Why are we so relaxed....Caral and Paul that's why

11/7/11
Waking at 5am is somewhat of a shock to the system but we pull ourselves out of bed and are waiting for our pick up by 5.45. At 615 there is no sign so out comes the ipod, we connect to ckype and call the company -the wonders of skype! The company are not worried and tell us that our villa is difficult to find but to be patient. Eventually we are picked up, taken to a small bus station and transferred onto a bigger bus. We then trundle down to the port, wait around for an hour, jump on a public ferry for 4 hours, back on a minibus and arrive at our accommodation at 4pm. Wow where did that day go?

Whilst on the move I had an excess of time and a shortage of things to do so I took to pondering the joys travel. Worries zero, hassle moderate in the form of touts but noting in comparison to being at home, food fabulous although some creature comforts are missed, income- limited but we are managing, on average, on 68 quid a day between us. Stress- none existent. Luxuries now take the form of breakfast overlooking the beach as opposed to a new pair of shoes but that suits me fine as I don’t need to go shopping.

It also occurred to me that this is by far the most relaxed that we have been in early July for over 10 years. Why do I pick early July? Well yes it is early July now but more importantly this is the time of year we check students in and out. And where are we… Indonesia sitting overlooking the beach. So with something that rules our Julys in any normal year how have we sidestepped this responsibility? Carol property services supported by Paul maintenance is the answer. Without Carol organising everything, keeping the tenants in check (she’s more scary than me but I like this. Also the tenants show her more body parts than me- presumably as they see here like a mum but never the less none of them have ever showed me there bum in 10 years and I would enjoy that. After 5 months carols has had this… oh life is unfair!) , keeping the books in order, dealing with the phone calls, dealing with builders and everything else our trip would be rather harder and the services the tenants receive far poorer. Paul had also had a part to play making sure the properties are kept up to scratch. As always he excels in the painting, decorating and general maintenance that student houses require. Over that last few days they have been very busy with the checkout, cleaning, maintenance and check in at Main Street.

So in short we are so grateful to both Carol and Paul for looking after the business whilst we are away.