Aceh Blues
Ahem, so much for that “3 day” weekend. It was a bit of a mix of everything … but at least I was able to spend time with Decy. First, on Thursday night, Decy, Thasya, and I went out to dinner with Terry and Samantha. We went to a Lobster and Crab place. The critters were fresh … REALLY FRESH … they were brought to our table alive to look at. The Lobster became sashimi and the Alaska King Crab got steamed (in more ways than one). We also had “mayonaise shrimp”. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a live Alaska King Crab … but the body is about the size of a grape fruit …. and the legs stretch about 2.5 feet – end to end. Its an awesome sight to see … and eat.
After dinner, we went home (relatively early) because Thasya had school on Friday and I needed to “fast” for some blood work to check out my Lyme disease issue.
On Friday, we spent time at the hospital trying to work on the Lyme disease issue. We ruled out basic issues, including typhoid, malaria, and dengue. Even though we tried to explain to the Dr that this issue came up in the US … and there was what appeared to be a tick bite, we just couldn’t get the message across that I needed a different type of test. The Dr gave me a shot, and two prescriptions of some type of “super vitamins” and said I should discontinue the Amoxicillin. I decided to take one of the super vitamins (daily for about 10 days) … but decided to CONTINUE with the Amoxicillin.
Friday afternoon I did my best to run on the treadmill. Actually made it 13.3 kilometer with 70 minutes of the 100 minute run at 1-2% grade. I was pretty much dead after that. But, I recovered and took Decy to the Ritz Carlton for some music and dancing. Then we had porridge at the street cafe … and made it home about 4am. Not bad for a “sick old man” …. but I was and am pretty worn out.
On Saturday, we had 9 guests over for dinner – the SAP installation team. Several of which we had become friends with in 2002 / 2003 in Angola. Great time was had by all … although we did spend some time watching the news on Hurricane Ike.
Woke up Sunday morning at about 4am – no electricity and the backup generators wouldn’t work because there battery was low. House got warm, couldn’t shower, and needed to get ready to do some work. I left the house for work at 630am – Electricity came on around 730am. We were conducting a Disaster Recovery Test 70 kilometers from town. All went well, but I spent about 4.5 hours being jostled around in a van and bus … commute there / back … plus the drive to a company approved restaurant. Made it home around 430pm, watched a movie with Decy, ate dinner, and had a massage … which ended at 11pm … [ Decy went to church and visited with her family while I worked ].
And, of course, up at 330am today … trying to finish packing … because, as per the title of this blog – Aceh is calling me. I have to go up there to present some training. I will be back in Jakarta tomorrow. In the office on Wednesday and Thursday … then off to the US for a business trip.
Ciao ciao
