FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – 15th Port – Bali, Indonesia – Day 34
March 4, 2016 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – 15th Port – Bali, Indonesia – Day 34
Sunday, February 28th
- The Bali bay was abuzz with boats of all sizes zipping back and forth as we sailed in at 2:00 pm.
- As we walked down the gang plank we were treated to a traditional Balinese Cultural Show.
- Then we hit the tourist information booth inside the terminal and were floored when they said the cost of a taxi was $25 US to go 7 kilometers to town. Hello? Are you people serious? “Let’s Make a Deal” is what you have to be able to do to get a decent price for a taxi. Oh, and yeah, not to mention running another gauntlet. This time its taxi drivers all desperately trying to get your attention. Been here, done that. You just keep walking until you finally hit the end of the line where the price comes down drastically. And even at $10 it was $5 too much! The problem is crazy tourists saying “it’s only $10” and totally screwing up the economy here. 13,000 Bali dollars = $1 US.
- Got Gas? Not a problem if you have a scootah in Kuta.
- After two hours of walking around in balmy Bali without a breeze and dripping sweat from more high heat and humidity we called it a day.
FUN-cocktail – Stepford Sister – Beefeater Gin, St. Germain, Elderflower Liqueur, Averna Italian Bitter, fresh lemon sour.
FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – 14th Port – Komodo Island, Indonesia – Day 33
March 4, 2016 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – 14th Port – Komodo Island, Indonesia – Day 33
Saturday, February 27th
- Two guides (one with an official park ranger shirt that I desperately wanted) led us on a one mile trek through a thick forest of tropical trees and plants. While basically flat, our winding pebbly path turned out to be broken pieces of dead coral mixed with some sea shells. The tall tree canopy protected us from the rain that was spitting from the sky. Relief from the stifling heat and humidity came ever so briefly when the occasional slight breeze blew through.
- Holy shmoly! This is Jurassic Park with pre-historic lizards, and jumbo ones at that! How on earth could they have survived when everything else became extinct? Well it appears they pretty much had the run of the island. And run they can – as fast as a dog! And not only that – they can swim and climb trees! For hundreds of thousands of years they apparently have roamed freely since nobody even knew they existed until 1910.
Komodo dragon FUN-facts – They average 7 to 10 feet in length and weigh anywhere from 150 to 300 pounds. They eat 80% of their body weight in one feeding and are both carnivores and cannibals. Their strong jaw can bite a goat in half. And they don’t even need to actually kill their prey. Their saliva contains 50 strains of bacteria, guaranteeing a slow death by blood poisoning within 24 hours.
- After hearing that the dragons had been sufficiently fed before our arrival we felt assured no one would be under attack. However, that wasn’t the case when we got trapped at the end and had to run the gauntlet of souvenir selling children begging us to buy. Oh well, this is just the prerequisite for India!
FUN-cocktail – Summer Spirit – Apricot Brandy, Limoncello, Chambord, fresh lemon sour, & hand extracted lime juice.
Word Of the Week #604: Grit
March 4, 2016 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word Of the Week #604: Grit
Grit – fortitude and determination.
How good are you at sticking with your dreams until they become a reality? Are you willing to do the things that no one else is willing to do? Do you have that “extra something” that separates the most successful people from all of the rest?
Travis Bradberry’s Forbes article, “11 Signs You Have The Grit You Need To Succeed” has more great advice. He writes, “Grit is that “extra something” that separates the most successful people from the rest. It’s the passion, perseverance, and stamina that we must channel in order to stick with our dreams until they become a reality.
Developing grit is all about habitually doing the things that no one else is willing to do. There are quite a few signs that you have grit, and if you aren’t doing the following on a regular basis, you should be.
- You have to make mistakes, look like an idiot, and try again, without even flinching. In a recent study at the College of William and Mary, they interviewed over 800 entrepreneurs and found that the most successful among them tend to have two critical things in common: They’re terrible at imagining failure and they tend not to care what other people think of them. In other words, the most successful entrepreneurs put no time or energy into stressing about their failures as they see failure as a small and necessary step in the process of reaching their goals.
- You have to fight when you already feel defeated. A reporter once asked Muhammad Ali how many sit-ups he does every day. He responded, “I don’t count my sit-ups, I only start counting when it starts hurting, when I feel pain, cause that’s when it really matters.” The same applies to success in the workplace. You always have two choices when things begin to get tough: you can either overcome an obstacle and grow in the process or let it beat you. Humans are creatures of habit. If you quit when things get tough, it gets that much easier to quit the next time. On the other hand, if you force yourself to push through it, the grit begins to grow in you.
- You have to make the calls you’re afraid to make. Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do because we know they’re for the best in the long-run: fire someone, cold call a stranger, pull an all-nighter to get the company server back up, or scrap a project and start over. It’s easy to let the looming challenge paralyze you, but the most successful people know that in these moments, the best thing they can do is to get started right away. Every moment spent dreading the task subtracts time and energy from actually getting it done. People that learn to habitually make the tough calls stand out like flamingos in a flock of seagulls.”
This week’s focus is to on grit. Do you care what other people think of you? How good are you at overcoming obstacles? How good are you at completing tasks others dread doing?
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FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – 13th Port – Darwin, Australia – Day 31
March 2, 2016 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – 13th Port – Darwin, Australia – Day 31
Thursday, February 25th
- Just a 10-minute taxi ride from city center The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory features an extensive display of Aboriginal art. (And about the only thing that sounded interesting to do in Darwin.)
- Also on exhibit is Sweetheart. And doesn’t she look sweet? She is a saltwater crocodile, not to be confused with a fresh water crocodile. Oh, and yes, there is a big difference! And it’s all in the size and the snout. At over 15 feet long she was responsible for a series of attacks on boats in Australia between 1974 and 1979. Sweetheart attacked outboard motors, dinghies, and fishing boats. In July 1979, she was finally caught alive by a team from the Territory Parks and Wildlife Commission, but drowned while being transported when she became tangled with a log.
- One of a handful of buildings that was not destroyed by Cyclone Tracy, Brown’s Mart was built in the 1880’s as a mining exchange.
FUN-fact – Crocodile Dundee was based on life in the Top End – the northernmost region of Australia, isolated geographically and physically from the rest of the Northern Territory, and the world.
Not so FF – Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin on Christmas Day, 1974 and obliterated the city.
- Tonight’s the night we set our clocks back the other 30 minutes.
FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – Serenity Sea Days – 2nd Segment
March 2, 2016 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on FUN-travel: Slow Boat to Singapore – Serenity Sea Days – 2nd Segment
- The Pulse Club by night turns into Pilates Reformer Class by day, and is just barely big enough to hold five machines. I overheard a passenger talking about the class, got put on the waiting list, and finally got my one shot on this segment. Grace is the perkiest Pilates instructor I have ever had! And she gave us a great workout. I was sore for days.
- We also signed up for Bridge for Beginners. My best guess is that I will never get beyond that level in this lifetime!
FUN-fact – Chris has now downloaded 101 CD’s for a total of 1,996 songs. I’m beginning to think he has a girlfriend in the library!
FUN-cocktail – Teenie Weenie Limon Martini – Absolut Citron, Cointreau, Limoncello, & fesh lemon sour with a sugar frosted rim and a lemon twist. I personally like it better without the sugar.
- Mother Nature gave us a dazzling display of fireworks that lasted for over two hours! Continual flashes of lightning lit up the sky like a monochrome 4th of July show with the huge billowing thunder clouds impersonating the smoke aftermath. Welcome to monsoon season!
Pre-Fireworks Sky
FUN-facts – The Great Barrier Reef at 1,300 miles long is the largest coral reef in the world and can be seen from outer space. It covers 80,000 square miles, an area slightly smaller than Kansas. It contains between 300 and 400 species of hard coral and 1,500 species of fish that live in and around it.