Cloudy day

Was not exactly enthused for finding blip marvels today, in fact, the cloudy blip just about sums up how I am feeling at the moment.

It is all down to the passport problem, the problem being that my passport is too full to fit a full page VISA stamp. The solution was a one day trip to Singapore, to buy an extra month to sort the pages problem. Then a trip to the British Embassy in Jakarta to get more pages appended, plus another VISA entry from Singapore and life would have been back on track.

I was all set to go to Jakarta tomorrow and so I visited the embassy web site, to see if there was anything that I needed to bring. To my horror, I discovered that the British embassy no longer does page extensions and the passport would have to be renewed. What was worse was that the Jakarta embassy no longer does passport renewals and that function has been transferred to the Hong Kong embassy. I see no point in wasting more money going to Jakarta on the off chance that they can help me. Rules are rules and embassy staff are about as flexible as uncooked spaghetti.

The chances are that it could take six weeks or more, which would mean that I would be going past my exit date and would have to pay $25 per day passed the stamp date. This expense plus the passport and postage costs plus another trip to Singapore to get a VISA, would be way beyond my financial capability.

So, basically I am screwed and the holiday is over. Some of you might consider a five year holiday slightly excessive and maybe I have been a tad greedy, but it is time to get back to reality and start looking for a job. I will, of course, eventually return to Indonesia.

On the positive side, I am desperate for a new computer, I will be able to upgrade to more pixels and some serious macro gear, my motorbike is on it's last legs and my rent is due in four months with not a hope of paying it at the moment.

I have learned a lot in the last five years, basically how to survive in retirement. The first mistake that I made was not adjusting my lifestyle soon enough and doing the bar thing every night. My monthly bar bill would have kept me going for four months at today's expenditure, not to mention the health issues.

I should have bought the motorbike sooner, as taxis were a huge expense. My current petrol costs are about $5 per month compared with $250 per month taxis fares. My food bill was ridiculous too, as I continued to feed on a western style diet. My current, local style food bill is only 15% of what I was spending and I am not exactly wasting away.

If I can stay out of the bars, a one year contract should pay for all my needs and I will unlikely need to work again. Possibly the upgrade in camera equipment will provide a small income from those micro photo agencies, which should be enough to pay for internet costs.

So, a plan has been formulated, it is time to break free of this little depression that I find myself in and get my life back together. Blip will be a big part of the plan, as I document the journey back to reality. One of the problems of contracting, is occupying your time in the non-working hours and I think blip is going to be a great help to this end.

Dave