When during our last trip Brian was in Kasih Ibu hospital with stomach hemorrhaging it was not a little scary.
One evening when it was looking as though they had him stabilised,and I was back at my hotel feeling a little lonely, I went down to the beach to tell some friends that he was OK and to be honest I really, really, felt like a Bintang, er well 2 actually. You know when there has been a crisis and then it calms down and the shock of what could have or nearly did happen hits you?
There were 2 tourist apart from me and the Anak Pantai (Java 3, Flores 1, Bali 1) plus the usual Balinese beach traders. Everyone was pleased to hear the news and all united in their opinion that 66 is way to old still to be surfing and that plainly this was the cause of the internal bleeding. (turned out to be aspirin. I hope they will still rent him a surf board next time!)
I had a bowl of Bakso with total disregard for fat or carb content or whatever else may be in there. MSG? then began to walk home thinking that while I was pretending not to be diabetic I may as well have chocolate or Halo Panda biscuits when I heard somebody yelling "Ibu, Ibu tunggu!" and I turned around to see one of the paper sellers from whom Brian buys most days hurtling down the beach road towards me. He is from Surabaya, whatever that may imply other than it is definitely in Java and in fact his own health has been a bit dodgy lately so seeing him running made me feel pleased for him that he actually could!
The long and the short of it was that he wanted to tell me if I needed help, anything at all I must ring him and he would come. In fact if I liked he would take me on his motorbike to Kasih Ibu and wait next time I wanted to go. I felt that he really meant it.
I have had people attempt to con me or become my "friend" in order to get money in Bali before so I am pretty good at spotting this but what my instinct told me in this case was that he was sincere. Now we have never given money or in any way tried to "help" this man. All that has happened has been that Brian buys papers from him if he turns up first out of the paper sellers.
Actually Brian was discharged the next day so I never needed to ask him for help but it warmed my heart that evening to know that if I needed it he would have done what he could.