British invasion - we hope the first of many: After hectic liveaboard out to Komodo, Rob, Wilma and the Randall boys unwind in Pemuteran. There had been a few strings attached to our allowing them to come which they more than fulfilled. Not just with the obligatory Rum & tobacco for us but extremely cleverly found the right booze & Cherry Ripes for the boss - not an easy feat from England as although made by Cadbury's are only done under licence in Australia. And they'd carefully lugged it all round Indonesia before trundling up here! Thanks a million to you guys.
AJS birthday: nothing special just a crazily busy day in high season. And the the girls rather embarrassedly organised one of those very chocolatey cakes the day after as in spite of many subtle hints and it being on the calendar they'd not realised it was a special day. Who cares - any day is good for cake :)
High Season & 1M guests: Well it's felt like it anyway. Predominantly the French at this time of year, including families of small people, which we try to put off or at least send them somewhere else to stay while encouraging Mum or Dad to come diving on their own. It seems that our marketing strategy has a flaw somewhere that means people forget we are a dive resort with a few rooms and not a hotel.
Dinner @ dianas: Nico invites us to the prestigious Puri Ganesha for dinner with just one caveat "you do like lobster don't you?". We arrive first and order a house Martini to be getting on with... Several hours, carefully prepared courses and glasses of WINE later we totter back down to our (humbler) end of the beach and reality.
Libur: Adrian and I have been trying our best to deal with all the people who turn up and expect to stay and/or dive without pre-booking. Our frustration reaches breaking point and our short answers to yet another stupid question to which the answer should be bleedin' obvious come across as rudeness. Chris decides we need a day or 2 off otherwise entente cordiale will be lost forever. Besides we've worked out we haven't had a break since returning from UK in March. Luckily Mark's place is empty (except for Mark) and we stay for a couple of nights in his Java house. A wooden shack in the grounds of his villa at the foot of the mountains which is basically a luxury tree-house (with a sunken bathroom). I think that if you live by the sea the gentle lapping of the waves drowns out all the weird noises but inland every little scratchy noise sounds like some fierce animal trying to feed it's cubs on our tasty flesh - oh the human mind is a funny thing. In reality the little scratchy sounds are insects trying to feed themselves on our tasty flesh... (Who didn't latch the door properly?)
Luna has landed: Chris has found a young friend for Cookie (our only remaining dog since the sad demise of Snack) who could be her own - peas in a pod. Chris assures us she'll be no trouble if we can babysit her for the first few nights in the bathroom until she gets used to her new home - and anyway she doesn't bark. Mmmm..?? Chris must be more of a parent than we think as in fact Luna barks as good as any Bali dog it's just Chris is immune to it. It's like Scooby and Scrappy are real.
