JUMPING SPIDERS & OTHER STUFF

We like to call these guys THE JUMPING SPIDERS. It's really not as bad as it looks. Ok - truth is, I didn't realize how bad this thing looked until I took this photo. Ewwwwww. Yuck. But at least it's not that big. And they are kinda cool. They JUMP. They really JUMP. Every time you try to put your foot down on one of them they JUMP. It's takes a couple weeks to get the hang of squishing these things. Now that I know how hairy and ugly they really are ............. I'll be getting better at that.

Yesterday's Post. It's a close up picture of these cool little balls and holes in the sand that the tiny little crabs make on the beach. These crabs are tiny, tiny. Not much bigger than the JUMPING SPIDERS. There are thousands of them. All over the place. The beach looks like a giant canvas that someone went graphic on. It's so cool. All sorts of swirls and neat little patterns. And in about 12 hours the tide comes in and washes it all out of place. And then of course they start again. Oh, for the life of a beach crab - and we thought we had it tough.

Looks like we're not getting the get-away this weekend. The other Me - is just way too busy at work. Oh well, those Gili Islands aren't going anywhere. We'll get there yet.

Ok, just about had enough of the US election stuff. HAVEN'T YOU? I'm am sooooo done with that. We have 5 news channels here, from all over the world. And the presidential debate - was on all of them. Get over it people - just hurry up and vote. Note: If there are any McCain supports in Balikpapan - they are not sharing that.

Yesterday I paid the phone bills. And did it in record time. No queuing - imagine that. I should go on the last day all the time. Wholly - walked in and just paid. That is not the norm. Everyone must have gotten there ahead of me or there's going to be a lot of phone service cut off next week. This usually takes way longer than that, sometimes hours. There's a reason why they have (English with Bahasa sub-titles) HBO on the TV. It's certainly not for the staff. I once watched a whole movie in that place.

TODAY: Seems everyone is having a birthday this week. Have 2 birthdays to celebrate tonight. And one of our favorite guys back home is having his tomorrow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY everyone. HAPPY BIRTHDAY everyone. Happy Birthday to Todd. HAPPY BIRTHDAY everyone. Eat cake.

Good to Go.

TGIF IT'S HARI JUMAT

TGIF. Friday. Yes, it's Friday.........but not quite the same effect as the rest of the world. Or at least some of the world. This is not the end of the week. Or rather not the same sort of end as you'd expect. I think maybe, Saturday noon, is when the real official weekend starts. There's no real clear answer to that. There's still school tomorrow. Some offices are open till noon and some are not.

Fridays, are BATIK days. All the school kids wear the batik shirts part of their school uniforms today. It looks pretty neat. All different colours depending on the school they go to. I especially like the PINK. And in Balikpapan, the boys (men) are not afraid to wear pink.

Last night was BILLIARDS night. The pool competition is back on. Need to get back up to speed on that. Things were on hold for the month of Ramadan. Was nice to see everyone again. And it sure looks like some people were practicing.

TODAY: Need to get to the pool .............. like right away. I can't believe it's not raining.

Today - need to get out and pay the phone bills. Due on Monday and there is ZERO grace on that. No late fees, or overdue here. If it's not paid on time ........... it's gone. So need to get down to the offices, different office for each phone of course and get the fancy little stamp on the bill. Now here is something that will amaze ......... The house phone (land line) is like 56,000 Rupiah a month - that's like $5.60 US. And my Hand Phone (cell) bill this month is 89,000 Rupiah. That's less than 10 bucks. Can you believe that?

Ok, well. Time for me to HURRY, HURRY, and get over to the pool.

TGIF! Good to Go!

SUNSHINE + KUDA-KUDA

What a difference some sunshine makes.

The photo above. Winged kuda-kuda at the Balikpapan Super Blok. Kuda is one horse and kuda-kuda is more than one. There are no plurals in Bahasa. All over Balikpapan you can find these kinds of things. Horses, sun bears, monkeys, soldiers, all sorts statues, you name it. I should mention though, that the "Lonely Policeman" has disappeared - all that's left are his boots. And as far as horses go, I've never actually seen a real one here - they tell me it's too hot.

It's sure been an interesting, busy and unusual week. SO FAR. We're trying to book ourselves a little get-away this weekend. Hoping to leave tomorrow night. Still waiting for Yuyu at the Cakawala Travel place to get back to us. See what our options are. Maybe a trip to Bali or the Gili Islands is the perfect way to spend the weekend. We'll see I guess.

I think I finally got the FORTNIGHT thing figured. What a weird saying. Who counts days by 2 weeks? Apparently the Fort part means fourteen. I had to check that out. Ok, now I know what all you UK guys are talking about...............

TODAY: Today is wide open. No plans, YET. And anything can happen around here. Have a whole bunch of emails to catch-up on now that we have our Internet back - maybe that's what I should be doing ............ we'll see.

Later. Good to Go!

BANANAS

BANANAS. That's how the last couple of days has been. Our Internet was BROKE for three. Monday's post ended up being Tuesday's. Tuesday's got lost and today's is almost tomorrow. BANANAS Eh?

Sorry Ali, but your no rain for a week if Friday has none theory - is definitely not. It's rained the last two mornings in a row and last night we had one of the wildest thunderstorms ever. That one shook the place. I wonder how many of PMC's 35+ newly installed lightning rods were hit.

Last night the Book Club group got together at my house. We had a great night. Good snacks, some really yummy chocolate with hot fudge sauce and a few too many bottles of really hard to find wine. And yes, we did discuss the book ....... along with a whole bunch of other stuff. Great night - thanks girls.

Yesterday was BIWA morning - Riyad from the diamond shop (GEMS BLUE SAPPHIRE) came by and gave us all a good lesson on diamond and gem shopping. The 4Cs - colour, cut, clarity and of course carat. Riyad has been in the business for years, and gets most of his gemstones direct from the mines south of here. His shop is pretty impressive. Every colour, shape and size of just about everything you can imagine and a whole bunch you've never even heard about. A good place to go when you have too much money..........maybe.

Yesterday was also a sad goodbye day for me, and the other Me and a few other people too. I HATE GOODBYES. Five years - times up I guess. Some very dear friends have moved on from here. We'll miss you lots. See you in KL. Be safe and have fun.

Monday? Hmmmm .......... I already forgot. Oh yeah, that was the "go to the printers day". And finish reading that really, really, hard, hard to read book. Good book, but a really hard read.

And then for TODAY: Today I took a friend out for lunch. We went to a new place - rather, a new place for me. D'GRILL. It's her 28th birthday. AGAIN. How does that work? And how come everyone seems to know she's 28? How can that be? Ok, it's her story - Happy 28th Birthday. Maybe we're all 28. Hmmmmm......could be?

Good to Go.

OK DEH!

Ok deh. Pronounced; oh-ke-day. Translation; all right then or okay. Bahasa Banjar, and widely used in Balikapan.

Ok deh. I like the sound of that. And our yesterday certainly was an ok deh kind of day. We spent the whole of our Sunday afternoon hanging out at the beach. Local friends invited us to the beach near their house, Some kids, some dogs, a BBQ, a few go carts, a new thatch roof on the deck, great sunshine and nice cool breeze. Everything we needed for a day on the beach.

What a great Sunday.

The internet in our compound is BROKE. Has been since yesterday afternoon in fact, No idea when they'll get that running again. All I know is it's BROKE. So I decided I'd get this ready and as soon as I can I will post.

TODAY: Today, another busy Monday. Seems all the Mondays here are busy. Have the pool this morning. Yeah - sunshine. Sorry Ali - but it rained last night. I think your prediction was 5 days short.

I need to go way across town this afternoon to the printers. Have to drop off a bunch of files to get done this week. It's sooooo easy here. No waiting. They'll get all these jobs done in less than a week. And probably deliver them all for me too if I like.

Need to get organized for tomorrow night. Book Club get together. At our house. Need to make snacks, some kind of cake and try and find some wine in this town that has gone dry. We're suffering through the after Idul Fitri effects. Might be 2 or 3 more weeks before the shipments of just about everything start flowing in again.

And need to finish reading the book.

Ok deh. Time to go. Good to Go.

THE HAPPY SHIRT

Last night - a Friday BBC Night. A Mie Goreng night for me. BBC's famous Fajitas for almost everyone else though. Some good conversation sitting out under the stars and enjoying the nice breeze off the ocean on their new deck (good thing they built the deck - we all love the deck).

And last night, my friend finally got to put on his HAPPY SHIRT. A happy shirt? He's had a really rough last couple of days. I mean weeks, no actually it's probably more like a month. Talk about a planning, management, arrangement, administration, orchestration, coordination, execution, handling, logistics nightmare. Anyways - it finally all came together for him yesterday ....... and the packers are actually there. This morning in fact. And now I'm told it looks like a bomb went off in his house.

Now about that HAPPY SHIRT. And he really does have one. His HAPPY SHIRT ........ has a picture of "Tigger the Tiger" bouncing around on his tail. You know that light hearted, carefree orange cat that hangs out with Winnie Pooh. Ok, so who could you possibly pick that isn't happier than that? Good on you Peter! I hope you get to wear it lots.

Hey, well we've actually had a whole row of sunshiny days for awhile now. I row I think means more than One. Maybe the Dry Season switched with Rainy. Yesterday, I was told if it doesn't rain on a Friday - means it won't rain for a whole week. I'll guess we'll see about that.

TODAY: Today is Pizza Hut. It's been a long time since we did that. Yes, there is Pizza Hut in Balikpapan. One. But they don't deliver out to our house - we're way too far down the road for that. So have to make a trip into town this afternoon. We have lots of KFCs too (they won't deliver either). And it looks like the brand new A&W is going to open up soon. I'm guessing at least another month - I'll keep you posted. Mmmmmmm onion rings.

....... and then there's the rumor about a STARBUCKS. So sorry Jan, but I'm just not so sure about that? But hey, if it really does happen - we're there - I'll buy.

Ok, a whole weekend ahead of us now. Canadian Thanksgiving in fact. Happy Turkey Day back home everyone.

Ok, it's pizza time. Good to Go!

LIGHTS OUT

The internet - on again, off again, on again, off again, S-L-O-W, on again, off again, OUT.

The lights are out in Balikpapan. Here's the story I got. Seems sometime, in the middle of the night (Wed-Thurs), someone, somewhere, on the other side of town, drove a truck into something, that caused a small explosion - and now all the lights are OUT.

I'm not actually sure if that's the real story, but in the mean time - there's no electricity in town. No street lights, no radio and no AC for most people. At our house - means the compound has to run the GENSET (generator) 24/7. The genset runs on diesel - fingers crossed they don't run out of that. Mostly business as usual though - malls are open with limited lights, hand written receipts and they do have AC. Hmmm - Ok, now that explains why it seemed like the whole of Balikpapan was there yesterday.

TODAY: Friday. Half way gone already and it's a BBC Night tonight. Later - enjoy the weekend. Good to Go!