The Lawrence Clan arrived in Lombok late on Thursday evening and checked into the very nice JoJe Bungalows, right on the beach in Senggigi ...., but she stabbed him! Wow. He tried to get her to kill herself and then she turned the knife on him! (Sorry, The Archers.).
Lombok has an irritating way of welcoming people from certain countries by charging them US$35 per person for a visa. Apparently this privilege is only levied on those arriving at the airport and is not charged in other parts of the country. How pleasant. The smiling, uniformed official who was relieving people of their money offered to accept our Malaysian Ringgit, 875 of them in cash he smarmed. Reluctantly I handed over my credit card and found that the cost became RM760. Where would the other RM100 have gone? But where was Henry going when he came down stairs? And what would Rob have done to Henry if he had have chased him back upstairs?
We have had some great food here so far especially the peanut curries and cucumber, seafood and chilli salads at the excellent Cafe Coco Loco, again right on the beach in Senggigi, but with all the goings on at Bridge Farm who is going to find the time to drill the carrots that Tony said needed doing? And on food matters did the evil Rob force Henry to throw his Easter egg away in the food waste bin? And how could anyone part a small child with their cuddly rabbit?
We managed to find one of the many waterfalls on Lombok and were given a semi official tour by a self appointed waterfall expert who said that he had done a lot of reconstructive work on the path leading there as well as flattening out the area set aside for cars to park. The fall itself was around twenty metres high and the plunge pool was a great thing to swim in. There was one other family there who initially watched on ... but why didn't Kirsty call the police instead of watching on briefly from outside the house? In fact where was she exactly when the stabbing took place? But surely she can't be blamed for the any eventual outcome, can she? She gave Helen as much support as she could and she was genuinely fearful of bloody Rob, who is now quite a lot more and less bloody at the same time.
All around Senggigi there are loads of people keen to sell us bracelets, trinkets, nick-nacks, clothes, pirated DVDs, taxi rides, noisy spinning tops, pearls and flashing LED lights. Not being someone who requires tonnes of these sort of things I have managed to resist as I have also resisted the offers of massages, sunglasses, beach raps, and the like. Our clan did enjoy an ok-ish cake or two from a cafe in Senggigi but in a moment of life imitating art all the cakes would have been improved by the addition of custard. No! Why couldn't he make his own fizzing custard? And what has happened to the pie in the oven? Helen has been arrested and taken away, Henry we presume is being looked after by Pat and Tony and Rob is battling between life and death with the jury being out about whether he should morally live or die. But what about the pie in the oven? Will it be the cause of a serious fire?
Lombok is a much bigger island than any of us had given it credit for and the windy twisting roads take time to get around. To help with this we have hired a car for a few days at the amazingly good value price of US$25 per day. After an email exchange a wonderfully liberal bloke turned up at our place with two cars to choose from, a four seated 4x4 and a seven seater Toyota. After a very brief chat he decided that neither were what we needed and so sent for a 2015 six seater daihatsu instead. He was happy with the vehicle when it arrived and so was I. I handed over he necessary cash, filled in a form, did not have to show my credit card, passport or even driving licence and we were good to go. Europcar at Heathrow airport please take note of this kind of customer service. Lombok Car Hire is currently my hire car company of choice. And how many vehicles and flashing lights were there at Bridge Farm? And how did the aged Peggy arrive on the scene so swiftly for a lady of such advanced years? Does she have superpowers that we are not yet aware of?
Yes we enjoying our time physically in Lombok but we are mentally in Ambridge.