TGIF

TGIF!

Yesterday was a very busy day! Good day yesterday. Got all the stuff done that I should have done and then some.

All is good in the Aquarium.

The other Me made it home.

And the cat came back. Guess she likes us after all.

Curiosity Thought: Who buys the fake car antennas for sale at the Hero Store and why?

TODAY: Peanut Butter Cookie Day. Perhaps? Not sure how's she's doing it but the housekeeper this morning is making peanut butter cookies - just noticed she's got the wrong recipe. Hmmmm

Meeting up with girls this morning for yummy coffees somewhere (?) and then lunch after that.

So gotta go. Happy weekend!

Good to Go!

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

Ok, this whole keeping fish as pets thing is turning into a bloody mess. What was I thinking?

So what started out as an inexpensive fish bowl and two tiny little fish - has now turned into ............ first a new replacement fish, and then yesterday, an actual aquarium to keep them in, a pump for the new said aquarium, special water for the aquarium and a jerry can to haul the special water in. A splitter wall receptacle thingy for the plug-in, and now believe it it or not, I still need an electrical extension cord to actually plug it all in. Which and of course, in Balikpapan - you can't actually buy one of them. You have to build it. Some electrical cable and two ends.

........ and, now that we have an aquarium, slightly bigger than the original fish bowl we started with - I just have this feeling, when the other Me gets back into town, we're going to end up heading out this weekend and getting more fish.

What was I thinking?

A couple other things: The cat that is (was) attached to our house, is so fed up with with all the rest of the little ones that keep hanging about. She's pretty much moved out. Found a new house to hang at for awhile - but at least she comes for a visit every now and then.

A huge fire in Balikpapan Tuesday night. In Kampung Baru Ujung. Way on the other side of town - where the houses are mostly built from wood and very, very tightly packed in. Where one house fire very quickly and easily almost immediately turns into 10. Last count I heard was 100.

TODAY: I'm busy. Busy with a whole bunch of stuff.

And here's an interesting thing, something that came in my in-box this morning.

IRONY AT ITS BEST
90 people get the Swine Flu and everybody wants to wear a mask.
Millions of people have AIDS and no one wants to wear a condom.

Hmmmm. Thanks for reading everyone.

Good to Go!

LIFE IN THE FISH BOWL

I think maybe I'll title this photo "How to cross a river when you can't find a bridge". That works, doesn't it?

Looks like I'm in for an interesting day. Woke up this morning to an empty fish bowl. What (?) What's that all about you ask? Hmmmm. Has me wondering too.

Fortunately the housekeeper managed to rescue the poor fish before they were completely out of water and dead. They now have a temporary home in a plastic (pink) bucket instead. Seems sometime in the middle night the fish bowl gained a few cracks. Lots of cracks in fact. Faulty glass? Perhaps?

TODAY: Buy a new fish bowl! And fast!

Good to Go!

FISH 3

Well that was pretty easy task. Welcome Fish #3. Was a little worried at first. It was looking like Fish 1 wasn't too happy about the new room mate, but alas, they're both doing circles now. Happy Fish ...... I think.

The other Me is off this morning on a road trip. That means the house almost all to myself + the housekeeper + cats (outdoor cats) + fish. I wonder how quiet it's going to get?

TODAY: Today I think I'm Blog stuck. Not much. :)

Good to Go!

FISH TALES

Helloooooo Monday! Did you know? This is the last May Monday of the year 2009. After this one we're moving into June.

I'll get to the FISH TALES in a moment - first let me tell you about the cats. And no these are not related stories. So these two cats are just a few of the many, many that like to hang out near our house. And I should point out, the cat that's actually attached to the house is having some serious stress issues with this too. Poor thing.

So anyways these two, I'm guessing are related, as in kinship (brother and sister perhaps) - cause there's definitely some of that going on here. And they are an inseparable pair too. Found themselves the only dry patch around this place to have a nice nap after the flooding rain we got hit with on Saturday afternoon. Too cute don't you think?

FISH TALE. Fish 1 and Fish 2. Well, turns out it's a good thing we didn't get around to naming these guys yet. Sad to say but the orange fellow (Fish 2) didn't make it through the night over the weekend. Yup, woke up Sunday morning to see the black guy (Fish 1) no longer has a play mate. Now it seems he's been doing victory laps around the fish bowl for the last 24 hours too. ......... just you wait, this afternoon I'm going out and picking up Fish #3.

Special Note: If we end up with Fish 14 and 27............

I've made the decision to support J. Button in the F1. Not only does he have a cool name, but, he's now won 5 out of this year's 6 races. And since this is my first year of actually getting into this (watching) sport (can you actually call it a sport?) I think it's only fitting that I throw all my support to this guy and his team.

We did manage to come up with the F1 Drink. Let's just say it involved a blender, three types of liqueur, a whole lot of frozen strawberries and even a plastic spatula that managed to get itself in there and got all chopped up too. And it was pink. (the drink + a few bits of white plastic too)

:: The AC is still not fixed. Still waiting and waiting on that.

:: Ants have now moved into our bathroom.

:: And my friend - seriously did in her toe!! OUCH! Ouch! ouch!

TODAY: Purchase Fish #3.

After thought: All the cats in this compound are related to each other. Doh!

Good to Go!

SATURDAYNESS

Saturdayness, that's probably not a real word - but .......

Ok, so remember, I said I might slip in a few old photos every now and then. Well. here go - here's one of them. This (these) were actually taken quite some time ago, and sadly I have to admit I haven't been back out to where these guys live at the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) at Samboja in quite awhile either. Go ahead - click on Samboja and check it out.

Big thanks for all the fish names - and there are some really good ones. Baskin & Robbins, Jake & Ellwood, Ying & Yang, Fish & Chips (?), etc. etc.and my personal favorite - Black & Decker. Sorry, but we haven't made a decision yet. Maybe over the weekend we'll manage to get settled on that.

Took me 2 tries yesterday, but I think I did manage to get the hand phone bill paid. Maybe (?) Maybe not (?) Computers were all down so ended up with a handwritten receipt. And so far, they haven't cut my service off, least, not yet. (FYI - I was queue #531)

So the new Yuli's Cafe and Pizza restaurant opened this week - last night was their soft opening event. And of course we went. Wouldn't have miss it. We've been watching this place come to life over the last few months. (remember the shopping trip - Bali and Lombok) Nice place.

We have a group coming over for dinner and the F1 Race (Monaco) tomorrow night. And apparently, I'm told, we're even going to invent or rather *re-invent the F1 Cocktail. (oh, those crazies from the UK)

*re-invent - looks like there already is one. It's called The MacLaren F1. (think I'll pass on that)

• 1 oz Malibu® Coconut Rum
• 1 oz Pernod® Licorice Liqueur
• 1 oz Dubonnet® Rouge Vermouth
  Stir ingredients together in a cocktail glass, and serve

TODAY: Perogie making morning in our house - in preparation for tomorrow night. A couple little errands to do and then we'll see about the rest. Have a great weekend!

Good to Go!

FISH 1 AND FISH 2

Yesterday was (Ascension Day) another one of those Red Calendar Days here - that means public holiday. Public Holiday number (?) - I don't know what. We have lots of holidays here.

Ok, so about yesterday's fish. Lets just say they were a present. A Happy Something Day kind of gift. Might even go down as a "Remember the year you gave me the fish?" thing. Long story - but let's just say these guys have moved in with us. Kinda like having new room mates I guess.

So some background on the fish. Except that one's orange and the other one black - I have no idea what kind they are or where they originate from. They were not bought off the back of a motorcycle, but they were displayed along with a whole bunch of other fish (*parana) hung up in neat little rows in their nice clear plastic bags. (see photo here) Clear plastic bags are used for selling just about anything and everything here. Water, ice, drinks, snacks, etc. etc. and fish.

Anyways - so now we are tasked with naming these fish. These guys have no names as of yet. I like to call them Fish 1 and Fish 2. (no idea which one is which) The other Me's not too crazy about that. Any suggestions out there? Names for fish?

* To my surprise (and I'm not sure why I would/should be surprised by this) (scared the %#@! out of me in fact) as I went up for a closer look - they tried to attack. These things have teeth. Big ones in fact. Who in their right mind would ever want to have that in their fish tank? Geeeeez - I'm sure if you didn't keep a lid on the tank they'd jump out and get you in fact.

We got to see the new Star Trek movie last night. (pirated copy of course) And, I think they did a pretty darn good job of it too. No, I don't have a uniform hanging in my closet and I can't speak Klingon either, but, I am one of those fans who grew up watching the inescapable after-school reruns over and over and over again. Didn't you? If you haven't yet - do yourself a favor and go see it.

TODAY: Lots of stuff!!! First off I need to get the hand phone bill and pay it before it gets cut off. And that entails getting in the queue with everyone else. (God I miss internet banking) Oh well that's just the way it is here I guess.

Live long and prosper all you fish. TGIF!

Good to Go!

RED CALENDAR DAY

Red Calendar Day! That means Holiday (day off)!

Will tell you all the fish story tomorrow.

TODAY: Have a good one.

Good to Go!

HAVE A NICE DAY

Ok, so since the internet has turned into a give-me-grief thing here this morning, I've had lots of time to sort through all the photos I never seem to do anything with. Be prepared - over the next while you might even get to see some.

No, this not my furniture - trust me, I would never let that happen in my house. I can assure you of that. It is in fact from a hotel room I had on a trip to Mataram, Lombok. Aside from the fact that the hot and cold water were on opposing sides of the bathroom, it was actually a really great place to stay - totally awesome people. Not too sure about the decorating issues they have going on. The carved eagle was, believe it or not, the head of the bed. Imagine sleeping with that thing looking down on you all night. And there was even a matching make-up table and a set of arm chairs. (all with eagles of course)

Had a nice day yesterday. I think I like Tuesday the best. The South American cooking class was great. And I've decided I especially like Ponche Crema. It's a Venezuelan drink - with Rum. Yum.

A trip to the mall yesterday afternoon with an added bonus of finding pre-made pizza crusts. (need to get back there and buy them all up) (before someone else does) Me and the other Me, even managed to find time to go way across town for a massage last night. And that was nice.

A few interesting observations from my trip to the mall yesterday - aside from the fact that there is actually a new store (with nothing in it). And I should point out that this may only be a little interesting (or strange) to me.

Interesting Observation #1: Young boys working in the Body Shop selling women's skin products. And make-up. Hmmmm - something just seems terribly wrong with this.

Interesting Observation #2: The Stereophonics' Have A Nice Day playing at an incredibly high decibel through-out the super market (Hero Store) and more than one customer singing along with it. I wonder if they think maybe we'll all hang out and listen and buy more stuff. Maybe they're on to something - sure beats elevator music. (and of course, now I've got the have a nice day lyrics stuck in my head)

Interesting Observation #3: A new shipment of brightly coloured plastic liter box pooper scoopers have arrived at the super market (Hero Store) and if you happen to be looking for one - they've hung them up with all the nice shinny spatulas and serving spoons and whisks, in the kitchen utensils isle. Somebody seriously needs to go help them out with that one.

Interesting Observation #4: This didn't actually happen at the mall, but .............. why is it that a Traditional Massage changes every time you get one? There must be a whole lot of versions of traditional floating about.

TODAY: Oh, who knows. So far this morning things have totally gone off the rails. My I-was-planning-to-do-in-the-a.m. list, will now all become afternoon stuff. And that's OK.

...... and some news just in from home. Congratulations to a special someone.

Have a nice day.

Good to Go!

TUESDAY AGAIN

Look at that - here it is, Tuesday again.

Ok, so check this out. This is an article that appeared recently in the Jakarta Post. (if you want to read the whole thing - go here) Is there any other country in the world that does this? Not a bad idea in fact. ......... examine the mental and physical capabilities of presidential candidates. Maybe all the Presidential (Prime Minister) hopefuls of the world should first go for a check-up before they're allowed to run. Interesting concept.

Yesterday turned into a rather busy + interesting + do what you really like (paint) kind-of-day. Managed to get myself way over to the other side of town and picked up my birthday gift from my favorite 'rock shop'. And it is totally awesome. #1. Maybe tomorrow I'll have a picture of that.

Turned out, that while I was there, so were 3 gentlemen from Sri Lanka - dressed entirely in white, sitting on the floor behind the counter, sorting though handfuls of sapphires - for resale here. WOW. Big WOW. ...... more sapphires than you can ever imagine. Lots and lots and lots of them and almost every colour you could ever want. Including a blue sapphire almost as big as an American dime. I didn't even dare ask them "how much?", but at least I got to touch it. Impressive to say the least.

TODAY: Already rolling right along. Started the morning with a South American cooking class. Yum. They truly do make the best food I think.

This afternoon - have some errands to run, some stuff to drop off and some stuff for pick up.

.......... and this just in. Its looking like the other Me is working on getting some (1 week) time off. Good deal. Good enough to get out of here, and go some place nice.

Have a good one. Good to Go!

COLOUR ME PINK

Good Sunday to you all! ....... and a good Monday too!

So I truly did make an attempt at a post yesterday afternoon (Sunday), but that just didn't work out. Me and the other Me were enjoying a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon, listening to some Sappy Sunday Music when we got a phone call - and very soon afterwards whisked ourselves off and away to something else. Call it spontaneous.

Spon-ta-ne-ous: If you're the kind of person who acts first and thinks about it later, your friends are likely to describe you as spontaneous, which means that you behave in a very natural way, without prompting or premeditation. Yup, that would be us. Life is so full of rules - every now and then you just need spontaneous.

So you're wondering what's been going on? It has been a busy bunch.

:: Girl's Night Out. As always - it was great .......... and of course as always - it was a late night out.

:: The other Me found a snake skin out on the patio - fortunately no snake was attached. But wholly @#*! - I do not like that. And now I'm on the constant look out. I especially don't want to see the black (cobra) ones. More about snakes another time.

:: The Big Birthday Bash. Best I don't say anything about that.

:: International Food Fair. Fabulous! An amazing amount of cooking took place and good on everyone involved in that. My favorite - the Argentine Empanadas of course. It was all good. Very, very good in fact. I don't need to eat now for at least another week after that.

:: The house keeper - took the weekend off. Off to see her sister.

:: I polished almost every single silver thing in this house.

:: The cat got beat up. Poor cat. And I'm referring to the cat that is actually attached to this house - not all the other ones that show up. We even made an attempt to keep her in the house last night, but she sooned turned into a big purry pest - so we had to put her out.

:: Got a call from some friends who have recently relocated to a place way north of Perth in Australia. So good to talk to them. "When are you coming to see us?" Hmmm - we'll have to work on that.

:: ........and of course life and all the other regular stuff.

TODAY: I feel great! Amazing what more than 5 hours sleep will do.

Helping out a friend with a bunch of stuff. Let's just say I've got some work to get done. (Tell you all about that in a later post)

And answering the call of an SMS I got over the weekend - my Birthday present is ready for pick-up.

Good to Go!

PERFECT

PERFECT: Suns out and we have Internet.

THE PERFECT FIX: Well (?) ....... maybe, not too sure yet about that. So the internet Gods were at it again. Yesterday was a NO internet day around here. The whole day. Cut off from the rest of the world. .......... nice surprise this morning though, to see we've got it back. And possible a little faster too. Give it some time though and then we'll see about that.

THE PERFECT FIT: The drawer insert thing-am-a-gig cutlery thing is now a perfect fit. Not sure how they did that so quick, but it's a fit. They re-sized something (?) and now it fits. No more forks messing with the spoons.

THE PERFECT MATCH: The new bookshelf arrived. And a perfect match (size, colour, shape and all that other stuff) to the ones we already had. If we keep this up we'll end up with no wall space left. (I don't think you can ever have too many book shelves.) Still need to load it up with all the good junk stuff.

THE PERFECT BIRTHDAY GIFT: Ok, nothing beats picking out (designing) your own Birthday Gift - totally inspired by the other Me. (The other Me rocks!) Yes, it was in fact my birthday a number of weeks ago (maybe tomorrow I'll tell you about that). Anyways, I know it's taken me awhile, but - yesterday I finally did it. Yup, I did it. Bought 1 diamond, 2 blue sapphires, 2 emeralds and a peridot. Now I'm just waiting for them to get set. It's journey thing. Promise, I'll post a photo when I get it.

PURRR - FECT: (?) Not sure why, but lately there's a whole lot of cats thinking they should live at our house. Why is that?

TODAY: Is PERFECT and already going by fast. And I have a whole bunch of catching up on things to do.

Need to get our favorite AC fixed. Over-use is starting to take it's toll on it. Think maybe the bearings are all worn out. Have the perpetual high pitch hummmmm going on here, that you can hear everywhere in this house. Hope they can fix it - PERFECT.

Tonight is the start of 3 nights out in a row (not including last night). Tonight - girls night out. Tomorrow - a big birthday bash. And Saturday - the BIWA Food Fair event.

Perfect.

Good to Go!

SELASA

Ok, Tuesday - let's roll! By the way, Tuesday is called Selasa around here. Actually Hari Selasa to be exact. The Hari part is day. (And even though I've been here for more than a short bit - I still keep getting Selasa and Senin mixed-up.)

Yesterday the furniture shop called to let me know my new bookshelf and drawer insert thing-am-a-gig cutlery thing is ready. That was fast. A totally best part of living in this place is all the custom made furniture (wood) you can get. They'll make almost anything you can dream up.

The bookshelf they'll deliver today - I hope. Need to clear some of the stuff (good junk) out of the way and make room for that. Very much looking forward to having the new bookshelf. Nothing beats getting a nice new empty shelf to load up with stuff. (even better junk) The thing-am-a-gig, was so darn excited to get that I stopped by and picked up. Well, dammed if it doesn't fit. Too big in fact - like 2mm too big. Guess that's going back. They're going to have to shave a wee bit off of that.

Got the pluperfect word figured (I think) - (what a weird word) and (no idea how to pronounce it?), also called past perfect in English, is a perfect tense that exists in most Indo-European languages, used to refer to an event that has been completed before another past action - Or - more than perfect; pertaining to action completed before or at the same time as another. So I think what that means is, a series of events - and in the case of J Button's F1 Race - all good.

TODAY: All kinds of stuff to do around here. Yesterday was the lull, and I guess I should have had that nap.

BIWA's AGM lunch this morning/afternoon. (Sorry other Me - miss you at lunch)

Good to Go!

COME WHAT MAY

Look at that. Already the middle of May this week. Amazing - isn't it? Come what MAY.

Busier than usual weekend around here for us. We sure didn't get much rest. Sometimes weekends are just like that.

Said goodbye to the TOURIST yesterday. He's headed home. Hope you enjoyed your time here - see you next time back. (Maybe in my next life I should be a tour guide - I enjoyed that) And this weekend we visited with some friends we haven't seen in a very long time and played some very silly games of chess. That was fun - had a blast.

And yesterday, the every second Sunday thing - was F1. Slowly, slowly, I'm starting to understand it. Maybe I'm a good omen for J Button - seems if I watch he comes in number 1. In fact he's the only one I've ever seen win. Four wins so far this season in fact. Pluperfect - "Brawn GP’s Jenson Button drove a pluperfect two-stop race ....." that's the way the F1 Website called it. pluperfect - whats that? Must be a F1 Racing word I guess. Think I better look that up.

TODAY: Re-group and gear-up for the rest of the week. ........... and an overwhelming urge to today, to take a nap.

Good to Go!

MOM

VESAK 2553

So - it's another one of those RED calendar days here today. A holiday. Vesak Day 2553. What the heck is that? I have no idea about this one. Guess maybe I should try and get on the internet and do some surfing to figure it out. (if I can even get on the darn internet) I think someone should make it a law that they have to supply a manual that comes with the calendars here - that might help.

Of course we did the BBC thing (BBC Friday) last night. The BBC turned into venturing off to another place and then an another place ............. and well, heck. I'm sure you can guess about all the rest. So, we're off to a pretty slow start here this morning. Things are tiny bit cloudy in fact.

Special Note: To the select few; No I don't dip onion rings in tomato soup. Even when you're not looking. That would be like having chocolate on toast. And to all the rest of you; Don't even ask - let's just not even go there.

Sorry about the photo today, or rather lack of - but I thought the map might be interesting to share. This a like the where all you followers are reading this Blog from map. I think it's really cool. It's real-time updated and I absolutely love checking out where all of you guys are from. Plus, I do kinda have a big thing for maps. Can you find yourself?

TODAY: Well, I do believe (last night) I agreed or suggested a bunch of stuff. ??? Hmmm. I know I have to do the grocery store thing today - but I'm not sure why or for what. And I think me and the other Me have maybe kinda of double/triple booked ourselves for today/tonight. Hmm - better figure all this out.

Ok, better get more coffee and get on the go.

Good to Go!

FANTASTIC ITS FRIDAY!

Last photo for for Manado bunch - time to move on to something else. I'm sure you can tell - I really do like the place. This is the view we had every day from the hotel we stayed at, with the island (volcano) Manado Tua (old Manado) in the back. And there's a huge coral reef out there too - that people come to, from all over the world to see. Next week they'll be hosting the WOC (World Ocean Conference) and the Coral Triangle Summit. Good on them I think!

So I spent my yesterday hanging out with the TOURIST. The TOURIST is visiting from Australia this week. This is his first trip to this town. First trip to Indonesia in fact.

Just so you know - a tourist guide I'm not. But I tried. And now he's got a whole lot of funky, baggy, batik Balikpapan pants to take back. Even took him to the Gems Blue Sapphire shop. (No I didn't buy anything - not yet, but I'm working on that.) We pretty much did the whole circle trip around this town. And spent the afternoon back at that Crocodile Farm (seems I've been going there a lot). And last night, the TOURIST and some other folks came over for lasagna, darts and rum. Yeah, I know, a bit of a strange mix - really strange actually - but we sure had fun.

...... Blue Sapphires - as well, I do really like those too. Truth is, I just about like anything that's blue. And even though they're not my birthstone - I'm still planning on getting some.

TODAY: This morning - coffee and cake. The afternoon is an errand run, and later tonight me and the TOURIST will join up with some other folks. Time to head into the weekend. Thanks for reading. Have a good one.

Good to Go!

MAGIC

Ok, so just a quick little bit about the lake (photo). This is Danau (lake) Linow in the Minahasa Highlands. Same place as the I PREDICT - DAY NO. 1 photo. New photo though, from the recent trip. Danau Linow is quite a beautiful and strange place. (Just like MAGIC.)It's a sulfuric lake that changes colours. Although I've only ever seen it green (differing shades of green), I'm told it's sometimes red or sometimes blue. I'd like to see that - guess I'm just going to have to make the trip back.

Good day yesterday - got a whole ton of stuff done. Everything on the list and then some. The 'and then some' includes taking care of (repair and paint) a little bit of an scratch (it was small) that we ended up with on the front of the vehicle. And I'm in total shock of the great job they did and fast (less than 5 hours) and cheap. Very nice in fact. There's some things you just gotta love about this place!

TODAY: Up and out of here early this morning. Making a trip to the other side of town. The other Me thinks I need a present from Gems Blue Sapphire. Who can argue with - sounds good to me.

Good to Go!

MINAHASA BUDDHAYANA

Good Morning Wednesday! Suns out!

MINAHASA BUDDHAYANA. Now that's a mouth-full isn't it. Go ahead - try and say it.

You're probably wondering about the photo - no doubt. I love it. I guess every once in a while my weird side comes out. Just about makes a person want to write a fairy tale book about it. Kinda has a Lord of the Rings character feel to him - don't you think?

So this photo, along with all the other little ones at the bottom of the post were taken at the Vihara Buddhayana Complex, a Buddist Temple in the Minahasa Highlands (North Sulawesi) near a place called Tomohon (aka, 'The Flower City' - and for good reason it has that name in fact - flowers galore, everywhere in that place). The mountain in the back, is Gunung Lokon - an active volcano. We were told it last erupted a couple of months ago, but I'm not so certain of that. Depends on who's version of what erupted means I guess.

There's a bit of a funny story, a legend about the earthquakes and the rumblings of volcanoes in this place. And yes they have lots. So apparently when the wild pigs (boars, and no - didn't see one) rub their bodies against the trees - the vibrations cause earthquakes. If a small pig rubs it's back, then the earthquake won't be strong - but if it's a big wild pig then it'll be a strong one. Apparently these guys also have a habit of scratching in the the dirt - and if this happens, then the earthquake will be a really, really big one, causing houses and bridges to collapse. (And that, explains why there seemed to be so much construction going on.)

Anyways back to the Buddhas - it's a really cool place and definitely worth the look. If you take into account that the main houses of worship here and all over this area are churches (loads and loads of them - hardly a mosque about) this Buddhist Temple is some what of an interesting phenomena. Seems a little some what out of place, as do the Many Faces of Buddha, a whole row of Buddha statues that line the entrance road into the place.

YESTERDAY: Was busy. Just all sorts of stuff. Unpack. A visitor (tourist) that needed to go out. First trip to Balikpapan - first trip to Indonesia in fact. A Stal Kuda stop. A whole bunch of Photo-shopping. Emails - a whole whack of that. ....... and a nice great big bunch of WANT-TO-DO stuff. It was a good one. Gotta like it when you have days like that!

TODAY: Ah well, once again you start out the day with a plan and not long into it - it gets all re-arranged and blown about. Now I need to re-think and re-org a whole bunch of stuff. No worries though - we'll get it.

....... and I have this incredible urge to get some fresh flowers in the house.

Good to Go!

AWED

Made it. I'm back. Blogger worked great on the pre-post stuff but having all kinds of trouble with it today. Must think I'm still out having a holiday or something like that. Ok well. I don't know - but I guess.

The Mini Trip - turned out fantastic, as always and of course. Except for the 4 a.m. wake-up to get the plane back - I had a fabulous trip with lots of sun, shopping, and of course, eating. Very good trip.

My predictions? Did I get it right? - not quite. I did get to have all of those views just not even close to that order and NO white water rafting at all in fact. (booked completely - no spot for us) The first day turned into the last day, the last day was the first and the second day was almost right. In fact that little island on the second day was the view we had every day. ....... and then there were the sunsets. It's funny how great sunsets make a person want to whisper. Totally AWED and PERFECT. Gotta like that.

Mini Trip highlights: Many many flowers, full bloom everywhere - in gardens, in pots, lots and lots of flower pots, on trees, and in your hair, great views - so green, volcanoes, lakes, rice paddy after rice paddy, veg gardens every where, lots of little horse carts, and cows and coconuts, great people, good food (including the corn on the cob cooked in the hot springs), shitty local vodka (oh well, lesson learnt about that), a nice fat rat that joined us one night out on our deck (didn't even get an eek out of us) and total sun (zero rain - not even one drop). We had a great trip!

TODAY: Well, looking like the day is in fact, pretty much done. And it was, as usual another busy one. Catch-up. And I'm done (sleep awaits me). More tomorrow everyone.

Good to Go!

I PREDICT - DAY NO. 3

Day 3. Ok, if we've managed to get this far - that means the scheduler worked and I'm on my
last full day of a really awesome trip. See you soon other Me.

TODAY'S PREDICTION: Good day to get the the city. Manado. (and get some shopping done) Heaven knows we've got to get our shopping done.

Note: We might have already done this part, but, today we'll most likely be back on a return trip. (and if I recall correctly - the other night, someone might have said the credit card was paid off - right?)

P.S. Happy Birthday to a special someone!!!

I PREDICT - DAY NO. 2

Day 2 of the great escape - and testing out the Blogger scheduler thingy - here's hoping it works.

TODAY'S PREDICTION: Out to sea. I think today we'll be out to sea. Soaking up the rays and enjoying some sun. Out of all the guess work - this is will most likely turn out to be my best guess.

I PREDICT - DAY NO. 1

Ok, so officially on holiday today. This is as good as it gets for an out of office reply. And I'm trying something new in fact. Testing the Blogger scheduler thing. I have no idea where I'm at today or right at the time this will actually post - but here's my best guess ........

TODAY'S PREDICTION: Maybe we'll be in the Minahasa Highlands today near this lake. We want to try and do some white water rafting (yikes) - and it just might happen that we'll end up close to this place?

Note: If this actually rings true - this will certainly be a first. Cause as you can see I've got no photo of ever doing that.