Just a small note, because not too much happened in these few days, I’ve condensed them into one page.
17th February - Satisfying food
As usual, I had a decent lie in. Elva is at university again now, so I won’t be woken up with breakfast as often. Not to fear, Mat is still in town and we exchanged messages and agreed to meet at McDonald’s for brunch. He never lets me down, we’re always on the same wavelength. The pair of us met shortly before noon and had a nice, greasy lunch. McDonald’s never lets me down either, not sure who’s more reliable to be honest. We stayed here for a while, talking ages about what’s been happening, as well as watching some football highlights.
After McDonald’s, we walked to the Mataram Epicentrum (shopping centre) and, as usual, visited each level and several shops. Of course, there’s never any intent on buying anything, that’d be preposterous. Instead, we just want to waste time. For dessert, we had ice cream at Paris Castle, the same place I had it with Elva. Just like back then, it was delicious, can’t get enough of custom ice creams. After having wasted sufficient time, we decided to call it a day and return to our own hotels.
However, it was lashing it down outside, it happens as it’s still the rainy season. We had no other option than to walk, and so we did. Mat and I did so despite knowing that we’d have to spend quite some time drying off. Both of us, as expected, got drenched to the bone, but it’s only water at the end of the day.
We went our separate ways and when I got to the hotel the cleaning lady offered to dry everything. This was nice as I’d spend less time drying off in my humid room. Nothing ever dries in humid environments. Elva got kept behind at university, so I had to entertain myself for a couple of hours. She was also wet when she arrived and spent a bit of time drying off in the bathroom. Due to the weather, we decided to order some food via Grab. This meant a poor driver would get sacrificed in the rain. At least he gets paid for it though! We began to watch Jumanji 2, but not 15 minutes in, Elva was falling asleep already. She stuck around for a little longer before she headed home to sleep, and I also turned in for the night.
18th February - Family and rain-ruined plans
Today was an exception to no longer getting woken up by Elva. She had finished early today and came to my room from university, no breakfast. Instead, we got some on the way to her cousins’ apartment, 2 cousins I haven’t met yet. The breakfast we picked up was similar to what she usually brings me. In fact, we went to the market that she gets them from so I could pick them myself. Once I’d taken my pick, we rode on over to the apartment and had breakfast there.
As is usual when I meet her family or friends for the first time, I had plenty of videos taken of me by her giggling cousins. I don’t mind though, I’m use to it now. A friend of there’s turned up, he knew about computers and football. This enabled us to have a conversation about things in common. Elva and I spent many hours there, talking about random topics.
I had a pretty fun time there, but we eventually left. Elva wanted to take me to a hill in the south, in Kuta. It was about an hour’s drive, though it began raining on the way. The rain didn’t seem like letting up, so we stopped at a small temple for a while. I tried drying off in vain, as I knew we’d have to embrace the rain soon anyway. A guy there asked how many years I’d grown my beard, I told him about 4 months. I tried to stifle my air of superiority about my beard growing skills. Not sure I succeeded though. After 20 minutes or so, we decided to turn back as the rain continued to look grim.
Once we got back to the hotel, Ekutt joined us and I attempted to speed her notebook up. Being an IT technician by trade, I’m used to folks asking me to help, and I don’t mind it, too much. Whilst Ekutt was on her phone, Elva and I finally watched Jumanji 2. Both of us found it hilarious, despite me having seen it a couple of times. Midway through, Elva and I went out for supper at a nearby shack. We then returned to complete the movie and it finished quite late. The pair of them went home shortly after it had finished.
19th February - Ice cream and movies
I woke a few times during the morning, but got up later than expected…12:40pm! When I finally got up and dressed, Elva met me at the hotel. The pair of us then went out for my lunch, she’d already had hers. I’ve recently fallen in love with kway teow, these are flat rice noodles, super delicious. As a result, this was my lunch for today, I really enjoyed it. After lunch, we went to the Epicentrum for some ice cream, yet again! It’s just so damn tasty. I had the same as what I had the other day, Elva had her own so I didn’t have to share this time. We went to get snacks from the supermarket after our pud.
Apparently, all of that is hard work because soon after returning to the hotel, Elva had a nap. To be fair, due to the prayer times, she does have to get up early in the morning, before sunrise. I was happy enough to read manga on my phone for a while, until she woke up. When she did, we began watching Guardians of the Galaxy, one of my favourite marvel films. Unfortunately, her laptop wasn’t good enough to play 1080p resolution. Instead, I had to download a lower quality version, never expected this to be a problem! It took a fair while to download, but once it did, Elva was falling asleep within minutes. Typical! So we postponed the viewing and she headed home for the night.
