Outside my house in Seminyak and visiting new gym in Kuta Bali

This is the second time I’m typing this but anyway here goes.

Getting up today the sun was shining, the birds singing and no sign of rain. Outside my house was a hive of activity with all the motorbikes pushed over to the side and a mess of construction materials spread out across the parking area. Two ladies and a couple of men were sorting things out and I was thinking some sort of religious structure was getting built. A quickie bread basket at Caf� Moka and I came back with 3 eclairs, one for each of the ladies and one for Wayan, who was not around.

Working on a temple article on my porch the temperature climbed and I remembered back 3 years ago to our office in Eugene Oregon. We had talked about someday all getting laptops so we could be more mobile around the office and my fantasy was sitting out on the porch in summertime enjoying the breeze while working. Looking at my situation now I realize how far we’ve come.

Outside my house Wayan was busy making offerings and introduced me to her mother Ibu Sri(nice pants!), who was busy sandpapering a pile of wood. They are making a new structure in the house to the rear of mine.

Wayan #2 was sitting on her motorbike, she’s a local girl who cleans houses for foreigners and asked me to find her a man ( Mick Turnbull where are you when we need you?). I asked if she wanted a ‘pria kacil’ ( small man) or a ‘pria besar’ ( big man ) and she said a big man.

Wayan #3 had her son Kadek with her and I joked that they looked like Indonesia’s first astronauts.

Wanting to make the most of my new gym membership I rode down to Ade Rai’s on lower Jl. Legian. For those who know Kuta if you are heading south on Jl. Legian and come to the loop that swings to the left, if you could keep going straight the gym is 20 meters further on the left side.

I know from working in a gym that after lunch is a great time to go and this proved to be the case here, there were maybe 4 other people in there. This being my first workout in Bali I didn’t want to over do it so limited my session to a quick 20 minutes. Mind you I do pack a lot into my 20 minutes�no posing, pouting, chatting or resting. Just a few similar sets on a couple of machines interspersed with sit ups and shoulder shrugs.

A session at Internet Outpost took a couple more hours and my dinner at around 7.30pm was another chicken soup and ayam goreng at the night market in Seminyak. I tell you I love chicken soup, with cabbage, tomato and other bits and pieces it just goes down well and for 3,000rp I can have a gallon.

I was considering going on Peanuts famous ‘Tuesday night pub crawl’ as its supposed to be an institution but didn’t fancy it. Maybe on Saturday I’ll feel more into it.

Here’s the latest election results.

For those who are interested Bali had big surf today which must of been fantastic for those who had time to enjoy it.