Legian, Bali - Part 3

The last few days I took a bit of a break from surfing. I have been trying to take care of my cold and my shoulder and doing a whole lot of nothing.

Saturday I met up with Alain, we hopped on his moped and drove to Redz, a surfboard shop. We had stopped there on our way back from the beach on Friday and checked out some boards. I had no intention of buying one but when I heard the price Alain was getting, I decided to join him on Saturday. So I ordered my surfboard and Marcy will kindly pick it up for me next week and hold it, while I make my way through Malaysia,
Thailand andHong Kong, until I get back to Bali in December, when I will be able to christen the board in Balinese waters!

After the exciting outing, we came back to town and I had a rest at my hotel. Later I met up with Alain and Dan at Melinda and Marcy's bungalow for afternoon tea. Alain had brought over a fantasticPont l'Eveque cheese that he brought from France, I brought American grapes, Melinda supplied the crackers, tea and coffee and Dan and Marcy brought their stellar personalities. We had a lovely and highly sophisticated afternoon at the beach bungalow.

Sunday I read a book and met Chelsea and Melinda for a few mango daiquiris and some dinner at Lanai.

Monday my day started like any other, breakfast of papaya, watermelon and pineapple by the pool. I eventually made my way to Tri, my massage therapist, who Melinda set me up with to work specifically on my shoulder. Tri proceeded to stick about 10 acupuncture needles in my arm and shoulder and hooked up the needles to this electricity transmitter. Needless to say once he turned the current on I looked like I was having a seizure. After 20 minutes of twitching, the needles came out and it was time for massage. Now this is not a spa massage, this man goes to work- this is
deep tissue work that brings tears to your eyes, but for $15, less shoulder pain and an extended range of motion it was well worth it.

I was supposed to go for a surf after but my lesson got canceled due to bad conditions, so we rescheduled for this morning and I went off to do some sidewalk/window shopping, headed off to theapothek (pharmacy) for some cough medicine and made my way to Lanai to watch the sunset and have some dinner.

This morning Marcy and Melinda picked me up at 5:45am and we went for a surf at the break in front of the bar KuDeTa, I have been advised the correct name for this break is Poofies.
In any event, it is a long paddle out past some pretty heavy shore break but once you got to the outside the waves were really nice, not too fast and not too steep. I caught the first one on my own but I went left instead of going right (on therighthander ) like I was supposed to. Duh! I kind of exhausted myself with the paddling and the rest of the waves were a combination of me paddling and Marcy pushing me. You'd think all this time in the water I would be a stronger paddler by now! It gets a little frustrating. Anyway so towards the end of my lesson there's a big wave coming my way - I ditch the board and dive under. Well, somehow me and my board went in the wrong direction and I had a head on collision with one of the fins. Yes I covered my head, but apparently not well enough. So once I popped up to the surface Marcy was all "Are you ok ??" I just rubbed my head and said yeah I was fine, I just knocked my head and I ask him if I'm bleeding. He says yes! I figure he's just being full of it and touch my forehead. Sure enough, blood! So I got out of the water, Marcy got me some ice and we got the bump back down to non alien like levels. I did suggest we amputate, as my dad used to say when we got a cut when we were kids, but Marcy was not too much into surgery. Ha ha ha

So after a shower and suitable application of antiseptic for cuts, tiger balm for sore muscles and arnica for a number of bruises, I had some breakfast and made my way to the internet cafe. I'm off to Kuala Lumpur after a morning surf tomorrow.

Note 1: Not sure if the monitor is bad it if it is the compression of the photos that is making them look crappy. Will fix them once I get to a proper high speed connection.
Note 2: To my family, I'm a little banged up but I'm OK, don't worry - it's not like we have to amputate anything and I've got a hard head anyway.