#869 Saturday 23 March

Another unsettled night .... she had a wet bed .... woke from that and then she was up for a while. She took herself downstairs and played till she was ready to sleep again.

Lately we're noticing changes .... signs of growing up a bit. Such as her trying out saying "No!" .... and there are situations where she displays initiative and does things without being asked. It's good.

Night
While Naomi worked today, we went driving ... to York then up to Northam then to Toodyay. Then back home via Gidgegannup.... with playground stops.

Tea was memorable .... Naomi made individual serves of apple pie! Yummy.

#868 Friday 22 March

Back home again ..... it feels as if there's no time to do things .... no blog!

She's growing up! I have just placed her lunch box on the counter ready to put in her school bag ... which I have always done. I look up and Kaylia has packed her school bag without being asked!

Evening
Poor Kaylia had a bad day.... it was swimming day at school and I had supervised her packing her swimming bag in the morning .... her bathers definitely were there.  ....but at school, her bathers had disappeared from the bag. She was very upset to miss out on swimming!

Teddy has hurt his leg again ..... at least we know what the problem is and we can do something.

#867 Wednesday 20 March

Home soon.  This trip has not been pleasant and it's been hard work .... so I'll be very glad to be getting off the plane in Perth!  I think the flight home will be a much more pleasant trip because the new headphones though.  I'm becoming even more impressed by them than I was at first! Last night I was listening to Secret Garden again ... it felt as though I was standing next to the piano .... and with my eyes closed, I could hear that the violinist was just over on the other side of the piano. It's the first time that I've had anything remotely close to good quality headphones.


It's 7:30am and I've packed just about everything ready to leave for the airport at 11am.  This will allow time to catch up on villa accounts.

This morning there is a mystery just outside the door ..... on the wall at a height of about 1.2 m .... there's about 8 bits of what appears to be mouse dung stuck to the wall!  To get it there the mouse would have to have balance on a leaf!  I can't imagine a mouse being able to do this nor being able to climb a smooth wall ..... perhaps it was a large gekko?  They can climb a wall.

#866 Tuesday 19 March

I was up early this morning ... I wanted to tackle a job which I knew would test my physical resources ... so I had to do it while I was fresh.  So by 7:45am I'd had breakfast and completed a 90 minute task of waterproofing the wall that divides our villa from the next.  Rain water has been entering the space between two abutting walls and then flowing into the bedroom!  It's not good.

This is the 'before' photo .... there is a crack between the bedroom wall (at the left) and the boundary wall (centre) .... the sunscreen deflects water straight onto the problem area  .... which has now been sealed.

Today? .... Office work most of the day while supervising Ketut as he does roof waterproofing.

Later .... the supervising is definitely needed!  I found that the waterproofing was being applied to the inside of the ceiling!  Completely useless.  Putu was able explain that the waterproofing must be on the outside to stop the water getting in! .... then fix any water damage after the leak is stopped.

Later ..... in the third bedroom, the water entering through the wall has the potential to damage the wardrobes .... so I have lifted the whole wardrobe and mounted it on 3cm high blocks.  A fan is blowing air under the wardrobe so this should dry out any moisture.

#865 Monday 18 March

It's been a real work day ..... but very frustrating.  Much of the day has been spent either waiting in an office or twiddling thumbs in very slow traffic as we drive from one unsuccessful visit to another.  It started with a very important one .... paying the electricity bill.  This is usually an automatic bank payment but I missed having enough in the bank account when it was due ... so the Bali method is that you then have to pay cash ... but you can only pay it at the head office in Denpasar and you must pay 2 months!  It took ages to process.  I'll change to a manual payment which has much more flexibility.

We then went looking for plumbing parts to fix a leaking hand-basin drain.  Once again the dreaded Bali practice ..... you can't buy a 10,000Rp  part .... you must buy a complete assembly for 500,000Rp!  ..... oh and we don't sell the tool needed to do the job either!  Frustrating.

I'll check all door screws for tightness ... some of the handles are becoming loose.

Evening
After such a frustrating day, I was feeling very blue .... so I went up to Hardys to see if I could find the Dr Dre headphones that Brynn is hankering for ....  she had instructed that if I could get them for under $50, just to buy first and ask later!
So ..... I found the shop I remembered and the starting price was $50 .... so I listened to them to check the quality .... FABULOUS! ..... I started haggling and got the price down to $50 for 2 pairs!  The "normal" price for these is $280-$350 so even knowing that they're 99% likely to be imitation, it's a very good price.  I'm listening to Secret Garden as I write .... the sound is really good.  ..... like totally awesome dude!

Then I went to Hardys to look for a luggage scale (the villa scales are kaput) and found them for $12 ... same as Ebay.  .... but of course Hardy just had to have a 50% sale on bags .... I won't spell it out but it was only $12 for a lovely little Polo bag.
..... and a season set of "Once apon a time" .....
It was a good shopping trip.

#864 Sunday 17 March

Villa business and maintenance
Teaching Putu how to use Excel to keep the villa daily accounts
Check out the leaks in bedroom 2 .... there is a crack in the waterproofing between the two abutting walls between villa 1 and 2.  Villa 1 has a rain-screen directing water straight onto this crack.

Midday
Trip to the airport for Sanggar .... Lottemart for villa consumables and coffee

 ------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile on the homefront....

Kaylee enjoyed a lovely morning at Aunty Moo's and even managed to persuade her mother  to jump in the spa bath with her. However on the way home she was overcome with pain .... the sort she experiences with constipation. On the Kaylee scale of pain she was up at an 8/10, which means it it was really bad. Fearing that we were going to end up in hospital, Naomi negotiated hard with her when they got home and Kaylia was persuaded to administer the Microlax (known in Kaylee speak as the botty squirt)..... and she did it  herself perfectly. After 5 minutes on the loo she was back to her normal self. She is now going back onto her daily regime of anti constipation medicine! .... and renewed attention to daily fluid intake. Thank heavens for drugs!
---------------------------------------------------------------
In the afternoon (thanks to encouragement from Zoe) I tried having an "ear candle" treatment!  It was excellent.  It will be a regular treatment in future to clear my ears.  Blocked ears and infections have been an ongoing problem for me in the past 2 years ... so I hope this treatment may alleviate the problems.

I've also been for a walk around on the roof of each of the buildings ..... the waterproofing is not up to standard so I'll take Ketut onto the roof tomorrow and show him what must be done.