardly academic, and bits of languages I do know are from latter day experiences
Disaster... the HP sauce has gone AWOL ..oh no! I simply can't eat breakfast without it, I ask the staff to get me a new bottle or, I won't be paying my room bill. The situation is compounded by the bay marie being emptied of chicken sausages. I note the French have heaps on their plates...but I let it go for the sake of diplomatic relations. So today, it's more bacon than normal, toast, and Ibu Omelette's signature two egg perfection. Mind you, (and this was my fault) , I put bacon on my plate first, so when my eggs were delivered onto my plate, one impaled itself on a crispy rasher of bacon. There was yolk everywhere, and I like to leave this bit until last. Sadly, I had to spread it straight onto my wholemeal and eat it like 3 years old child sitting in a high chair. Oh well, hopefully it will be status quo tomorrow.
Just for a change, we head off to Bali collection . I have to pick up the two sets of blue contacts I ordered yesterday for my gorgeous step daughter...(she is still reading)... but , we also head to one of the Polo shops to get Wharfie some business shirts. I kid myself by picking up a slimline fit short sleeve blue shirt, to which I am told I would need a shoe horn just to get my left pectoral into it. Charming ! So, I get a couple of shirts with the standard 20% discount and we then make for CoCo supermarket . On the way we decide to stop off at Starbucks and enjoy an ice tea lemonade. I still need to make sure that Mrs W's fluid levels are kept up, and, although she is now back at 80% of her old self, I didn't want to take any chances. Plus, I was parched, so it seemed like a good excuse.
Coco.... Is huge!! Everything you ever need on holiday. Always empty you bar fridge at the hotel and come fill it up from here. Bintangs are 5200 each, a hefty saving on hotel prices..( I had been paying 18000). It is now full of clothes, shoes, batik , homewares and one of those fish spa things. I didn't like the idea of sitting in a vat of mini piranhas, Wharfie is very ticklish and 100,000 seemed a bit of a rort. I mean , what do the fish get out of it? We were in here an eternity, always a sign that Mrs W is getting better, she stands on one leg , Flamingo style, and tries on heaps of shoes. I go and check out all the chocolates (as you do) and am amazed at all the varieties of Tim Tams !! I buy some Mr P spicy peanuts , a Toblerone and a Fruit and Nut bar... did I tell you I was on a health kick? By now , Mrs W is starting to struggle a little bit, she settles on 2 pairs of shoes, and nice couple of short 'beachy' type dresses. Dead cheap, so, an hour later, I head towards the cashier.
We leave Bali Collection...yay! And pick up a Bluebird who takes us to Laguna restaurant. Laguna is sort of next door to The Tree, and I like the food here, and the free wi-fi. I insist that Mrs W go have a nice foot massage in the Laguna spa (75000) whilst I went to have a bite to eat...(she still wasn't feeling hungry).. I had a really nice mega chill chicken curry that nearly blew my socks off and a couple of diet cokes...trying to watch the figure you see. Refreshed we head back to the Novotel, and we decide to have a couple of hours at the pool on the other side of the road. We change clothes in our room, and I don my super slim fit 58' boardies.The kind security man stops the traffic for us to cross, and even though I still feel like I am in a virtual game of 'frogger'..I make it to the other side
Ahhhh...and there they are, the phantom pool hoggers..loads of towels and no people. This time, they are more crafty , they leave a bag of clothes, water , and magazines. Have the Germans returned or is this the undercover plan of the French. Doesn't bother me, they are all soon back at the pool towel hut, and I put all the bags of clothes in a neat pile. I noted on two particular loungers , there were three , yes three,,, towels on each... so that was almost a journey on its own to go take these back. So annoying, and I have since written to the Novotel via my guest critique about this..not as though anything will be done of course. We only sunbake for a couple of hours, its simply too hot, and we decide the sanctuary of a room is a much better choice and to watch a DVD or TV. As we cross back over the road, I remark that I have still to go see my beach seller friends , ( to the right of the beach volleyball court) , and buy something from them
Without more to do, we head past the Penida stage, past all the French...I think one woman winked at me...and onto the beach. Sure enough they remembered us, and I tell them I want a slim fitting ( they seem to think this is very funny) Billabong and Rip Curl t-shirt, a bag or two, and a sarong or two. Before we commence the games of bartering, I tell the lady that my wallet is in the room, and that I have no money upon my person. She says this is no problem at all, we agree a price..300,000 rp...( I know,,ripped off !)..and she gives me the goods and says for me to bring the money tomorrow. Where else in the world would I be able to walk away with that sort of trust? So, I go straight to the room, get my money and bring it straight back ... she is very happy , and we enjoy a chat, and I tell her we will be back in March with nine others and that we will come buy some more stuff.
We then had a shower and changed ready for dinner. I made the big mistake of running short on cash, so changed $100 in the hotel..I only get 8100 for my $, whereas it is now 8650 in the street. Tonight we went to Nelawan seafood restaurant , and it was packed with the French Citroen brigade who had all had a Babi Guling buffet....and very nice too. I had a seafood platter for 90,000 and Mrs W enjoyed 400g worth of Lobster , we sat very close to the three delightful dancing girls.
So that was Thursday.. I have now defeated the Germans , smashed the pool lounge hogger ring, and made acquantainces with the French. I now need to go get a Russian phrase book, as they now seem to be populating the Novotel quite quickly. I don't need to learn much Russian... 'hello'.. 'how are you' and 'why are you such a miserable sour faced bugger' should do it.
I go to bed worrying about not only the toaster , and whether I can get near it in the morning, but also about the two brats next door. I wonder if Tazer's are available in Bali......hmmmm
To be continued...(thanks again for reading and your kind responses)