Monday 7th April
Yesterday was the
Headlam Day Of Rest.
 |
| This was the view from his wicker chair |
Pete declared that
he was not going to make a single decision all day, and that possibly this
would involve not even deciding to get out of bed at all.
You can see from
this photo – Pete with yet another group of students keen to interview him as
part of their university project for the weekend – that one of the decisions he
made, once he did decide to get up, was a bad one. He dressed in jeans, shoes socks… And it was
NOT a cool day, like the day before, when it was a blissful 22 degrees ALL
day. It got above 30 so he had to make
another decision – to get changed, before reclining in his chair on the little
verandah with a contented sigh and a new Kindle book on his lap.
I quite enjoyed
being in charge of decisions for the day, and I marched us out of Hariara and
down the street to a lovely little restaurant called Maruba, with a thick
jungle of garden full of delicious food – see above; I rest my case!
We were very happy
with our delicious breakfast, our perfectly brewed tea and coffee, and our
delightful host, Tom. He bakes his own
bread and roasts his own coffee, and the orange juice was freshly squeezed. Oh and there was bacon – Pete nearly cried
with joy.
 |
| Teresia and Zenetta |
On our way back to
Hariara we bought more phone top-up (which only lasted ten minutes…) and met a
most delightful baby.
 |
| Miga |
It is so nice to
be back in Indonesia, where people are very keen for their children to be
admired and photographed. When I say I
might put this photo on the internet, the parents beam with pride.
I spent a bit of
time at the internet café, very s-l-o-w-l-y but happily doing my
bloggeries. It was completely empty…no
staff, no coffee, just some bottled water.
I helped myself to one of these – I was desperately thirsty and after an
hour or so one of the waitresses turned up, smiling vaguely, and made me a
beautiful cup of coffee. She then
vanished and eventually I left without having paid for water or coffee…I will
go back tomorrow, with rupiah.
I went back to
check on Reclining Pete and then set off for a walk, with my umbrella for
shade. It was all just lovely so I went
a very long way and had to go slowly because…it was hot and the road is full of
hazards…potholes, mudslides, large lumps of concrete.
So many beautiful
bits of architecture, bits of nature.
And little posses
of students wanting to interview me…
It will be quite a
relief when they all go back to uni this morning. They are delightful; but they all have the
same list of questions and they do not like deviating from the script. The girls this morning were a bit worried
that I was out and about without my
husband and they questioned me re this with furrowed brows. I mimed sleeping and they were very relieved
that somewhere on the island was a Protector for their new friend.
The Batak people
are all Christian, as far as I can tell, and there are some very pretty
churches nestled in the thick greenery.
Most of the people along the way waved, smiled, called out Horas but
fortunately they didn’t all want to interview me… What do you think about Indonesia?
What are your hobbies? These
interviews are all videoed, on the students’ phones, by the way. I have visions of a poor weary lecturer back
at uni having to look at twenty episodes of Marguerite
Walks the Street of Tuktuk. I am not a natural-born celebrity. But I did
meet a natural-born celebrity on the way back!
Some young blokes were flirting away happily on the side of the road,
with two hot chickybabes on a small motorbike.
One of the lads wanted to show off so he called out to me and tried to
speak English, very confidently. What do you think my name is, Miss? I waited expectantly, sure he would let
me know. Tom Cruise of Indonesia! I
expressed an interest in taking a photo of such a fabulous person and he struck
a dramatic pose. He was mightily pleased
with the result. Handsome, eh? he said, complacently.
It is very hot and sunny today. Maybe a swim in the lake?
No comments:
Post a Comment