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Seemed like a mad, stressful kind of day in Bali

Posted on February 20, 2007
Filed Under Diary |

Well, maybe not as bad as all that.

Busy, certainly.

The business processing and planning started, as usual, with the second cup of coffee. I’m out of the decent Toraja Kalosi (from Excelso) so it was the local “bubuk-in-a-bag” stuff. Bubuk is powder; looks like instant coffee but it isn’t — more like very fine ground (bashed, probably). I call it cowboy coffee because when you get to the bottom of the cup, you’ve got gritty sludge and that’s what I imagine the cowboys drank… I’m probably way off base with that.

The problem: we’re busy. Not a bad thing, certainly, but when you’re only mid-way through February and people are starting to look strained and stressed, it’s worth paying attention to systems and how the new people are integrating.

By the time I arrived at the office, I hadn’t come with any specific plan but at least I had an idea of how to approach the situation — a combination of redefining job descriptions (cut and paste responsibilities); a dab of sympathy and some rearranging of furniture.

A quick phone conversation with one of our American clients.

On to the email (30 real messages — a couple hundred junk mails).

Talk to the bank.

Hold.

Call the bank back.

Shout at the bank.

Listen to dial tone.

Call the bank back, apologize, finish.

Shout about the bank.

Upload some new bamboo containers — a small update because my database was acting tricky. Details of those below.

Take some photos of jewellery with the new G7.

More photographs of an order we’re about to pack and ship (I want the client to get a better look at the pieces before they get to the port).

Rejecting some lousy paintings.

Meet a Swiss guy who’s here in Bali building his own client base back home.

Check on a domain I switched over for a friend yesterday.

Off to the airport to pick up my wife’s sister.

Take the scenic route home and then kicked myself for being so bloody stupid… Bali + Scenic Route = Traffic(RoadWorks-Squared).

Home, to pull out the laptop and pop a short blog article for the Indonesia Export News & Updates page drawing attention to the containers we just uploaded.

Walk the dog, drink my tea, smoke ten cigarettes and watch Arsenal make mincemeat out of Hamburger… irresistable, isn’t it?

Update my diary.

Good enough.

Another Day in Paradise… Life’s a Beach and all that.

– Here’s that little update on the Bamboo Containers —

 Here are some more of the colorful woven bamboo containers — you’ll find these in use in most of the local restaurants around Bali to keep flies off food and so on.

http://www.indonesiaexport.com/frame.php?category=Bamboo+%26+Wood+Containers

Enjoy,

Sean

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