Cowabunga

How hard can it be to get a courgette round here? I know they grow them because I bought them in Sanur. And they're on the menu next door in Pondok Sari. But I am struggling to explain to my helpful little shoppers.

Oh, perhaps I should say at this point we no longer have to go shopping. Apart from the fact that there aren't really any shops here, all I have to do is write a list and hand over a few thousand rupiah and a couple of hours (or days) later I'm handed brimming carrier bags of fruit, vegetables, chicken and things - fantastic!

Anyway, I digress, back to courgettes. So far I have received cucumbers (which is fine) and lovely purple aubergines (which is not fine as although I love them, my husband would rather not eat them), then green aubergines?? (even worse) and am in danger of getting a squash next. You see Bahasa Indonesian / Bali doesn't really differentiate between them. A ketimun is a cucumber also known as timun, but a timun is also a marrow, and a terung is an aubergine, and a terung hijau is a green aubergine but that is the same as a cumumber and marrow and squash although labu is also a squash. And before you say it I've tried calling them zucchini (even more puzzlement) and shown them photo pictures - to which they now nod in complete understanding and say "oh yes, you mean cucumber / aubergine / squash etc.

At least I've sorted out getting leafy green pak choi. Amanda describes: It's a vegetable (sayur), it's green (hijau) Staff: scratch heads and frown. Amanda: With leaves and you bought it for me last week. Staff: scratch heads - lettuce?. It's a green vegetable with leaves, you put it in the mi goreng yesterday. Frown - beans? Adrian draws a stunningly good picture. Total recognition - Oh you mean green vegetable (sayur hijau) and sure enough they brought me leafy greens :) pak choi

And i've nailed the rice thing too, can buy it, cook it and yes you've guessed it we eat it nearly every day. There is Chicken, rice & things. or Rice with vegetable & chicken, or vegtable/chicken thing with rice (etc). We still struggle to find some of our desired ingredients or they're just ridiculously expensive so we manage a few of our old favourites but sometimes not quite as we know them. Like Peking Pork with cashew & mushrooms (that's without the pork, cashew or mushrooms aka chicken & veg in oyster sauce) And I even rustled up a banana split the other day, although without the chocolate sauce, ice-cream,nuts or glace cherries - well I cut a pisang in half what more do you want!!

Having a shopping service is great. We no longer have to tolerate the horrors of Sainsbury's on a Saturday morning and it is helping the Bahasa along. I can now name all the fruit, veg & seasonings without the aid of a dictionary - apart from courgettes of course...

Close Encounter

Bill, you remember Bill don't you? the gecko formerly known as No.2 who's 9" long, warty with green spots, well last night he/she was doing normal things geckos do in the evening which is to hang around the light fitting waiting for a tasty snack to come along. So I'm minding my own business supping a cold beer when a small beetle landed on my back, shortly followed by Bill. Amanda jumps up in astonishment at seeing Bill biting my shirt and I look at her as if to say 'am I going to die'? The next thing I know is Bill has finished eating and is looking for an escape route,  'Oh look this mans face looks safe think I'll sucker myself there'. So I'm sitting there calmly with a gecko hanging off my face and Amanda is jumping up and down trying not to wet her pants with fear/laughter when Bill has second thoughts and runs off. The worst thing is my beer is now warm and I'll probably not be able to sleep, not now, not ever!

I'm forever blowing bubbles

Before I forget I must just set the record straight - our abode is actually only 20m from the beach (nice) and Chris doesn't like to be called Mr Brown - that's his father! Sorry Chris.

As the resident instructors at Reef Seen we are meant to wait for paying guests to go diving. We've had a bit of a lull for the last couple of days so had to find other excuses to blow bubbles. The boys hatched a plan for new reef discovery. We threw all our gear in the back of the pick-up and went round the corner past Bago's house to the next bay. There is a fish farm in the middle and no reef to speak of, but what a muck dive!! Shrimps varieties a go-go (anemones, cleaner, boxer, mantis, partner, squat, blah, blah, blah...) more miniature lion fish than is decent, a positive M4 meets M25 juction of nudibranch& sea slugs plus a selection of pipefish including one of the robust ghost variety to end with.

Although all the boys are divers we still have some work to do with the girls. They are all good swimmers but have a reluctance to get in the water as that would mean getting their hair wet and going out in the sun - which leads to a danger of getting a tan. Even in this outback the corner shop has it's selection of skin whitening products - weird nation. However I have now managed to take Masiti, Dewi and Little Anik out for a intro bimble in our beautiful doorstep underwater gardens.

No, I haven't grown - remember she is the tiny one!!

Strap me vitals!

This is not a fake Amanda really is on a horse.  After 40 years of being scared of these noble creatures (following the unfortunate incident on Hampstead Heath) she finally saddled up - well, was forcibly coerced with the promise of an ice cream.  This is Apache from Chris's ranch, an 11 year old mild-mannered mare.  Bear in mind Amanda only knows what to call the male & female of the species from another embarrassing experience at The Stable Bar in the early days of "going out" with me - (draught Stella was hard to come by in those days.) Look closely - she's smiling but her eyes give her away (Amanda, not Apache).

Look at the barnacles on that! I've been helping the boys refurbish "Reef Runner" one of our boats . Ok by helping I mean standing around scratching my chin much like a garage mechanic. However I did get to flex my muscles when it came to taking the boat out of the water. This could so easily have been a Monty Python sketch, 12 strapping men (and me), 2 rolling logs and a couple of planks. The logs were not very cylindrical, the planks (one short and fat, the other long and thin) tending to disintegrate under the weight but somehow we managed it.  After 6 days of scraping, filling, sanding, painting and polishing we reverse the log process (one log crumbles so another is quickly hewn from a spare tree) and relaunch.

Scuba equipment occasionally wears out too and I'm called upon to service some regulators. For those who don't know it's just a case of stripping down to component parts, cleaning, inspecting, replacing worn parts and reassembly. For those who do know (I'm looking Simon squarely in the eyes), no that isn't an adjustable wrench, that bucket really is an ultrasonic bath and the sloping brown carpet effect stainless steel workbench is parallax error on the part of the camera.

Party Time

We are losing track of the ceremonies, there are lots of them and they are taken very seriously whether religious, full moon or something seemingly more sombre like a death in the family. I say seemingly as a cremation is a major and celebratory event. An entire village will be involved (everyone IS related to everyone else here - bit like Thatcham) they process through the streets, dancing & playing gamelan/gong/pipe music following the body to it's final resting place. In the really touristy areas locals charge foreigners to join in & take pictures - seems wrong to me but there you go.

We don't have to do all the religious stuff but we were honoured to be invited to one ceremony. Pre-nuptual drinks & nibbles for Bago one of our boatdrivers and snorkelling guide. Everyone dressed up in their traditional finery and each took appropriate & identically wrapped offerings. On this occasion its a bamboo tray of rice & noodles with a parcel of rice, sugar, flour so the happy couple won't have to stock up the store cupboard for a while.

Left to right are Dewi, Surya, Anik, Budi (or it might be Erfa I'm afraid I still get confused) and Indra