Okay, I'm officially getting crazy.

Things have been overly hectic at work since the office moved to Sanur. The construction work is still ongoing, the smell of the paint gave me a headache, problems after problems come with the tukang's, earlier on last week (even up to now) Vincent has been having a hard time adjusting himself here. And yesterday he was finally happy because he got a call for a meeting with Fabio's friend for a job/partnership they could do, ONLY to find today that he couldn't find the place because he said I drew a wrong map. He was now very late and obviously isn't happy with me because of that.

To make things even more perfectly messed up, Vincent's angry call came at the same time when I was trying to meddle with another detail problem of painting work between Fabio and the landlord, where both were expressing their displeasure at one another THROUGH ME.

I can't take any more shouts today. I hope I won't.
A few updates that have been happening in my life this past fresh one week:
  • My sister, Ita, has moved to Bali at the same time my boss was recruiting for a new staff to replace Carol (after 5 months I struggled doing two-person job!). She appeared to be the best candidate among the other 5 [I don't know how, my critical self thinks that her English is far from sufficient]. But anyway, congratulations to her. She started working on Monday (3 days ago) and so far she has shown a real motivation in learning what she should be doing at the office. It is not easy in the beginning, but I do appreciate her willingness.
  • Fabio and Inga are moving to a big house in Sanur next weekend. It will be the same day Vincent arrives (YAY!!!!). So that means both my sister and I will have to get a (separate) place near the new office.
    I think I could settle the first month living in this hotel/kost in Sidakarya, less than 5 minutes drive from Fabio's place. I actually liked a little house overlooking a rice field like 20 minutes from the new office. But it's really too far for Vincent to get to the expat area. While I think it is important for him to build his network in his first months here so that he can secure a job not long after he moves. So we agreed to take this full-service hotel for a month. Good deal for a short period, but not really in the long run. But I guess it is a better option. Then we can buy one-month time to look around for a house for us together.
  • This evening after work I drove Ita to Sanur area near the new office to look around for a boarding house for her. Amazingly enough, among the so many mushrooming boarding houses (Bahasa = kos-kosan), everything was full. And we were actually looking at the "city" side of Sanur instead of the seaside. My sister kept wondering why. I did not understand it, either.

    We finally tried our luck in the seaside area. Ita found something that looked like a boarding house so she went in to see if there were a room available. I think I shouldn't waste time accompanying her there, but instead I checked out the other places nearby that looked like a boarding house. So I went inside this place next door that looked like a small losmen.

    There was a guy with a well-built-body and latino-look curly hair approaching me and asked me what I wanted. I asked him if it was a penginapan (inn) and he said yes. Then I asked him how much it would cost if I was to rent it for a month. He said he was not renting rooms monthly.

    "Oh, alright. It's like a hotel then. How much is it per day/night?" I asked again.

    I swear he looked like he almost burst into laughing when he said, "We don't rent it on daily basis either."

    I was stunned and confused.

    "We rent rooms on hour-basis," he continued.

    I stopped being dumb and the images of the places with the Sutra condom zone signs made me realise that I just stepped into one of the brothels in Sanur. I got so awkward and I prepared myself to run out of that place as soon as I could before he thought I could be recruited as one of their sex workers.

My sister was laughing her arse off when she heard the story, and so was Pam.

"I never saw any hotel rooms in Kuta that are rented on hourly basis," Pam said, "So Sanur must be the Bali-side of prostitution area."

I may need to research that. She might be right. I mean I'm not in the slightest doubt that Kuta is full of ayam's[1]. We saw a lot of them everywhere. But brothels, hmm... I don't think I've seen one yet here. Not as obvious as a sex-trade marketplace like in Sanur, at least.

Now that explains why the boarding houses are full! Those girls must have occupied them.

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[1] Ayam carries the connotation meaning of a young female prostitute. However, its literal meaning is chicken.

A practical way to record your lovelife story.

40 years from now, I won't have to buy a rocking chair and tell my grandchildren how his granddad and I got together and what else, the story won't be one-sided since the man in focus is also contributing.

I'll just email them the link. ;) I'm so clever!