Tax day in the
I went for an afternoon paddle and then met Kate at Nusa resort on an island for drinks. Kate was swimming over from her office about ¾ of a mile, and I paddled from our house. I found her out in the harbor on her way there.
We passed this boat on way. It had a canoe in the middle of it, but they had offloaded the canoe by the time I took this picture. People have great names for boats. Our favorite is "Ey No Wrong yet" (nothing is wrong yet). Presumably this is a very negative way of saying "Smooth Sailing". It sort of sums up the attitude of the language and the culture.
We hung out with some of the other local ex-pats and had a nice dinner. It was a great night to paddle since the moon was full. Kate took a boat back to her truck, and I paddled back.
I was more than a bit nervous about the surf landing through the reef in the dark. Although I could see enough to paddle I could not see the swell and judge the landing well.
On the way out I was rejected once, and capsized. The tide was low on this return trip, so it was just dumping surf on rock. Very dangerous, but only for 30 or 40 feet since the full force of the wave is expended almost instantly when it breaks.
Our neighbors were sitting around a campfire down where I usually go through the surf, and they say my light. 3 or 4 kids were jumping up and down with burning log torches to make it more dramatic.
Eventually I just said what the hell and gave it a try. I made it in a bit, but then got nailed by a huge wave. It slammed the boat down into the reef, but I managed to brace into it, so I didn’t get rolled. It did make a really impressive noise.
When I got back over to our house I couldn’t lift the boat, the front seemed heavy. I had taken all Kate’s snorkel gear, but when I tried to unload it I realized the entire front hatch was flooded. I had torn a huge hole in the seem along the bow. A spot that had already leaked slightly and been patched several times.
Kate was Francis, a guy at her office, do some work on her boat, so I had him fix my boat as well. He did a great job for only K40 about $25. Her is a picture of him next to the boat.
I guess I have to limit night paddling, or find a better place to land.
Earlier in the afternoon I came home and found Jesus on my doorstep under a beer bottle. It took a while, but I realized somebody had stopped by to invite us to a religious gathering, and since they didn’t want the note to blow away they put it under a beer bottle. That was very “PNG”. …
Also checkout this funny picture from the newspaper. Some villagers caught a crocodile and were going to eat it, For some reason the paper wanted two pictures, but the inset picture is exactly the same as the main picture just smaller and oval. Not sure what the intent was.
Another funny newspaper picture. A story about 2 tourists in a double kayak getting swept out to sea and rescued by a fishing boat, accompanied by a picture of a person rolling a kayak. Not sure what the message is. Must have been the only kayak picture they had in inventory.
Here is a picture of Kate giving Stinky his Sunday breakfast of cognac infused French Toast with whipped cream. Stinky is VERY interested in it, so he has stood-up to take a whiff. He is a bit of snob, but this was good cognac so he ate it happily.
I have to keep a constant monitor on Kate so she doesn’t scoop up another puppy. Here she is with the neighbors dog, "Jealous", a very cute puppy, but becoming an annoying dog quickly.
Truth:
Its hard to give charity to people you know.
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