CHAPTER 2: Getting Sorted!

So the first couple of days were not anything like we had expected, it definitely was not a holiday! We had to sort our villas out and get the kids settled.

Kate and her family were staying with us, as their villa was not finished yet and to be honest looked like being a good month away! Every time we went over to ask the builders how long? They would say, "4 days" then laugh, so we really had no idea?

The first thing we had to sort out was getting our air conditioners installed and fridge for our food and drinks, because I can tell you its pretty bloody hard to live in a tropical climate without those two things! ha ha (i know i am being a princess!)

So two days later, which is straight away in Bali time we had some men rock up with their hand chisels to install our air conditioners and they also bought our fridges and stoves which were just dumped in my lounge room for us to install.

Next thing on our "To Do List" was defeating the bats! Everyone we spoke to about our problem laughed and said "ya ya one or two bats, no problem!" BUT there was not just one or two bats, it was awful! So our landlord sent a Balinese man around to hang about 30 CD'S from my ceiling, he climbed a long skinny bamboo pole and tied them to the rafters with fishing line. This is supposed to deter the bats, they hate their reflection.... Bouboummmmmm!!! No, the bats loved them, they now thought it was a bat play ground! Next I googled and apparently they hate "napthilene" which is found in moth balls, so i went out and bought 15 packets of moth balls and guess what...that did not work either! It just made my house smell like St Vinnies! Then I went out and bout some fluro lights..because they HATE fluro lights too! But guess what? Yep they loved the light as well! So the last resort was, not to get the pest controllers, but to go straight to the top and get the local "Holy Man". This had to work for sure! He came at midnight with a following of about 10 other people, bringing with them a midnight feast of chicken and rice. He did some awesome speed reading of his holy book for an hour, Kate stayed and watches and said it was amazing. Then after the feast, they collected all of the chicken bones and buried them in my garden! We waited in desperate hope for the next sunset to fall to see whether this holy ritual had worked. To our huge frustration and disappointment the ritual had failed and the bats were angry; they returned the following night, faster, louder and even more of them!

The only thing left to do was to buy some tulle netting to have like a curtain around or lounge room, we effectively turned our villas into wedding marques! ha ha...We had one of our local builders tack about 15 sheets of the tulle around the edge of the roof, it is certainly not attractive, BUT It worked! We could now sit in the lounge room in peace, no bats!

Our week settled down a little, every day Kate and I would go out in the car looking for furniture, bedding and house hold nick nacs. Its funny because I have always loved shopping, but this was hot and exhausting! We had to get EVERYTHING! Towels, sheets, knives, forks...EVERYTHING!

There were fun parts to this week though! Like the first time Kate and I drove the car to get groceries! It was so nerve racking and funny! We had no idea where we were going! We ended up getting to the shopping centre ok, but by the time we came out it was dark and I got sooooo dis orientated! We ended up pulling over and paying a taxi to drive home so that we could follow. The funniest part was, about half way home he pulled over and got out, walked over to our window and said "ok, so now you get in my taxi and show me how to get to your house." We just cracked up laughing and said "NO NO, NO, We are following you because we are lost! We dont know where to go!"...so he hopped back in his taxi, did a u turn and started driving the other way where we eventually got home!

There were also days where we bought so many things that we totally forgot we also had to fit in the car, so we had things hanging out of the window and could barely see! ha ha

The trips on the motor bike were also so much fun! You just feel so free when riding through the rice fields! The kids think its pretty special too! They sit and sing as we are cruising along. It also makes for a great family outing to the beach! And best of all to fill up our tanks it costs about $2.50! yey!

So this first week panned out ok in the end....... Stay tuned for week 2, starting school!