#808 Thursday 17 January

I can't decide whether this flight is the earliest .... or the latest .... flight I've ever caught. Either way the terminal is very quiet. AJ took me to the airport at 2am .... she will go down in the history books as an amazing person! She gets her second "merit award" for her help tonight.

The first task today? It might be the main task .... fixing the fault. I will get to the villa around 9:30 and workers in Bali start around 10. After that's done I can find a place to sleep tonight!

2pm
After arriving, no one turned up to do anything till 11am.  .... and I found that the problem had actually been fixed ..... touch wood! .... last night.  The apparent problem  was that a particular type of plastic insulation had been used to separate the wiring on the supply side of a set of breakers.  The insulation allowed shorting to occur when the moisture content of the air rose high enough.  The "occasional fault" became a constant fault yesterday of all times.  Murphy's Law.

The offending part has been replaced with a different type and the problem should not happen again. The attending technician is excellent.  He's Ketut's brother and he really knows his stuff.  He and I are planning further improvements to the villa wiring on my next trip in March.  He was annoyed by the number of other people who have tried to fix the problem and failed.

After this was completed I went off to find a place to sleep .... I found "Lestari Homestay" on Made's suggestion .... it's quiet with a nice pool .... and it's about halfway between the villa and Hardy's.


On the way back from Hardy's, I  managed to get a naughty taxi driver ..... he drove past the place where I needed to stop .... and then wanted to charge me to correct his mistake!  So I walked ......

...... and on the way I noticed a shop with 'Segway"s parked in front.  I had heard of these but never seen one ..... and not only did the guy demonstrate, he also let me test drive it!  It's a bit disconcerting at first but easy to get used to.  I imagine that they are pretty expensive so I'm sure that I don't like it that much.  (around $3 to $7 thousand depending on the model!)

 Evening

The trip has been worthwhile!  I have been able to conclude the rental deal ..... the deal was on shaky ground because of the electrical problem but I have 'calmed the waters' ..... every one was impressed that I came to Bali to sort it out.

I'm suffering 'internet deprivation' .... the speed here is 2% of the speed we are used to in Perth.  It's OK for email but very slow for everything else.