Under the trees on Kuta beach is such a great spot for a cold (ish) beer and a chat with the local beach population isn't it? On this particular afternoon the topic seemed to be affairs of the heart (or whatever).
Kadek had been "still looking" every time I inquired how she was going in the boyfriend stakes for about 3 years now. (well, it's polite to ask a lot of personal questions in Bali you know). Today, however, she responded with a mysterious smile and her friend Made was very quick to dob her in.
"Yes she has a boyfriend now. Already 3 months. He lives in Jimbaran".
Kadek said a little wistfully that he really wasn't very good looking and had very crooked teeth but he was kind hearted enough. Also it seems he is too lazy to work.... This left me searching for something positive to say but luckily Made filled the silence by providing the wisdom that this really wasn't so important because his family were fishermen and so there was always fish for dinner and had I noticed how Kadek's complexion had improved with the good diet.
I agreed that Kadek certainly did look glowingly healthy, glad at this point for anything good to be found about the poor unfortunate Gede with the crooked teeth and lazy nature.
At this point Budi from the beach esky put in his 2 bob's worth which was that any babies they had would certainly be healthy with all that protein from the fish. He also pointed out that Kadek isn't really in a position to talk about crooked teeth and she is pretty scrawny.
"Thank God for the wonder bra" added Budi who had just come in from surfing and was pouring a bottle of water over his head to rinse off, managing, of course, to wet Kadek too which led to the big joke fest about wet tee shirt competitions. This naturally led on to a discussion about the attributes of Wayan's Norwegian girlfriend who had gone home that day.
"Yes I am very broke hearted" said Wayan sitting pensively on a Bintang crate with his head in his hands gazing at the airport runway just as a Singapore Airlines plane came in to land. "but anyway the airport is open 24 hours a day".