Hard to leave!

Saturday, 18th April 2015

It’s been a very pleasant few days since my last notes.

Barry’s having a terrible time getting photos out with such poor wi-fi. He’s pissed with me as I keep reminding him he’s the king of IT and I’m just the bunny. Plus I regularly criticise his laptop, as it runs Lotus notes on IBM and is really hard to understand.

The ship arrived last Sunday. We think! But on Monday someone from ANL told us the ship was still on the way. So many different messages about the same subject. I hold no expectation of timely performance. ANL have been very poor to work with, but more of that, once we get the cars!

Barry’s friend Rina has spent the week hassling the Port, Customs and ANL. Last de-brief yesterday, she had the bill of lading paid, Timor Customs had signed the vehicle carnets and by next Monday afternoon we could pick up the cars! And we understand the cars are still in the containers, on the ship!

Barry is going over to Dili on the return Dili ferry which comes over on Saturdays. He’ll check progress, and with luck he’ll come over on Monday morning and continue the journey. While we have experienced frustrating delays – and unnecessary expense caused by ANL – I don’t think we are more than a week behind schedule. I have a week’s float in the schedule, so we should be able to motor through Indonesia without hurrying.

I’m going to the market this morning to pick up a machete. I was talking to the boys on the earthworks job this week and they showed me a shape I prefer. It’s a wide blade, shortish, very, very sharp and I’m trying for a custom scabbard.  The blacksmith up at Makadade village

makes them out of truck and car spring leaves. Resort owner Barry will tell me how much, I figure $3.50, $1 for the steel and a half days pay.

Something else I noticed while I was on the earthworks job with the boys is they have no lump or sledge hammer. To drive pegs they simply pick up the closest rock,  flip it a few times in their hand to get a balance point, then bang the peg in –  awesome.

Lynn and I are sitting on our deck, at our hut, and the villagers are bringing in their goods for the big Saturday market. They will walk from the highlands for 1 1/2 hours with a hand of bananas, get $1 for it, and use the dollar to get something for home. I got a few photos, it’s a big deal for them.

This week we had a visit from the Presidents first woman and her entourage of 32. They had lunch at the resort and paid for 30, arguing the other three only drank water. Many of the men were heavily armed.

Barry goes to Dili today, on the public ferry, $4, one way. He’ll work with Rina to get the cars out.