There is unrest in our villa - our airconditioner does not appear to be happy. We are both awake earlier than we should be and appear to be doing a very good impersonation of bikram yoga without the yoga! Hubby is enthusiastic to 'read' his new book with pictures, but I am hotter than hell and decide that we may as well start the day with a rousting morning walk! Hubby looks longingly at the book but the pools of sweat that are gathering around both of us convinces him that the decision to go for a walk is our best option. We don our gear and head out before dawn towards the beach. I am full of beans and keen to set a decent pace. Hubby does me proud - he was once one of those who loved to loll in bed, sleeping in etc etc until he married me, he now knows that a lie-in is futile and the easiest most painless way to overcome possible hostilities from his wife (me) is to get up! PAGI's to all and sundry we hit the beach just as the sun is coming up and the view is spectacular. I truly love the break of dawn - the camera is dutifully whipped out and I am again taking photos similar to those just taken a few days prior. After nearly an hour we arrive back to the villa famished for our breakfast.
The aircon we decide might possibly need attention and so I send hubby off to report the sauna like conditions. Hubby has to disappear for the afternoon for a work thing (as he does the following day also for the full day). I decide to catch a few rays and change into my bathers but not before a wall of water is seen and heard gushing out of the airconditioner! Not good I would think! I switch the aircon off and mop up the water before heading outside to get some much needed sun. My body is still an awful casper looking white and it is already almost half way through our trip. I am relaxed laying in the glorious sun, when hubby comes back with the maintenance man! I have just enough time to whip my top up before our villa becomes a thoroughfare and any thoughts of relaxation are quashed. I make hubby an early lunch and send him on his way for his conference. I decide to partake in a bit of window shopping whilst hubby is away with the view of catching lunch out on the street. Our friend (C) arrives from Perth tonight and is checking into a studio room, so I wanted to get some mixers etc for her. Deed done, I head back to the villa and the airconditioner appears to be working! YAY!
Wayan picks hubby up after his conference and by the time they make it back to the villa I have already received a message from C to say she is here and to come and see her room. Must say the studio rooms are gorgeous, a lot newer than the villas and each one overlooks the infinity pool - most excellent. We decide on the order of the evening being showers and a few bevies at our villa before heading out to eat. We take her to the Wicked Parrot given that we all had a good meal there. C and I order mie goreng, hubby and Wayan order steak. All good. Must say the mie goreng was one of the nicest I have encountered - just the right amount of chilli to give you a good hit. I am waiting for the band to call me back for an encore from my previous nights entertainment but surprisingly they don't...I console myself with the thought that they must be a different band. A couple more drinks and we head back. C is tired from and so are we after being woken so early.
It is around 2am in the morning and all is quiet at Chez Villa ...BANG...we are woken to a loud noise, I scramble for the bedside light and in the process decapitate the beside lamp and send my glass of water flying against the wall. Hubby fares no better, he has leaped out of bed and walked smack into the side of the bedside table in his haste to switch the main villa light on. We finally locate a light, switch it on and take in the scene... There is another noise now - very loud and very close, almost building up to something that is indescribable....its the friggin airconditioner! We hear another gush of water, and we are again aware that the villa is an uncomfortable heat. We switch the aircon off and I head off to find the security guard, to see if there is anything he can do to rectify the problem...the problem being the villa is an uncomfortable setting for a peaceful sleep and hubby has to be up for his day long conference that very morning!! I don't find the security guard but rather someone who must be his son, watching tv in the security post where said security guard should be. The young boy takes one look at me in my nightie and flees to find and wake said security guard! The security guard emerges trying to look like he hasn't been kipping, but the crease down the side of his face gives it away! He apologies - not sure what for because I haven't even started yet!!! I explain the situation...he asks to view said airconditioner...we head off to our villa. After much umming and arrrring whilst looking at it from a distance, he decides there is nothing he can do but he will put it in his report! Of he goes. That's it????
Hubby is telling me that there is not much we can do about it and we lay on the bed in the hope that we can continue some sort of rest. We do consider, albeit briefly, opening the doors to let the night air in but just as quickly dismiss the idea given the mozzie's fondness for my hubbys flesh. Plus I am 99% sure I saw a mouse scoot by in my peripheral vision on the way to the security hut. We are just relaxing back into a sleep when TRING TRING, the phone rings...hubby decapitates his lampshade (2 lampshades down, 0 to go!) and fumbles for the phone whilst I bravely fight my way to the wall to switch on the light! My heart is racing... It is the security guard asking us if we want to sleep in one of the studios for the rest of the night....hubby is definitely gearing up for a no but takes in my frantically nodding head and says ok. Off we head to the studio section and the guard is there apologizing that it is only a twin bed available. He leaves us to it. The room hasn't been used as the aircon has been off and it is hotter than the villa. No matter, we settle onto our respective separate beds and try to sleep.
It takes the entire time we are in the studio for the aircon to cool the room (about 3 hours) before we are up and heading back to our villa for an early breakfast as hubby has to be on the road by 8am. I make hubby his continental breakfast given that breakfast doesn't start till 7.30 each morning, so we had already preordered it to be delivered the night before. He heads of for his shower....within seconds he is back proclaiming there is no water...no hot water I query? No, he says, no water at all....don't be silly I say...and off I go to test the shower - sure enough, no water at all! Hubby starts to stress, I tell him to chill and that I will call our friend C and see if she is up and has water, and if she does he can shower there! C is up - thankfully (she has the same problem as me when it comes to staying the first night anywhere new). I inform hubby that he can shower at C's...he asks if he should take the shampoo and conditioner...I advise him it would be rude to use other peoples hair products and that yes I thought it would be a good idea and whilst he was at it, to grab a towel because I don't think C would appreciate sharing towels with him! Off he trots! He is back 5 minutes later, towel around his waist and declaring it the best shower he has had since being here....I marvel at the fact that he is back in 5 minutes as hubby is no stranger to taking long showers! He advises he felt a bit uncomfortable taking a shower in another ladies room...I give him 10 points for the right answer!
The phone rings and it's his transport to take him off for his conference. He dresses in haste and before he goes asks me if I think this is the same shirt as he wore last year??? What the? How would I remember something like that... I tell him it won't matter, but he is adamant he doesn't want to wear the same shirt because they take photos...the phone rings again, I send him on his way, assuring him it's not the same...but with the feeling that it is! I feel like I need something stronger to drink than coffee but a glance at the clock tells me its FAR too early for those kind of shenanigans!
C arrives looking refreshed from her shower and sleep and asks me if I want one too. I decline on the view that we are going shopping, bound to get hot and sweaty, which means we will be swimming in the pool afterwards. We head off but not before I head into reception to advise them of the new problem...being the water (or lack of it). We hit the markets and do a little shopping, we also have some lunch whilst we are out. We head back to the villa a little after 1pm and my villa is a hive of activity! I grab my bathers and we head to the infinity pool - it is clear we won't be having a swim at my villa. Whilst at the infinity pool, the owner comes over and advises me that they are going to have to replace the airconditioner with a new one and that the water heater is also being replaced and its all going to take place tomorrow! He offers me the use of the studio again for us to use until this is done, but I decline the offer as I want my villa!! We also advised him that he may hear a rumour that my hubby and C are having a thing because my darling hubby was seen coming out of C's room this morning in nothing more than a towel and the pool man was attending to the pool and saw him. He looked a bit unsure of what to say to this, but I assured him that we were not swingers and not into anything like that...off he went to digest this information I am sure!
C and I continue to bathe until its time for me to shower. I do shower albeit it in a lukewarm shower back at the villa. Hubby and Wayan eventually arrive back and I update him on the situation with the villa. C arrives for a few pre-dinner bevies and we plan for the following day - shopping at Discovery and surrounds!! We head out for dinner and decide on Bonsai Café on the beach. Love this café - its really a lovely setting. We all enjoy our meals! The only thing I would say is - and I am going to have a rant here, so no flaming please....parents if you have young children, it is not appropriate to let them run around the tables far and wide annoying other diners whilst you ignore them and continue to chat and drink with your party of friends. Take some responsibility...and don't forget you are in a foreign country - look at what happened to Madeleine McCann...it could have quite easily have happened to your children in the blink of an eye. Enough said!
We finish our meals, marvel at the price and head back to the villa. Hubby and I are exhausted and despite the fact that we have no aircon, we are so tired, we don't care and fall into a blissful sleep after trying out page 5 of his picture book...to be continued....the JBR that is not the picture book....LOL