#478 Saturday 7 January

The villa is out to get me!
Last night the villa struck again.  I stepped outside the bedroom and suddenly my feet were no longer underneath me .... Feet go, body stop!  Bang!
I landed with the step edge in the small of my back ..... ouch!  Very quiet for the rest of the night ... and this morning I went to Talia for a massage .... much better.
Now (midday) we're in Celuk doing the rounds of the silver shops.  We've been to the Sukiwarti markets.

Naomi has founds some silver chains and Kat's searching for the perfect piece of Balinese silver.








Some of the gallery buildings are works of art!  This is the street wall.









Front entry .... and detail below.















The steps are glass. Inside was even more impressive but no photos allowed.









Kaylia has decided that she likes the extra seats in the back of Made's car.

Woo woo! .... we think Kat has found something!  Home now.  On the way back, we saw a seller that has beautiful glass panels .... another dream for the future!







When we got home we found a suprise waiting for us .....






This has been arranged by Ajeng in Perth!  I don't know how she did it but it is so special!  Kasih Ajeng!

Now it is 2pm and Naomi is of for some 'time out' while Kaylia is in the pool .... more later.

4pm  I've been watching Kaylia for a while now .... her groove revolves around water.  She swims ... she gets out and goes to the bedroom ... she opens the right hand slider .... enters ....closes .... opens the left hand slider .... exits.... closes ..... goes to the outdoor shower .... showers ..... back in the pool ..... swims ... and so on.

IT time ..... apologies to the non-IT readers!   I've come across a problem with Dropbox.

#477 Friday 6 January

I think we're going to be on a "beach crawl" for the next few days ..... I can just imagine what life is going to be like when we get back to Perth ..... Two weeks till school .... two weeks of "beach, beach"!

The trip to Padang Bai yesterday took it out of me .... it was a reasonably long and steep descent from the car park to the beach and the steps were uncomfortably high. Going down was hard enough .... I was worried about coming back up. (My left hip has become quite painful in the last couple of years .... it's hard to sleep on my left side now.). When the time came for the climb back up to the car, it was a breeze because Kaylia was so difficult that I had no chance to think of myself! It was a very early bed time last night .... I think I crashed at about 6:30pm!

5pm  This has been a day incommunicado!  No phone, no internet, SMS only worked locally.
 Naomi, Kaylia and Kat headed off for the Big-H while I waited.  (plus doing jobs such as fitting up a floor lamp, adjusting doors.)
After waiting all morning for the technicians to come, I was desperate by 1pm when the Krew returned.  During the morning a had applied my very fuzzy head to the problem and my logic said that the ADSL splitter was faulty ... so I grabbed Made and headed off to find a new one.  After three different shops, Made said to me "You're too sick ... you go back to the villa and I'll find one."  So .... back to the villa.  Eh voila! The technicians were there! (Call Made back.)
After some talking and testing we determined that it was not the splitter .... there was a short in the socket in the living room.  Replace the socket and everything is fine.  Phew!

Then it was time to cool off in the pool for a while and then it was Hardys for DVDs and icecream.  While there I thought I'd get another singlet that I'd got at Biaritz on Tuesday.  Hardys price is half that of Biaritz .... but they don't have any stock!  We go back to the villa and K says "Burger!"  Off we go again .... into POURING rain!  It was too wet to get out of the car so we used drive-through .... and Made says "You order .... I don't want to get wet!"   Back to the villa ... to find that it hasn't rained at all there!  After all that, Kaylia didn't want her burger .... but I found that I could actually eat it.  My first 'food' since Monday.

Now it is wind down to bed time.  Kaylia is playing and soon Naomi and  Kat will go out for tea and to pick up clothes from the tailor.

Here endeth the day.....

#476 Thursday 5 January

After 30 hours of rest and not eating I'm getting some energy back. I had Bali-Belly in 1984 and this is the first time since.

We've been analyzing what we did wrong but it's hard to find any common factor that would explain why Kaylia and I got the bug .... but no-one else.
The medication story for this time away is interesting ..... We left home with over 56 tablets of Lovan .... and at 1.5 tablets per day we needed 28 x 1.5 = 32 tablets So we should have had heaps. We began a trial of splitting the dose (after the success of splitting the Risperdal dose) and it was very clear that the midday dose was highly effective .... but we still needed the full morning dose. So we had an increased dose rather than a split.
In past times we had found that the new higher dose produced a paradoxical reaction where the effect was the opposite of the aim. The current dose is the same higher level but split according to need. We have learned to recognize the tell-tale signs of anxiety .... a small top up at that time works really well! The overall daily dose is as high as the paradoxical period but by splitting the dose it works. But at the increased dose, we will run out of Lovan. I managed to get a supply locally but it's in a capsule form (so it is hard to divide) and it doesn't seem to be as concentrated .... despite being the same dose.

11am to 4pm - Padang Bai



A coastline of many small bays .... sandy beach for a few meters and then a rocky bottom.  Kaylia was enticed out here by ".... big car .... then beach".  She is loving it.  The beach sales people are very persistent.  I was taken in by Putuh ... her line is that she has 6 months more of high school then she wants to do economics at university.  If she does half as well at her studies as her selling, she will do well.



The sellers were very quick to recover from a faux pas .... "Your daughter?  (Naomi) .... She not your daughter?  You very lucky to have a young wife!" After the swim time, Kaylia just DID NOT want to leave!  It was a steep climb back to the car park .... and she cried tthe whole way.. The road from Sanur is much, much better than the last time we travelled that way (1997 I think) .... then it was a narrow single lane road ... now it's a dual lane (each direction) concrete road!  The signs say that the road is a joint Indo-Aust project.   Much of the road is lined with workshops producing statues and carvings.  We always drool and dream about what we will add to the villa in the future.

#475 Wednesday 4 January

Well .... I know how Kaylia was feeling yesterday!  I've got the wog now.  I've been awake since 1am controlling the urge to vomit .... I'm staying in bed for today.  Fortunately, after having the doctor attend for Kaylia, I know what is going on and can control the effects to a certain degree.  It's still not pleasant. Vida has had a good 24 hours with us and is on the way to the airport (with Kaylia, Naomi and Kat) ..... with a shopping stop on the way!

Naomi here - Ian has been quite unwell today with what appears to be the same tummy bug that Kaylie had. He has spent most of the day resting. He managed to eat a bit tonight but it has well and truly knocked him off his feet. Made, our driver, also reported feeling off today. I'm wondering if it might be a bug going around. Mind you, Made also said that he ate a whole Durian last night with his son. Maybe he has a different reason for not feeling so well.
In the meantime the "tickus" has returned. While Kat was on skype to her parents, the little bugger (probably a relative of the previous tickus) ran up and down the step outside her door. Ian, in his bleary state, claims that that it ran into her room through a crack in the door. I am hoping that he's wrong and that he went into the garden - at least that it what it looked like from my position. If we hear Kat screaming during the night we'll know that Ian wasn't completely out to it.

On the Kaylee front - she had an up and down day today. She was great in the morning but didn't want to eat. In the afternoon she threw herself into the pool. Around 3pm she started crying and I worked out that she had an ear ache. Poor little thing - no sooner does she get over one thing then another gets her. We lay on the bed waiting for the pain killers to work and cuddled while we watched Winnie the Pooh (her other Bali favourite DVD). She's back onto anti-biotics for a suspected ear infection and tomorrow I'll keep her on regular doses of panadol during the day. At least her apetite has returned and she seems to be able to eat again without problems (do-nuts from J-Co did the trick).

Having Vida stay was a lot of fun. Nice to meet someone as mad about shopping as I am (at least when I get the chance). Every time we went out Vida would say "I'm not going to buy anything". Sure enough she'd find something - including coming back with a completely different outfit this morning after heading out to the bank.

Lastly, we're all getting very good at eating the local food. Between Made's enthusiastic teaching and our own experimentation we're working out how to tell the good from the not so good warungs. We now have "regular" status at one warung and each time we go in there the owner charges us less. We love her food and she is beginning to dig the crazy westerners. I think we're being charged "local tourist rates" - soon we may even graduate to "local rate". In any event we're still paying a AU$1 a meal. None of us want to eat in the tourist restaurants any more but do so for Kaylee - who alternates between pizza and burger. Still - we have lots of time to get her used to local yummies.
That's all for today I think- hopefully Ian will be back on the Blog tomorrow.

#474 Tuesday 3 January 2012

7pm  ... well .... I've had two queries so far about "Why no blog today?" !!
The day began early with a planned trip to the airport to pick up Vida ..... more about Vida in a minute!  Before I could leave Kat tells me that there's no water!  The system is still not 100% ..... the top tank was empty and the bore pump running ..... it looks as though the bore has been installed without a foot-valve and having a long period between running the bore pump means that the water runs back down the bore.  The pump then loses its prime and it cannot pump.  After I primed the pump all was OK ..... but this new problem must be fixed too.

Vida .... Vida worked with me at a previous job and we have remained in contact. (She's from a similar area of Indonesia to Sanggar ... and she introduced Sanggar to us .... for which we will always be grateful!)
This is only the fifth time Vida has been to Bali so we're able to show her all the good shopping spots!  By the time we had Vida sorted, it was midday.  Kaylia had been coping well and "Happy Kaylee" was back!  So .... in the afternoon, Kat took "point duty" while the rest of us went shopping!!

Now I'm with Kaylee while the girls are out getting their toes painted .... I'm sure this activity is of earth-shattering importance .... it must be.  Maybe that's why demure maidens walk with downcast eyes?  .... they're examining their painted toenails as they walk!

#473 Monday 2 January

Mucky Monday.
6:00am Kaylia is sick. She has been vomiting since 1:30am and she is exhausted but her tummy won't let her sleep. I copped the initial bouts but Naomi took over so she hasn't slept since then.


9:00am. I think we're over the worst. She's stopped chucking etc .... now she wants to get up and swim! (In your dreams, baby!)
Naomi has been out to buy "sick baby food".  (That's food for sick children ... not food that's sick!)

11am  I've been out to the laundry with 18kg of soiled sheets and towels.... and collected our previous laundry which was supposed to be delivered yesterday .... they couldn't find our house!
I've also been down to get some anti-vomit medication in case she doesn't stop vomitting this morning.  At present she's asleep so it looks OK.

6:00PM Kathryn-Alizabeth here, reporting for Ian as he's busy tied up comforting poor Kaylia. Although she's still sick, her condition doesn't seem to be worsening. Thankfully Mr. Made knew a doctor who makes house calls and he dropped by this afternoon for a check up (Side note: Mr. Made is THE man to know here in Bali; whether it's finding tasty satay, addictive onde onde, scenic roads, or someone who can fix something, call Mr. Made!). It was a very brief visit, however, Kaylia coped well and new meds were prescribed to fight whatever's the matter. So, it's been a Villa Frangipani day. Not a bad thing considering how bipolar the weather has been; switching from sunny, clear skies to heavy rain. We all watched Red Dog, which is a must see if you haven't seen it already and are in need of a good dose of laughter! Over and out.

Oh, I did bike out to warung Pregina to pick up some lunch (fresh mahi mahi & veggies, yum yum) and I survived the main road! Victory!

#472 Sunday 1 January 2012

Happy New Year! Selamat Tahun Baru!

What a night is was last night!  Many tales to tell .....
Fireworks .....Hardys had a sale on and we just had to buy some more fireworks. So we had our own little display last night .... it was nothing in comparison with the amazing display arounds us ... but it was fun!  Kaylia seemed to enjoy it.  The fireworks in the Jalan in the evening were quite something ....  a prelude to the midnight crescendo.

Tea was MacDonalds for Kaylee and ..... local num-nums (makanan bagus!) for the rest of us. After tea (at the normal time) we adopted "Plan A" for Kaylia's sleep.  We gave her Pain Stop and the Melatonin to help her off to the land of nod and to help with the earache.  It meant that there was none of the terrible noise problem that we had in Ubud 2 years ago .... Kaylia slept through the lot!  And while she slept, we had a video night!  We had two films back-to-back while we waited for "The Moment".

When midnight came, Bali went beserk!  The sheer volume of noise and light and smoke was awe-inspiring.  We climbed onto the flat roof of the villa .... we could see displays all round ....
I was hard to avoid a comparison with the Australia Day fireworks in Perth .... I think that Bali won hands down!  The fact that the whole incredible hour of fireworks is from mostly private homes just blows away the restricted nature of a single display on the Swan River.

We were immersed in a constant barrage of light and smoke and sound .... it reminded me of scenes from battle movies.  In the middle of the display we watched a jet aircraft making a landing approach .... I know it was an optical illusion but it seemed that the plane was flying through fireworks ..... amazing!

We went to bed about 12:40 and I woke briefly at  1:40am to realise that the place was actually quiet!  It had been a fitting "first New Year" in the villa.

11am We've been to beach ....  Kaylia loves the water but gets annoyed at low tide because it's so shallow. 



I was entranced by a beach seller with a basket of knives .... I know that I can't take it back to Oz but I bought myself a nicely made 'hand axe' in a sheath.  I think it fits the description of a Malaysian harvest knife.  It will stay here in the villa in my collection of  "Bali only" items.



After the beach we headed off to Ubud to find 'the Best' Babi Guling  venue .... and the idea was that we would continue up the mountain to Penelokan.
BUT  .... Abort! Abort!  We got to Ubud but it was clear that Kaylia couldn't handle it .... we attempted a lunch stop but gave it up and went back to Sanur.   Back to the villa after calling in at the local warung for take-away rice/sate/tempe/vegetable packets.

Its now bedtime .... we found a beaut new place to eat .... "Sal and Pepe"  ... Italian just around the corner.  Kaylia just 'absorbed' the pizza .... it was really good!