NOVEMBER 11TH

Well, I have to admit, until I came to Indonesia - I knew nothing about WWII outside of Europe. Did I completely miss that part in the history book?

So, it turns out "The Battle of Balikpapan", is very significant in fact. Might have a look on the Internet (If you actually have Internet - we're on day 2 without.) First a couple of interesting facts. Fact: the Japanese did invade Indonesia, and it wasn't nice. Fact: Balikpapan, even at that time was a big deal oil spot on the map. Fuel for for all those warplanes and ships. The Oil-fields, turned Balikpapan into a strategic war target.

I was told that the best idea at the time was to wipe Balikpapan off the map. And so they tried, apparently not a single tree was left. Lots of reminders here too, there's the Civilian Heroes Monument (above), the Japanese Cemetery, the Australian Memorial, a Japanese fighter plane sitting like a prisoner of war out at the Military Barracks, a couple of Japanese cannons, and a bunch of sunken war ships off the coast. And just to make things a little more interesting - someone happens across another un-exploded bomb every now and then.

A World War. Yes. Lest we Forget.

TODAY: Still NO Internet. And this morning - Oh shit I forgot about that - NO electric. (Maintenance is here doing some sort of electrical check??) And any minute now - NO water. Today is the official day to turn all the water off in the complex. Time for the big FLUSH I guess.

An Interesting Note: there are actually 23 light bulbs in our living room/dinning room, and thats not including any of the lamps. No wonder the electricity in this town is always OUT.

Fortnight lunch today - and so it turns out to be a really, really good day for that. (maybe they'll have electric?) Suns out - 9 a.m. and my thermometer reads 35°C - oooooh, it's already HOT. No electric - that means NO AC in the house.

Book Club get together tonight. Too bad I didn't finish reading the book. Sorry girls, but I just don't like the book. Too big, too slow, too boring ............ and I just keep getting lost in this book. Ok, I'm ready for the next one - bring on the next book.

The other Me is off today on a road trip. His once a month trip to Handil, 2 hours there and 2 hours back, on a very, curvy and twisty, bumpy little path (road). At least it's paved - rather, most of it. And you probably have AC in that car this morning TOO!

Good to Go!

AND NO - WE STILL HAVE NO INTERNET. I'm at the BBC borrowing from them.