October 2nd: Got up at 5:30am and started downloading bank statements so I could complete our tax return information for the accountant and the quarterly BAS returns. I dread this paper work, for someone who loved book keeping and financial returns, I have developed a sincere hatred of it now. But we have Tony and Janet arriving from England in a few days and I don’t want it hanging over me so it’s good to have it done. I had quite a few interruptions as Robbie was dealing with the diesel, first of all the first lot of containers 20 x 20 litre containers were all short of the 2o litre mark, some of them by 3-4 litres. So that took about an hour of negotiating and explaining that we had paid for 1500 litres and that’s what we needed to receive. It’s very frustrating trying to deal with these guys with the language barrier plus they only have one speed and it’s SLOW. You can only smile, grit your teeth and hope for the best. Eventually they got the message and topped up the containers to the correct levels, using a hose and siphoning with their mouths. Yuk I gave them bubble-gum and waters, they asked for Coca-Cola and I felt sorry for them so gave them all a can of coke also. The main guy is a bit of a character and he kept stealing Robbie’s Crocs, as the dock is so hot it is deadly. It’s made out of metal and with the sun on it is unbearable to walk on. (We didn’t get the Crocs back, yet.) the whole exercise took about 7 hours, a lot of energy, sweat and patience with a capital P!
I was able to update the website at a very slow speed but once I finished the tax stuff I decided to try and get up to date. The longer I leave it the harder it is – firstly to remember what we did and the time it takes to do a few days.
Tomorrow we have organised for the local guys to come and clean the outside of the boat from top to bottom. For 140,000 rupiah or $140 dollars that’s a pretty good deal for us. It takes us a long time to do it, normally most of the day with both of us, and we have not been able to regularly clean it since we left Cairns so it will be much harder this time. Cheating a bit I know, but we figure it’s nice to give the locals some income, we can have a break off the boat for the day. We will hire a car and driver for 55,000 rupiah ($55.00) and explore the island of Lombok. Apparently there’s some magnificent surf beaches, waterfalls, lots of restaurants and best of all a SUPERMARKET, which I have been told is like Woollies! Yay. Who would have thought I would ever get excited about going to a supermarket???
Tonight at 5:30pm we have a 21st celebration to attend. Stefan from Mediterraneo has his daughter Anna and his wife Silva on board at the moment and today is Anna’s 21st birthday. She popped in to see us today, she’s a beautiful young girl and has had an awesome time diving with her Mum, Dad and Meika all around Indonesia for the past 3 weeks. Both Silva and Anna have to fly out tomorrow as they have work commitments. Meika crews for Stefan while Silva has these work commitments, and that works really well, she is a vibrant, energetic gal who would be fun to have on board. I helped her with her resume a few weeks ago and she has just had an interview for a great job and it sounds like she has got it so she’s delighted. She’s also very excited as her twin sister is flying in to stay on the boat for a couple of weeks so it will be double trouble!
