Hey, I wear a sarong so do I care?
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Mon 18 Jun 2012 05:24
Penelope Pitstop! It may be pink but there's a picture of a guy on it, so it must be OK
Yes Virginia, there is a second engine sitting on, rather than in, the boat.
Today started badly. A text message from conker-bollocks. 'Not working today. CU 2morrow'.
Maybe. If not somebody else will be installing the engines.
Walking down the hill, I saw a black cat.
Me, superstitious? Well, let's just say after leaving New Zealand on Friday 13th and clobbering the reef I'm a little cautious.More agnostic than atheist.
If only I could have understood what the cat was trying to say. Now that's a point, what language to cats speak? CATese, CATalan, CAnTonese? Do cats get together for a saucer of milk and a bit of a kit-chat?
Be that as it may, what the cat was trying to say to me was 'Peter, do not go to the ATM machine you are thinking of using'.
I arrived at the boat, John the GRP and Butto were there. John needed to go off and get some pipes for the holding tanks (Woosh! there goes another unanticipated F$320).. I had just transferred enough money into the current account to cover the cost of extending my visa so we agreed I'd pay him tomorrow. I gave Butto 'his orders' for the day, then headed into Town, pausing at the ATM machine. Actually, I could withdraw enough to pay John today and transfer the rest tonight Fiji time and probably not go overdrawn. Good scheme, keep John happy.
Card in, PIN in. F$600 please.
Card out, receipt out. Wait for your F$600. And wait. And wait. And 'time out, transaction cancelled.'
Hmm, but the receipt says account has been debited. Ring the number on the ATM machine. Run out of phone credit. Absolutely no money having given Butto his daily lunch and transport money. Back to the boat and borrow his per diem back. Buy phone credit.
Your Internet banking should show the transaction was cancelled. Check in an hour.
Trudge back into town, watching out for black cats and stepping over the cracks in the pavement.
I have $3 and my Ipad which needed the operating system update. One of today's jobs.
Internet cafe. Prices have gone up. I only have enough money for thirty minutes, which coincidentally is JUST enough to update the IOS and not enough to check my bank account. I am mildly unsurprised.
ATM machine. Gives me the money and receipt seems to indicate previous transaction cancelled.
Go to Immigration. Long queue. Fijian-style I push my way to the front, but suddenly all the officers magically disappear. Lunchtime. Bollocks. Back to the boat.
Re-pay Butto, pay John.
Next job, pick up the Mac Powerbook. the one that seems to have been in the shop since January. Raining heavily so taxi.
I transfer all my photos of the entire trip from the Mac hard-drive to a portable hard drive. Take Mac hard drive with me and leave the carcass of the old Mac with the Apple store, no good to me and they may be able to sell bits of it.
Walk round to Cost-you-More.
Buy Penelope Pitstop kit because my mask and snorkel had gone missing and I just know that I'll need a set before finding one in a more suitable colour. This is the first US Divers equipment I've seen, and that includes at the Dive Centre!
Buy the cat a month's supply of dried Whiskas. Surely my parting gift. At least I now have one friend in the world. Cat thinks I'm wonderful and proves it by jumping up on my shoulders. Must get a photo of that sometime.
Still raining. Taxi back to the house.
Wait for something else to go wrong.
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http://www.peterbernfeld.com